The NJ records retention schedule sets the minimum time a state, county, municipal, or educational agency must hold a public record before it can be legally destroyed. Periods range from three years for routine correspondence to 60 years for original payroll registers and permanent retention for governing body minutes. The Bureau of Records Management publishes the schedules, and every disposal request runs through the state’s Artemis system with at least 23 working days of lead time before the destruction date.
What Counts as a Public Record
N.J.S.A. 47:3-16 defines a public record as any paper, book, document, drawing, map, photograph, microfilm, data-processed or image-processed document, sound recording, or similar item that a government officer, commission, or agency has created, received for filing, or kept in connection with public business.1Justia. New Jersey Code 47-3-16 – Terms Defined Format is not the test; connection to government activity is. A handwritten planning-board note, a grant-expenditure spreadsheet, and a voicemail saved on a government phone all qualify.
That scope decides what falls under the retention rules. Nothing created or received in an official capacity can be discarded outside the formal disposal process, no matter how trivial it looks.
How the Schedules Are Structured
The Bureau of Records Management assigns a minimum holding period to every type of public record through two kinds of schedules. General Retention Schedules cover functions common to most agencies — payroll, correspondence, purchasing — through the municipal M100000 series, the county C820000 series, and a separate state agency schedule.2State of New Jersey. NJ Treasury – DORES Records Retention Schedules Agency-Specific Schedules cover records unique to a particular department’s mission, such as health inspection files or police case records. Every schedule must be approved by the State Records Committee before it takes effect.3Cornell Law Institute. New Jersey Administrative Code 15-3-2.1 – Retention and Disposition of Public Records
Many entries use a “years-plus” trigger. The clock doesn’t start until a triggering event occurs: the completion of an audit, the expiration of a contract, the end of employment. A record marked “six years after audit” can sit on a shelf indefinitely if the audit never happens. The design keeps records available until every related legal or financial obligation closes out.
Common Holding Periods
The municipal general retention schedule (M100000-019) is the one most local officials will reference, and it illustrates the range across everyday records. County and state schedules assign slightly different periods in places.
Administrative Records
Original minutes from a governing body — a town council, planning board, or similar body — are permanent and can never be destroyed. Copies of minutes are subject to periodic review rather than a fixed destruction date. General external correspondence carries a three-year retention period, while internal administrative correspondence and routine information requests fall under periodic review.4State of New Jersey. Municipal Agencies General Records Retention Schedule M100000-019
Financial Records
Most transactional financial records — bank statements, cancelled checks, deposit slips, invoices, and purchase orders — require a six-year hold.4State of New Jersey. Municipal Agencies General Records Retention Schedule M100000-019 General ledgers and year-end closing reports are permanent. Copies of purchase orders and quarterly cash disbursement histories have a shorter three-year period. State judiciary schedules assign seven years to vouchers and purchase orders, so the exact number depends on which schedule governs the agency.5New Jersey Courts. Directive 06-14 – Records Retention Schedules
Payroll Records
Payroll is where mistakes happen. Most payroll files — individual payroll records associated with the subsidiary ledger, payroll reports, and Social Security reports — require six years.4State of New Jersey. Municipal Agencies General Records Retention Schedule M100000-019 The original payroll register, however, must be kept for 60 years because it contains the earnings history used to calculate pension benefits. Copies of the payroll register only need three years. Confusing the original register with a payroll report and destroying it after six creates real problems decades later when a retiree’s pension calculation is challenged.
Audit Reports
Retention for audit reports varies by origin. Under the state judiciary’s schedule, copies of reports prepared by the Office of Legislative Services are permanent, while copies from non-state auditors require seven years. Internal audit originals are permanent; copies require three years.5New Jersey Courts. Directive 06-14 – Records Retention Schedules The audit itself doubles as a triggering event for other categories: many financial records can’t start their retention countdown until a successful audit has been completed.
Federal Rules That Can Override the State Period
Several federal requirements impose their own minimum holding periods. The longer period always controls. An agency that meets the state schedule but destroys a record before the federal period expires is still out of compliance.
The IRS requires every employer, including government agencies, to keep employment tax records for at least four years after the fourth-quarter return is filed. Records tied to the employee retention credit or qualified leave wage credits must be kept for at least six years.6Internal Revenue Service. Employment Tax Recordkeeping OSHA requires Form 300 logs, annual summaries, and Form 301 incident reports for five years after the end of the calendar year they cover.7Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Standard 1904.33 – Retention and Updating
Federal grant funding brings its own rules. Financial records, supporting documentation, and statistical records must be retained for three years from the date the final financial report is submitted. If litigation, claims, or audit findings involve those records, the three-year clock pauses until the matter is fully resolved.8eCFR. 2 CFR 200.334 – Record Retention Requirements Property and equipment records tied to federal funds must be kept for three years after final disposition of the property, not three years after the grant closes.
Agencies that handle protected health information — county health departments, for instance — must retain HIPAA compliance documentation for six years from the date of creation or the date the document was last in effect, whichever is later.9eCFR. 45 CFR 164.530 That covers privacy policies, authorization forms, risk assessments, and compliance activity records. Actual medical records are governed by state law rather than HIPAA, so the applicable New Jersey retention schedule controls those.
