Law Firm Books CleanupFive years after the representation ends.
The clock is a discipline record. A tax season does not cut it.
Name the closed matterThe clock the guide prints.
The trust guide tells the lawyer to preserve complete records of trust account funds and other client property for five years after the representation ends. The five year trust record is a discipline rule. A tax workpaper that copies one number does not retire the original.
A file box with the end date written on the spine is the clock people can see. We can all feel a date a whole office already lives by. The five year file is that kind of clock. It does not move because a return was filed.
What the closing notice does not replace.
The owner is at a shelf of closed matters, and the box from a file that ended four years ago is the one a new hire wants to toss. We stop at the end date on the spine.
Picture a matter that ended in March, four years back. The return for that year was filed long ago. A refund check for the client arrived the winter after the matter closed, and the ledger that explains the check is in the same box. Five years from the end date has not arrived, so the box stays. A tax workpaper that copied one number does not retire the original. This picture uses no client's name and no dollar from a real file. A busy October does not shorten the clock, and a move to a new building does not either.
Closing an IOLTA account, and the notice the justice program asks for, is a different act. That notice does not replace the five years. The home page carries the closing steps, including the payout of unearned fees and third party amounts before the account goes to zero.
A box of statements from a matter that ended three years ago is still inside the clock. A box from a matter that ended six years ago is a different question, and it is still worth naming the end date before anything is discarded.
What the guide calls complete records is broader than a bank PDF. It includes the funds and the other client property. A stock certificate, a refund check that arrived after the matter ended, and the ledger that explains both of them belong in the same five years. A tax workpaper that copies one number does not retire the original.
People throw boxes out in January because the return is filed. That habit fits ordinary vendor files better than trust files. Name the date the representation ended, count five years from that date, and only then decide the box can go. If the end date is missing, the box stays.
The length of the file is the part people try to negotiate. Five years is the guide's number, and a busy October does not bargain it down. Unbilled time can still be invoiced in that month. The invoice lives on the operating side. The trust box stays dated from the day the representation ended, even if the firm has already moved buildings.
Sources. The five year keeping rule is the one a trust guide prints after the representation ends. Publication 5602 is the federal guide examiners use. p5602.pdf.
Say when the representation ended.
A closed matter, a closed account, or a box of statements.