A legal hold or litigation hold is preserving electronic data for legal proceedings. This process can be complex and time-consuming, but it is crucial to ensure that all relevant evidence is available for review by your legal team.
This blog post will discuss some legal holds best practices without causing too much disruption to your business operations.
1. Establish a Hold Policy
One of the ways to ensure your legal or litigation hold process effectively develops and implements a written policy. This policy should outline the procedures for putting a hold in place, including who is responsible for issuing the hold, how long the hold will remain, and what steps to be taken to lift the hold.
An eDiscovery vendor can help you develop an appropriate hold policy for your organization.
2. Assign Hold Responsibility
Another best practice is to have a clear and concise process for issuing holds. This process should be carried out by someone with a thorough understanding of the legal requirements and ramifications of issuing a hold. The individual responsible for issuing the hold should also have a good working knowledge of the company’s data and systems.
When it comes to issuing holds, one size does not fit all. The process will vary depending on the case and the data type involved. An eDiscovery vendor can help you develop a process tailored to your specific needs.
There are a few key things to keep in mind when developing a process for issuing holds:
– Make sure the process is well documented and easy to follow.
– Assign responsibility for issuing holds to one or more individuals.
– Train those individuals on the process and the legal requirements.
– Be sure to review the process periodically to ensure it is still effective.
3. Draft a Hold Roadmap
When you use eDiscovery software, you can take advantage of features that will simplify the process for you and your team. For example, you can use built-in questionnaires to quickly collect data about custodians and their data sources.
Additionally, you should clearly understand where your data is located and how it flows through your organization daily. It will help you determine which individuals and systems need to be included in your hold. Once you have this information, you can develop a roadmap that outlines each process step.
The roadmap should include:
-The date the hold is initiated
-A list of custodians who are subject to the hold
-The data sources associated with each custodian
-A description of how data is collected from each source
-The date the hold is lifted
4. Notify Relevant Staff and Third Parties
Lastly, you must notify all relevant staff and third parties of the litigation hold. It includes anyone who may have information related to the case at hand. You can help ensure that crucial evidence is not destroyed or lost by notifying these individuals.
With an eDiscovery platform, you can manage your legal holds with ease. In addition, the software will help you keep track of all the necessary information efficiently.
Final Thoughts
Legal holds best practices are essential for any organization, whether you are large or small. However, when it comes to litigation holds, the key is to have a plan and be proactive.