The concept of “Legal Hold” is not new in the least and long before anyone ever thought about electronic evidence (Electronically Stored Information- ESI) once a party became aware of potential litigation it had a duty to protect all relevant evidence, like paper documents.  So it comes as no surprise that an in recent IT white paper that sanctions for destruction of ESI (e.g. spoliation) has increased by “271 percent since 2005!”  Networkworld included Code42’s white paper “Protecting data in the age of employee churn” is on a broader scope for IT professionals because so many IT professionals leave their jobs at a relatively high rate.

Here are the points raised by Code42’s report that technology “that automates and tracks legal holds”:

  • Demonstrates the organization has an established process and enables identification, storage and maintenance of relevant data without increasing IT headcount.
  • Reduces risk and increases defensibility.
  • Guarantees that holds are issued in a timely fashion and contain all necessary information.
  • Enables data set selection.

Whether we like it or not every lawsuit now has ESI and IT is responsible for helping protecting ESI.

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