Electronic Records and Email
Electronic records are subject to the same retention rules as paper. The framework explicitly applies to records that are microfilmed, imaged, or electronic.10State of New Jersey. Records Management Services – Records Retention, Disposition and Storage A purchase order is a purchase order whether it lives in a filing cabinet or on a server.
Email has its own disposal pathway. County and local agencies request authorization for email destruction through dedicated schedule numbers — C820000-013 for counties and M100000-013 for municipalities — which provide a seven-year general retention period. State agencies follow a separate process under Circular Letter 14-2 DORES/OIT.11State of New Jersey. Records Management Services – Artemis Disposal requests for email submitted through Artemis require a specific attestation form separate from the one used for traditional record series.
When an email qualifies under a more specific record category — a purchase order sent as an attachment, meeting minutes distributed by email — the retention period for that category applies rather than the seven-year email schedule. Agencies that default to the general email schedule for everything risk destroying records that should have been held longer under their functional category.
Vital Records
Every agency must maintain a vital records program. Vital records are those the agency needs to operate during an emergency, continue operations afterward, or protect the legal and financial rights of the government and the people it serves.12Cornell Law Institute. New Jersey Administrative Code 15-3-2.5 – Vital Records Program
The regulation requires agencies to keep vital records designations current, ensure copies are adequately protected, and make sure the records are immediately usable, including by staff unfamiliar with them. For electronic vital records, the agency must also ensure that system documentation sufficient to operate the system and access the records will be available during a disaster. Off-site storage is a core protection method, and any facility used must meet the standards set under N.J.A.C. 15:3-6. Computer backup tapes created during normal system maintenance can serve as the vital record copy, so most agencies already have the infrastructure and only need to formally designate which records are vital and confirm the backups are accessible.
How to Legally Dispose of Records
No public record in New Jersey can be legally destroyed without written authorization. N.J.S.A. 47:3-17 prohibits anyone from destroying, selling, or otherwise disposing of a public record without first obtaining consent from the Bureau of Archives and History, and that consent can only be granted in conformance with schedules adopted by the State Records Committee.13State of New Jersey. New Jersey Chapter 410, Laws of 1953 – Destruction of Public Records Act
All disposal requests go through Artemis, the state’s web-based records management system. Artemis serves state, county, municipal, and educational agencies and allows users to look up agency-specific retention schedules, submit disposition requests electronically, and check the status of pending requests.11State of New Jersey. Records Management Services – Artemis New users must register through the online portal before they can submit anything.
A disposal request matches each batch of records to its correct record series and schedule number from the official schedules. It must include the exact titles of the records, the inclusive date range, the volume being discarded (typically cubic feet for paper or gigabytes for electronic records), and the intended destruction method — shredding, pulping, or secure electronic erasure. Any mismatch between what the request describes and what actually exists in storage will result in a rejection, so a thorough inventory beforehand saves time.
Requests must be submitted at least 23 working days (excluding state holidays) before the proposed destruction date. The Division of Archives and Records Management reviews the request for completeness, enters the authorization date and number, and either approves, amends, or returns the request. If the records don’t fall under an established schedule, the State Records Committee itself reviews and decides.14Cornell Law Institute. New Jersey Administrative Code 15-3-2.2 – Disposal of Public Records
The signed authorization must be retained permanently as proof that destruction was legally approved. It is the one document that proves every other destroyed record was handled correctly.
When You Cannot Destroy on Schedule
A retention schedule tells you the earliest date you can destroy a record, not that you must destroy it then. Two situations override the schedule.
The first is a litigation hold. When an agency reasonably anticipates litigation or receives notice of a lawsuit, it must suspend destruction of any records that could be relevant, even if those records have passed their scheduled retention period. Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37(e), if electronically stored information that should have been preserved is lost because a party failed to take reasonable steps, a court can order remedial measures. If the destruction was intentional, the court can presume the lost information was unfavorable, instruct the jury accordingly, or dismiss the case or enter a default judgment.15Cornell Law Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 37 – Failure to Make Disclosures or to Cooperate in Discovery
The second is the Open Public Records Act. OPRA defines a “government record” using language nearly identical to the Destruction of Public Records Law, covering any document made or maintained in the course of official business.16State of New Jersey. Open Public Records Act – NJSA 47-1A-1 et seq. If an OPRA request comes in for records approaching their disposal date, the agency should not destroy those records until the request is resolved.
Penalties and the Protection the Process Provides
Anyone who removes an official record from government files without authorization, alters a document signed by a public official without permission, or destroys a public record with malicious intent commits a high misdemeanor under N.J.S.A. 47:3-29. The statute separately protects officials who follow the rules: N.J.S.A. 47:3-22 provides that no state official or agency head can be held liable, on their bond, in damages, or in any civil or criminal proceeding, for destroying records pursuant to the act’s authorization process.13State of New Jersey. New Jersey Chapter 410, Laws of 1953 – Destruction of Public Records Act
Go through Artemis, obtain the authorization, keep the approval document permanently, and the statute shields you. Skip the process and you are exposed to criminal liability. The law has been on the books since 1953, and “I didn’t know” is not a defense that holds up.