Official Site of The State of New Jersey

Damaged Records Incident Guidelines

In accordance with PL 1953, c. 410/NJSA 47, a public agency seeking approval to destroy public records (regardless of their medium) that have been damaged due to a disaster must submit a Damaged Records Report and supporting attestation forms to Records Management Services (RMS) for presentation to the State Records Committee (SRC) for disposal authorization. In the aftermath of the disaster, and the facility has been declared safe to enter, it is imperative that an assessment be conducted to ascertain the status of the public records maintained by the agency - hardcopy, electronic, digital and microimaged to determine what may be salvaged and what must be disposed.

The following measures are to be implemented to begin to assess the records on hand:

• Implement the Disaster Prevention & Recovery, Business Continuity of Operations (COOP) Plan.
• Assemble the Disaster Recovery Team — Management, Records Management, IT, Custodian of Public Record and Local Law Enforcement.
• Contact Federal & State Disaster Recovery and Cyber Security Agencies accordingly.
• Review Agency Insurance Policy for coverage options.
• Review Disaster Recovery Vendor Lists - Disaster Recovery Services and Supplies, System Hardware and Software and Electronic Records Disaster Recovery Services.
• Contact a professional disaster salvage/remediation company.
• Conducted the Damaged Records Event Response Questionnaire.
• Create and submit Damaged Records Report and supporting attestation forms to Records Management Services.