What Is a Litigation Hold? A Guide for Legal Teams

Within a single calendar year, about 68.5 million legal cases take place across the US. Gathering evidence is a critical part of these cases, and litigation holds are the only way to ensure that this evidence is both untainted and readily available.

However, you may still wonder: what is a litigation hold? How can you streamline the evidence holding process?

Read on to learn the ins and outs of litigation holds, how they work, and what legal compliance tools can help you hold evidence effectively.

What Is a Litigation Hold?

Before learning the legal hold process or understanding what technologies can help you remain compliant, it's critical to answer the basic question: what is a litigation hold?

A litigation hold is also called a 'legal hold' or 'preservation order.' This written document tells the recipient to hold onto information that could be relevant to current or future legal proceedings. This information could include physical or digital documents, such as:

• Photographs
• Video recordings
• Calendar information
• Emails and instant messages
• Handwritten or physically printed correspondence
• Documents and databases (both print and electronic)
• Data from social media platforms
• Metadata
• Audit information
• Letters and memos
• Past legal contracts
• Financial records
• Legal notices

The main purpose of a litigation hold is legal document preservation. Once issued, the recipient needs to hold onto the requested documents without losing or destroying them. They also cannot make alterations to them, which ensures that all the important information they contain will be available during the trial period.

In short, a legal hold is made to prevent spoliation and keep evidence in its original condition!

Legal holds also:

• Help corporations, LSPs, and attorneys comply with legal obligations as they wait for upcoming legal proceedings and/or investigations
• Ensure fair legal processes due to transparent, accurate evidence
• Mitigate the risks of future legal compliance problems stemming from a failure to preserve evidence
• Streamline the e-discovery process by keeping data available and accessible

The Basics of the Litigation Hold Process

At the beginning stage of every litigation hold is a triggering event. This event sets off the legal proceedings for a civil or criminal case. At this point, the legal team of an organization that holds information about the case will receive a notification of the situation and its intricacies.

After reading over the notification, the legal team will work with data experts to figure out what information needs to be preserved. They will then decide who needs to be the 'custodian,' or holder, of that data. This may be a specific individual or a department within a larger corporation.

Then, the organization will initiate a legal hold. They will send out a notification to all relevant parties that includes:

• An overview of current and upcoming legal proceedings
• What specific data needs to be preserved for future litigations
• What obligations those working in the organization have regarding evidence holding
• Contact information of a representative that the recipient of the notice can call with questions and concerns

Once the recipient acknowledges that they received the notice, the hold is officially in place.

Operations and Duties

Everyone involved in the litigation hold process needs to acknowledge that they received the notification. If someone does not do so, the legal team must follow up with them. Eventually, when they agree to comply, the recipients will:

• Gather all necessary information about their duties
• Carry out all applications and processes that are needed to preserve the data
• Keep the data secured and accessible

As the case goes on, legal teams will remind others within their corporation or other entity that they are still under legal hold. This ensures that they do not forget to carry out operations and obligations as time passes.

Release of Hold

Once the case is resolved and litigation ends, the legal team will notify evidence holders that they are free of the hold. This release means that they can alter or destroy the previously held evidence in some cases.

If you do not want this, you can ask the team to forward you an unaltered copy of that data. However, once the hold is released, employees can resume normal workplace activities without fulfilling hold-related duties.

Managing Legal Holds With Online Platforms

Litigation holds can be challenging for organizations to manage unless they have the appropriate technology to streamline operations. Quality e-discovery software makes managing legal holds a breeze.

Onna's simplified legal holds platform lets you manage holds with one all-in-one integrated platform.

This user-friendly technology runs on a custodian-based management system in which legal teams can assign custodians to evidence directly. The platform integrates with Google and Slack to make notifications and communication easy.

More importantly, this Reveal technology streamlines operations by:

• Eliminating email-based hold management
• Erasing the need for cross-application holds
• Eliminating difficult-to-manage spreadsheets

Part of the reason this works is that Onna's tool preserves information right in the source application. If you're trying to hold onto a specific digital document within Google Docs, Onna will let you preserve it within Google. No exports are necessary.

Our legal compliance tools are specifically designed to help you:

• Respond to legal hold requirements and other legal directives quickly
• Reduce the risk of non-compliance due to long response times
• Assign custodians directly to specific data
• Manage and edit these custodians as you see fit
• Draft, send, and schedule notifications within one convenient application
• Track notifications and responses

Best of all, you can do this in one comprehensive dashboard. Everything is all in one place and easy to visualize, so reporting is a breeze.

Implement eDiscovery Best Practices Today

So, what is a litigation hold?

In simple terms, it's a legal requirement that compels organizations and individuals to hold onto evidence that's relevant to upcoming and ongoing cases. However, it's more than that. It's a necessity for compliance and risk mitigation as well.

Now that you know the ins and outs of these holds, it's time to begin managing them more effectively with Onna. We're committed to helping legal teams and experts streamline their legal hold processes within a single integrated interface.

Our team is excited to answer your questions, so contact us ASAP with any inquiries about our all-in-one tech solutions!