Law firm says it didn't dump personal data
An Atlanta law firm said Thursday it never dumped confidential documents at the Smyrna Recycling Center, though an employee did drop off non-confidential bankruptcy and real estate files Wednesday.
Smyrna shredded all 3,250 pounds of documents on Thursday, said city spokeswoman Jennifer Bennett. Smyrna police said thousands of sensitive documents, including W-2 forms, bankruptcy files and other documents, were found in a disposal bin.
Some papers were kept as evidence by the Governor’s Office of Consumer Affairs, which Wednesday began a civil investigation. Papers came from two law firms, police said.
Wilson, Brock and Irby issued a statement Thursday saying an employee of the firm went to the recycling center Wednesday “to dispose of bankruptcy and real estate files which did not contain confidential information and were many, many years old.”
Larry Dingle of the law firm said Wilson, Brock represents creditors, not people filing for bankruptcy, and is not involved in tax preparation. The information in the files disposed of Wednesday is available through public records, he said.
Dingle said he thinks W-2 forms dumped by somebody else were commingled with his firm’s papers.
“I think once we go through the records, they [the Governor’s Office of Consumer Affairs] will confirm the same thing,” Dingle said.
Nat Hardwick, a partner with Morris, Hardwick and Schneider, said his firm contracts with a shredding company. He said his firm does business all over the world and wonders whether files found in the bin actually came from his firm.
“We don’t know if these are actually our files,” Hardwick said Thursday. “We do a lot of transactions.”
Bill Cloud, spokesman for the Governor’s Office of Consumer Affairs, said investigators hope to speak to the firms in coming days.
Violation of the state Business Records Disposal Act can result in fines of up $10,000.
