Legal Archiving & Document Technologies (“LADT”)

was formed in late 2008, in Melbourne, Victoria, based upon the following considerations:

• The enactment of state and federal legislation providing that business and other records required to be held for a period of time may be legally stored in electronic form (so long as they are readily accessible for that period of time, and are authentic)*.
• The development, maturity and standardisation of long term, non-proprietary, electronic archiving formats (particularly pdf and pdf/a), enabling reliable access for long periods of time.
• The recognition that records held electronically (and properly archived) are significantly more accessible than paper records (and disorganised electronic records) in terms of speed and place of access.
• The lead given by archiving agencies - especially in Victoria - the Public Record Office VERS strategy** - promoting modern strategies for the proper archiving of records over the medium and long term.
• The recognition that electronic records can eliminate the need and expense of paper storage.

The principal of LADT is Peter Gauld LLB.

Peter has been a practising solicitor in Melbourne for twenty five years. He has been interested in computers and their practical use in the legal environment ever since the PC came into use. His has had a particular interest in electronic documentation and the evidentiary issues involved in holding documents in this form, compared with keeping paper records.

He was awarded first prize in the 1998 Victorian Legal Profession Technology Awards for a paper entitled “Using Technology to Run a Low Overhead Practice”.

In 2006 he undertook post graduate study at Curtin University in Electronic Document Management, again with a particular interest in the evidentiary aspects of electronic documents especially in the context of storage over long time periods. He wrote his main paper on electronically archiving legal files using the standards enunciated in the Victorian government’s world recognised VERS strategy (Victorian Electronic Records Strategy).

His motivation in commencing LADT is to promote the adoption of contemporary electronic archiving techniques outside the government domain and into the wider business community.