Document storage, whether it be physical or electronic, can be a huge asset for many businesses. It can save a company money and space as well as prevent any data breaches.
However, for certain industries, document storage is incredibly important due to chain of custody. Here, we dive into the details of how professional document storage services can help maintain the chain of custody for your documents.
What Is Chain of Custody?
First, let’s define what it means to have custody over a document. A person has custody of a document when they’re in physical possession of the document or when they’re in visual sight of the physical document.
Essentially, if you touch the document or look at the document, you have custody over it. A person also has custody over a document when they’re kept in one’s physical possession. This means if you store or lock up the documents, you have custody over them.
Now that custody has been defined, it is easy to deduce what chain of custody means. Simply stated: anytime someone touches, looks at, or stores a document, the company must keep a record of said activity.
A chain of custody is any system that keeps track of a document’s whereabouts. Obviously, this documentation is more pertinent to certain fields than others — the legal, government, and insurance industries.
Why Is Chain of Custody Important?
When it comes to regulatory compliance, the chain of custody is critical for all businesses. That said, breaking the chain of custody can have worse implications for specific industries. Let’s look at three fields — legal, government, and insurance — that deal with chain of custody on a regular basis.
Chain of Custody in the Legal Industry
To win a case, lawyers from both the prosecution and the defense need to have evidence that will stand up in court. Therefore, maintaining a chain of custody for all documents, video, and other electronic media is critical for anyone in that industry.
Numerous court cases have been lost due to a chain of custody failure. For example, the court case of State v. Hatcher where an indicted drug dealer had his conviction overturned due to a chain of custody failure with the state’s evidence.
Chain of Custody in Government
The U.S government and all its departments house millions, if not billions, of paper documents containing sensitive information. The U.S. Census is just one example of this. Document management is crucial for any government agency, no matter how big or small, to maintain the chain of custody.
Chain of Custody in the Insurance Industry
Fraud is always present in the insurance industry. In order to make sure all insurance claims are valid, a chain of custody for each insurance document can be incredibly useful.
Chain of custody may just seem like fancy legal jargon on the surface, but after taking a closer look, it’s easy to see how relevant maintaining chain of custody over your documents can be for the security of your business.
A chain of custody failure is detrimental to not only your business, but also to the document storage company. It could lead to problems as simple as a lost document to large-scale issues like a company wide data breach.
Fines are also possible, not to mention the sheer amount of money your company might lose if your information is stolen. IBM reported the global average cost of a data breach reached $4.45 million in 2023 – an all-time high for the report and a 15% increase over the last 3 years. That’s a huge strain on your business financially, and that number doesn’t even include the fines or other penalties you could be given for not properly securing your data.
Reputation means everything in the business world, and a data breach could destroy the trust you’ve built up over time with your clients. All of these consequences are applicable to both your business and the document storage company. Neither one of you wants to lose money — or your reputation — because of a chain of custody failure. That makes it even more important to do your due diligence to ensure a failure does not occur.
Maintain Chain of Custody With Professional Document Storage
Document storage is an excellent way to ensure chain of custody is never broken, but it is also important to check that the document management company you decide to store your documents with is dependable and secure. There are steps you should take as you begin working with a professional document storage company.
Create a Document Management System
A critical first step to ensure chain of custody of your documents is creating a document management system. The plan should outline:
- Who has access to the documents
- How the documents are to be accessed or stored
- A method to identify every document as it is either stored or received
It is important that your business work with the document storage company to ensure your plan balances your need to have access to your documents while also keeping your documents secure. Your employees should not have to struggle to find relevant documents.
This defeats the purpose of a document storage system in the first place. However, security should not be compromised for convenience either. A secure and reliable storage company will work with you to create a balanced system that follows chain of custody guidelines.
Create a Chain of Custody Log
Another key step to take is setting up a log or system that records when a document is stored, retrieved, or moved. Every time someone has custody of a document, a notation must be made in the log to ensure the chain of custody is not broken. Each notation should include:
- Name of person accessing document
- Date, time, and place of access
- Name of document storage employee who assisted – if applicable
- Description of document accessed and data obtained
This is not a restrictive list, so consider if your business requires additional information. Ultimately, it’s a must for the security of your business that you keep some sort of chain of custody log.
Monitor Chain of Custody Policy Enforcement
The document storage company you choose will likely assist you in transporting documents from your office to their storage facility. During the moving process, it is crucial that the employees of the storage company do not have custody over your documents at any time.
It’s the responsibility of the document storage company to lay out specific policy and guidelines on how their employees are to handle documents. At no point should an employee physically or visually come in contact with the documents or else a chain of custody failure is at risk to occur.
Maintain Chain of Custody with Record Nations
Information governance is an ever changing field as federal and state laws require more retention and faster discovery. Our network of document storage and document management experts will help your company maintain your documents regardless of the file type or format.
Let us help you manage your hard-copy documents or guide you through a transition to a paperless office. From document scanning to document destruction, our experts will help you select a customized document management solution that fits exactly what you’re looking to do for your company.
We have locations all across the United States to serve you offsite document storage needs. To get started, fill out the form to the right, or give us a call at (866) 385-3706. Within minutes of receiving your request, you will have free quotes from experts in your area that can help you.
