A litigation hold is, at its core, a legal directive. Legal representatives and public records holders who receive these notices need to preserve any documents relevant to future litigation or court proceedings.
This can be challenging, but knowing what steps to follow after receiving a legal hold ensures compliance. Miro reports that just one non-compliance event can cost a company $14.82 million, so this is incredibly important for any business.
Whether you store data within Slack, Teams, or Google Workspace, it's critical to understand all steps of the litigation hold process. Read on for a comprehensive checklist for managing litigation holds across cloud-based platforms.
A litigation hold is also called a legal hold. It isn't specifically a cybersecurity measure, though it can contribute to security by preserving sensitive documents safely. Instead, it is a notification that an organization's legal will send to its managers and employees after the legal representatives receive a FOIA or subpoena request.
The notification instructs recipients to hold onto both digital and paper documents about specific subjects. This is because those topics are relevant to a new or upcoming legal case. The legal team will need access to them in their preserved, unaltered form in order to send them to the entity that needs them.
Whether you're contending with Microsoft Teams eDiscovery or an eDiscovery Slack hold, there are several requirements and best practices to consider.
Collaboration tool management is one of the most important because it gets all your information in one place. After anticipating litigation proceedings, these tools will help you draft and send a written message to employees who must hold data. Called 'custodians,' these recipients need to hold onto the records and preserve them.
To preserve all necessary data, it's critical to utilize a technology that can help identify and track custodians. Onna's modern data integration platform brings together data from multiple sources and shows who holds onto that data.
Sources may include:
Legal representatives and LSPs can access unified data that has been united with the connectors.
These actions help teams maintain compliance and meet important litigation hold requirements, including:
A litigation hold's purpose is to:
In order for the hold to serve its purpose, enterprises should follow a few simple steps. The checklist includes multiple stages, including interpreting and implementing the hold with top-notch eDiscovery technology.
Those who receive legal holds are usually well-versed in eDiscovery processes. They include professionals like:
However, it's still important to seek advice from another attorney. This will help you understand the responsibilities that you must adhere to during eDiscovery proceedings.
Legal representatives and IT departments need to collaborate after receiving a legal hold. This is because they need to identify all of the records relevant to litigation. Once you establish ground rules and figure out what you need, prioritizing and culling data with quality tools is easy.
Manually undergoing the legal hold process is challenging and time-consuming. It wastes money and increases the chance of human error that can cost you millions of dollars. Luckily, artificial intelligence and machine learning make things simple when you choose an up-to-date, cutting-edge platform that works with real-time data.
When you work with Onna, legal holds are easier to manage within an all-in-one, connector-based dashboard. More than that, though, it's easier to respond to requests because data review is simpler.
Our platform:
Our generative AI capabilities:
The entire eDiscovery process is simpler and streamlined.
> Why do companies receive litigation hold notices?
Many companies fear that they may be in legal trouble when they receive legal holds, but this is not the case. Those who get these notices are frequently witnesses or simply public record holders who manage relevant information.
If you get a litigation hold, all it means is that you may hold records that courts "reasonably anticipate" may be needed for future legal proceedings. It's that simple!
> When are legal holds issued?
You will get a litigation hold when your data may be involved in:
The reasons for issuing the hold will be clear on the document itself.
> What happens when you fail to comply with a legal hold?
Companies that fail to comply with holds will be hit by legal and financial penalties. Rule 37(e) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure states that the court "may order measures no greater than necessary to cure the prejudice" unless the data destruction was intentional.
However, the intentional destruction of evidence may lead to hefty fines and reputational damage. Those who fail to comply may also be penalized by state bar associations.
The litigation hold process can be tricky for companies to manage, but following a comprehensive checklist can streamline it effectively. Now that you know what to do after receiving a legal hold notice, it's time to find AI-driven tools to help you manage these holds throughout the eDiscovery process.
Onna is a Reveal technology made to help you manage data across workplace applications. Regardless of your data sources, you can integrate your information into a single dashboard and manage it from there. Transforming data has never been less risky than it is when you mitigate legal sprawl risks!
If you're looking to save time and money while ensuring compliance, don't wait; contact us to learn more and schedule a demo of our cutting-edge tools.