No documents will be destroyed or deleted if pertinent to any existing or anticipated government investigation, proceeding or litigation—whether criminal or civil or discovery of facts and circumstance reasonably likely to lead to litigation, or a government proceeding or investigation.

If an employee is involuntarily terminated, his/her personnel records must be retained for one year from the date of termination. Under ADEA recordkeeping requirements, employers must also keep all payroll records for three years.

The retention period is how long a record must be kept by the University to meet state and federal laws.

A company implements a records retention schedule in order to ensure that its records are kept as long as legally and operationally required and that obsolete records are disposed of in a systematic and controlled manner.

To decide on the retention period consider how the answers would change over time. Consider what the answers would be: immediately after creation; after 6 months; after 1 year; after 2 years; after 5 years; after 10 years; after 20 years. How likely is it that we will need the records again for business purposes?

Welfare and Institutions Code section 14124.1 (which relates to Medi-Cal patients) specifies a ten-year retention period. The Knox-Keene Act requires that HMO medical records be maintained for a minimum of two years under Title 28 of the California Code of Regulations (CCR) section 1300.67.