A document retention policy is a set of practices adopted by a company to guide how documents, records and other important information are to be stored, saved and destroyed. Companies adopt document retention policies for any number of reasons, but many do so in order to comply with state and federal laws mandating either specific retention periods for certain types of records or document destruction protocols. A comprehensive policy also plays a critical role in helping to determine the existence and location of certain records in the event of litigation. At a minimum, these policies can help to control document storage costs by eliminating retention of any records whose maintenance may no longer be necessary or required by law.