Resurrecting Records: Investigating After Records Are Purged
September 2014
IN THIS ISSUE
— Why Records Vanish
— How to Bring Old Information Back to Life
GREETINGS!
Welcome to the September edition of our newsletter! In this issue, we’ll examine the pitfalls of reduced record retention windows and look at ways to work around the problem.
WHY RECORDS VANISH
Shrinking budgets and increased case loads have strained the ability of county courts across the country to preserve the records of their activities. These records, which are vital in researching anyone, are increasingly stored in digital media and cloud servers, but often are purged from a court’s files altogether after a certain period. Each court’s policies can vary greatly, but some important examples include the U.S. Tax Court, which has begun destroying its older case files, leaving only the final disposition in the public case file. In other instances, a court system can purge copies of filings after as little as five years, while others will ship a case file from the courthouse to a centralized archive (thus taking more time to obtain) after as little as three years.
Regulatory agencies and self-regulatory groups are no exception to this practice. FINRA, for instance, will delete a broker-dealer’s records from its system after that person has been inactive for a period of two years. While some resources exist to view historical arbitration actions, older copies of broker-dealer reports are increasingly rare to obtain, which can leave a broker-dealer’s past unknown to anyone who did not have firsthand knowledge of it before.
HOW TO BRING OLD INFORMATION BACK TO LIFE
Whether a court record has been destroyed or expunged, or a regulatory agency record has been purged, there are other avenues of investigation. News articles may have details of incidents, and state regulatory agencies (such as for broker-dealers) can hold records that can fill in gaps found in other sources. state agencies, unlike self-regulatory organizations, are also subject to state open records requirements, whereas self-regulatory groups have no compelling reason to turn over records, and arbitration actions (where most details are likely to be found for a dispute) are confidential unless entered into evidence in another case. While obtaining information about older court cases that have been purged can be difficult, reported opinion databases on both the state and federal levels can help provide details that can be useful for later steps in reconstructing events, such as witness interviews.
The ravages of time are no different for documents than they are for people: circumstances change, and a seasoned investigator must be able to change with them. With some persistence and creativity, obtaining the facts of a case can be achieved even long after the case itself exists no longer.