What is a Legal Hold?

Electronic Discovery Reference Model

 

The legal hold process takes place in conjunction with the Identification, Preservation, and Collection stages of the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM).

Overview

 

Performing legal holds is a requirement in modern litigation. A legal hold is both an event and a process in which an organization is obligated to identify and preserve relevant information for a potential law suit, audit, or investigation. To do this, the organization must identify which individuals are involved with the matter, where and how these individuals store data and documents, which of these information sources are potentially relevant, and where the relevant information is being stored. Once the data is collected, it must be safely preserved throughout the life of the matter.

 
 

Challenges

 

A legal hold process typically involves managing large volumes of paper-based and electronically-stored information, including e-mail chains, images, audio files, thumb drives, voicemails, notes, and file folders from multiple custodians. To effectively identify, analyze, and preserve this magnitude of information can be a difficult undertaking. Distributing hold notices to custodians and obtaining their compliance are also challenges. 

 

Once a legal hold is underway, the organization will need to check the progress of the hold and reach out to unresponsive custodians. There is also the potential need to collect additional information from these custodians as the matter progresses. Finally, a successful hold must lead to the production of all relevant information in an organized, defensible format.

Solution

 

kCura’s legal hold management solution, Method, is designed to address these challenges. This flexible, web-based application provides the tools needed to efficiently perform the many tasks associated with conducting legal holds in an organized, defensible manner. Method can streamline and centralize complex legal hold processes through customizable templates and repeatable workflows, saving time and effort for the individuals who manage legal holds. To learn more about Method, click here.