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Re: Destruction of notes and data
Posted by:
firecop5002 (IP Logged)
Date: February 18, 2007 09:31AM
The "WHY" question is simple. Because years ago we were all told by that old sage that if you save your notes an attorney will spend hours with you on the stand as to why you recorded a phone number on them that had nothing to do with the case because you didn’t have a piece of paper handy. Or why you wrote down your shopping list on them, or, or , or. No one ever told me that you destroy them to hide anything. To say that anyone that destroys their notes is deliberately trying to hide something is a bit of a stretch and simply not true. I don't now for reasons I have already explained. When I did destroy them it was because that’s what I was trained to do by folks presumably smarter then I was. I simply have changed that practice because in talking with judges and jurors over the years I have found they do pay attention to that if it is brought up. I am just a bit more careful about what I write in my notes. That is not a bad thing.
I would wager to bet that some of the holy folks that have responded to this probably destroyed their filed notes when they started in the public sector. They probably did that because someone told them that’s what you were supposed to do. Memory’s fade I guess, as we get older. Or maybe because its convenient.
Dave