What is a litigation hold letter?

What is a litigation hold letter?

A legal hold (also known as a litigation hold) is a notification sent from an organization’s legal team to employees instructing them not to delete electronically stored information (ESI) or discard paper documents that may be relevant to a new or imminent legal case.

Are litigation hold notices privileged?

Generally, legal hold notices (also called “litigation holds”) are privileged, protected by the attorney-client privilege or work product doctrine.

How should employees respond to litigation holds?

In general, ESI includes emails, documents, spreadsheets, and text messages….5 Steps to Take if You Receive a Litigation Hold Letter

1. Contact counsel.
2. Determine what documents are responsive.
3. Identify employees who may have responsive information.
4. Maintain the hold and follow-up.
5. Do not ignore it.

How do you handle a litigation hold?

Here are some actionable tactics you can implement to improve your litigation hold process:

1. Streamline Where You Can.
2. Don’t Forget to Release the Legal Holds.
3. Lean into the Process with Technology.
4. Establish Consistent and Repeatable Processes.
5. Document Everything.
6. Track Your Custodians.
7. Get IT Involved Early.

How do you implement a litigation hold?

Notes of Decisions

1. Identify a Litigation Hold Team.
2. Develop a Reasonable Litigation Hold Plan.
3. Issue the Litigation Hold Notice in Writing.
4. Communicate and Distribute the Written Litigation Hold Notice.
5. Monitor and Enforce Compliance.
6. Modify the Litigation Hold When Necessary.

How do you write a litigation hold?

Put Your Client’s Hold Notice in Writing, and Be Specific: A good Litigation Hold Notice should clearly identify the reason for the hold, should prohibit the destruction of relevant documents, and should identify what sort of information is considered relevant.

How do you make a litigation hold?

Go to https://admin.microsoft.com and sign in.

1. In the navigation pane of the admin center, click Users > Active users.
2. Select the user that you want to place on Litigation hold.
3. On the properties flyout page, click the Mail tab, and then under More actions, click Manage litigation hold.

Is a litigation hold work product?

Mar. 20, 2020), the court dealt with the more commonly-asserted work product protection. Taking the majority view, the court found that litigation holds are “textbook work product” – because “[u]nlike normal business activities . . . litigation hold notices are prepared because of the prospect of litigation.” Id.

Who should receive litigation holds?

Anyone else who may have potentially relevant information should also receive the litigation hold. This often includes an employee’s managers, supervisors and certain co-workers as well as HR employees and anyone who participated in the employment action(s) at issue.

Does a litigation hold have to be in writing?

In short, while the drafting of the litigation hold should be done with an eye to the possibility that it will be disclosed, the focus should be on writing it so that it provides meaningful instruction and guidance to the recipients and reflects a thoughtful and reasonable approach to fulfilling the particular …

What is a letter of preservation?

A preservation letter is a notice given to the defendant that you can send as the injured person to ask that they preserve any evidence they have. This letter shouldn’t be unreasonable but can be used to ask that they preserve any video, photographs, witness statements, or other types of evidence.