(a) Any court seeking to dispose of court records shall make a written request for such disposal to the Deputy Chief Administrator for Management Support. The request shall describe in appropriate detail the records sought to be disposed of, including the nature of the records and the range of dates of their filing or creation.

(b) The Deputy Chief Administrator for Management Support shall determine the request based upon the retention schedules created pursuant to section 104.2 of this Part and in accordance with the needs of the courts. The Deputy Chief Administrator may require that a sampling of the records be made, based upon a methodology approved by the Deputy Chief Administrator, and that the sample be retained for research purposes.

(c) Suitability of arrangement for the storage of court records outside of court facilities, including any contracts entered into for such storage, shall be approved by the Deputy Chief Administrator for Management Support.

(d) Nothing in the retention schedules or these rules shall limit the authority of the Deputy Chief Administrator for Management Support to permit the disposition of any court records upon a showing of special circumstances and as permitted by law.

(e) In those actions or proceedings where the retention schedules provide that the period of retention shall commence at the date of disposition of the action or proceeding, where the clerk of any court has opened a case file for such action or proceeding, and where a continuous period of at least five years has elapsed during which such file is totally inactive, there being no additional papers filed therein nor any additional notations made therein or on the file jacket, the required period of retention for such file shall be deemed to have commenced at the end of such five-year period and the file may be disposed of in accordance with these rules and the appropriate retention schedules. This provision shall have no effect upon the action or proceeding or any substantive or procedural rights of any of the parties.