Current through Register Vol. 54, No. 44, November 2, 2024
(a) Records may be
disposed of in accordance with the retention periods listed on the Appellate
Court Records Retention Schedule (Schedule) in Appendix a. The schedule is
"permissive" in that court personnel may continue to hold records beyond the
stated retention requirements. Records need not be kept in their original form,
particularly those requiring long term or permanent retention. Microfilm or
PDF/A copies that meet the micrographics or PDF/A standards and the quality
control guidelines and related policies approved by the Commonwealth's County
Records Committee set forth in the County Records Manual are acceptable
substitutes and shall be followed to the extent practicable. When scanning
documents there must be an individual responsible for quality control. Copying
onto any other media must be approved in advance by the AOPC.
(b) Records not listed for permanent
retention may be disposed of in accordance with the schedule. A record of the
destruction, containing the record series titles, date spans, approximate
quantities of the records, and date destroyed must be submitted to AOPC. AOPC
need not approve destruction of these records. A sample Records Disposal form
can be found in Appendix B.
(c)
Records listed for permanent retention may not be disposed of without approval
by AOPC. Records listed for permanent retention and archival review may not be
disposed of without approval by both AOPC and the Pennsylvania Historical and
Museum Commission (PHMC).
(1) AOPC approval
must be obtained before destroying original records scheduled for permanent
retention that have been microfilmed or converted to PDF/A format.
(2) If the records are marked for archival
review on the schedule, approval must also be obtained from both aopc and the
PHMC prior to destruction. Records series marked with an asterisk in the
Archival Review column on the schedule have potential historical value and the
phmc State Archives may be interested in maintaining original, microfilm and/or
pdf/a copies of these series. One form, the form attached in Appendix C, is to
be used to obtain approvals.
(d) In some instances, inactive records that
have not been microfilmed or converted to PDF/A, and are no longer needed for
administrative or legal purposes by the Courts, may be transferred to the State
Archives in lieu of permanent retention at the office of origin. Records
transferred to the State Archives become the legal property and responsibility
of the PHMC. Court officers should contact the phmc to make arrangements for
archival appraisal and the systematic or one-time transfer of individual series
on the schedule.
(e) Definitions.
(1) Electronic records: "Electronic records"
are information which satisfy the definition of a record as defined below, and
have been recorded and stored in an electronic file which is readable by a
computer. Electronic files may consist of database records, correspondence,
spreadsheets, word processing documents, presentations, digital images, e-mail,
reports, and other file types. These files may be stored on cloud-based
computer storage such as OneDrive, Google Drive, and DropBox; on data center
network attached computer storage such as network shared drives, storage area
networks (SANs), network-attached storage (NASs), and electronic filing
systems; on stand-alone computer storage such as PC internal hard drives,
server hard drives, and solid-state drives; or on removable storage media such
as backup tapes, disks, CD-ROMs, DVDs, diskettes, ZIP disks, and USB/Flash
drives.
(2) PDF/A: ''PDF/A'' is an
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standardized version of
Adobe PDF specialized for use in archiving. The PDF/A specification ensures
that electronic documents can be retained permanently by providing long-term
reliability and preservation. The purpose of PDF/A is to accurately display
documents in the distant future even though computer standards and formats will
evolve over time. The PDF/A format described in ISO 19005 should be
utilized.
(3) Records: As used in
this Schedule, the term ''records'' includes those papers, dockets, books,
photographs, or other documentary materials in any form made or received in an
appellate court pursuant to law, statute, or rules of court, in connection with
transactions of its business and the discharge of its responsibilities. The
term includes electronic records as defined above.
(4) Retain permanently: Records designated
for permanent retention or acceptable facsimiles (i.e., microfilm or PDF/A), as
defined by the County Records Committee and/or the AOPC, may not be destroyed
under any circumstances. Permanent records may be transferred to a records
center in which case the prothonotary of the appellate court would maintain
custodial control of the records, or they may be transferred to the legal
custody of the PHMC.
(5) Final
disposition:
(i) The final adjudication by
the Pennsylvania appellate courts for cases in which appeals are not taken to
the United States Supreme Court; or
(ii) the final adjudication by the United
States Supreme Court.
If the final adjudication of the United States Supreme Court
or of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court remands the case to another appellate
court, the case will be treated as an open case in the court to which the
remand is directed.
