Upon Receipt of a Litigation Hold
The following steps should be taken to ensure compliance upon
receipt of a litigation hold.
- Suspend
deletion, overwriting, or any other destruction of electronic information
that might be relevant to the case.
This includes electronic information wherever it is stored - at
your workstation, on a laptop, on a shared file system, or at home. It
includes all forms of electronic information - e.g. email, word processing
documents, calendar entries, voice messages, videos, photographs,
information on PDAs, etc.
- Consider
creating separate folders for email and files to contain data relevant or
potentially relevant to the case.
- Check
with local IT staff or other computer support staff to ensure that any
data stored on servers, or backups of such data, are retained.
- If
your computer or other potentially relevant data is not being backed up,
contact your departmental computing staff or the Information Security
Office (ISO) to discuss options to ensure that the data is retained.
- Take
steps to understand where files and email are being stored. In many cases
this can include local computer disk(s), a network file system (DFS or
AFS), email servers, or other systems. Local IT and ISO staff may be able
to help to determine where data is stored.
- If a
computer is being replaced (e.g. as part of an upgrade cycle) or
decommissioned contact local IT staff, the ISO and the Office of General
Counsel (OGC) before any actions are taken. A copy of the existing data
will likely need to be preserved prior to the upgrade.
- If your
email is being migrated to a different mail system, contact ISO and the
OGC prior to the migration. A copy of the existing, pre-migration data
will likely need to be preserved.
- If
possible, consider moving any relevant data to a network file system that
is regularly backed up. Centrally or departmentally supported systems are
often safer repositories than a local computer.
- If
relevant data is stored on removable media (CDs, DVDs, external hard
drives, etc.) contact ISO and OGC to determine if preservation copies
should be made.
- Any
hard-copy documents under your control that may be relevant to the case
should also be preserved.
