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21 I L T A N E T . O R G I f your firm is engaged in digital transformation, you'll have discovered that not everything can be scanned and destroyed. For most firms there's generally a cache of irreplaceable original documents that must be kept and safeguarded in perpetuity. But how do you look after them in an efficient way? In this article, Chris Giles explains how advances in Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology can offer a highly effective, time saving way to keep track of vital pieces of paper. We know this would never happen at your firm, but apparently there are some law firms that tell their professional indemnity / malpractice insurance providers that yes, they do regularly check on all the high value documents held by the firm. They just don't volunteer that the last inventory was done eight years ago. But to be clear, this isn't because there's a lack of will within firms to maintain control of important original documents. It's just that they lack a way to take a proper inventory that isn't highly labor intensive. And this is a growing problem as information governance practice increasingly focuses on electronic data to the detriment of physical documents. Wet signature documents The issue is that there are simply some original documents that the firm must keep. These are very often "wet signature" and encompass real estate deeds, wills and documents relating to trust funds, patents, copyright and trademark, as well as certain types of insurance policy. There's no knowing when they may need to be produced to show a court or client, or when documents might have to be located to satisfy matter mobility requirements. Wills need to be kept and brought out whenever the client wants to make an amendment, and later when their executors show up. And in the US, original property deeds are particularly vital – some of which are extremely old, and some of which pertain to extremely valuable real estate. These need to be produced whenever there's a sale or dispute. If a firm can't find the deeds to a 30,000-acre ranch when the first owner's great grandson wants to transfer ownership, the firm can be in a lot of trouble. It's also the case that many firms are custodians of material that's of considerable historic value. For example, records of a landmark trial, or of the first patent for what becomes a breakthrough technology. This is prestigious for law firms and it's money in the vault – until you lose or misplace the documents. Because it's a fact that when firm's do perform inventories of these critical original documents, which are typically kept in safes or fire suppression vaults, sometimes documents can't be found. This can be the result of human error in the filing process, the inventory process, or because an individual has "borrowed" a document and "The issue is that there are simply some original documents that the firm must keep."

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