Extract from Justin Reynolds, Akshita Singhal & Lianna Vaughan’s article “What Are Legal Holds & Why Should You Care?”
Most companies today have policies in place governing how and when employees should destroy sensitive information.
At a high level, document destruction policies ensure compliance with state, federal, and industry regulations. They also help prevent sensitive documents, like financial and medical records, from accidentally leaking to the public.
However, when a legal investigation or audit is underway, standard document destruction policies may not apply. During this time, it’s critical to protect electronically stored information (ESI) and paper documents that could influence a case. To accomplish this, legal teams may issue holds to their entire organization, specific departments, or individuals.
Read on to learn what legal holds entail, and why they’re a critical part of the eDiscovery process.
What Are Legal Holds?
A legal hold is an order that comes from a legal team to an organization or client, informing them not to destroy certain information, and asking them to keep it for a specific period of time.
Legal teams typically issue holds when anticipating litigation. For example, a legal team may catch wind of an upcoming lawsuit, orr a high-ranking executive may come under fire for a batch of emails.There are numerous reasons for issuing holds.Â
