A litigation hold, also known as a legal hold, is a preservation order that ensures relevant data is protected when an organization anticipates or is undergoing a lawsuit or investigation. Litigation holds serve several important purposes:
1. Preservation of Evidence: A litigation hold ensures all relevant documents, emails, data, etc., are preserved and not altered or deleted. This includes information stored on computer systems, servers, and other digital devices. The data held might be needed for discovery, the process by which parties to a lawsuit exchange information before trial.
2. Compliance with Legal Requirements: There is a legal duty to preserve all forms of relevant information once litigation is anticipated or underway. This means that failure to implement a litigation hold could potentially lead to severe legal penalties, including fines or sanctions, or even losing the case due to what is known as “spoliation” – the destruction or alteration of evidence.
3. Risk Management: A well-implemented litigation hold can help organizations effectively manage risks associated with data preservation. It provides a systematic and legally defensible method of retaining and producing relevant information.
4. Efficient Discovery Process: The litigation hold simplifies the discovery process, making it easier for legal teams to find and collect the necessary information. It can save a significant amount of time and resources compared to sorting through unmanaged data.
5. Consistency and Standardization: A well-planned litigation hold procedure provides a consistent and standardized approach to data preservation, ensuring that the organization responds effectively to each legal situation.
In short, litigation holds play a crucial role in legal proceedings by preserving data integrity, assisting in evidence discovery, ensuring legal compliance, and managing risks associated with litigation.
Now, let’s see how to implement litigation holds in Microsoft 365.
Microsoft 365 Configuration Steps
In Microsoft 365, you can configure litigation holds through the Security & Compliance Center. A litigation hold is used to preserve all mailbox content for a specific user, which includes deleted items and original versions of modified items.
Here’s how to configure it:
1. Sign in to your Microsoft 365 account and navigate to the admin center.
2. From there, locate and open the Security & Compliance Center.
3. In the Security & Compliance Center, select “eDiscovery.”
4. Under “eDiscovery,” you will see “Cases.” Click on that.
5. Click on the “+ Create a case” option.
6. Enter a name and description for the case, then click “Save.”
7. The new case will appear in the list of cases. Click on the name of the new case to open it.
8. In the case, click “Hold” on the vertical navigation pane to the left.
9. Then, click on “+ Create” to create a new hold.
10. You will have to provide a name for the hold, and, optionally a description, then click “Next.”
11. Now you must choose what to put on hold: Mail, Teams or other sources. After selecting the source, you can set it to hold all content or only specific content.
12. After defining what you want to put on hold, click “Next.”
13. You must now add the accounts you want to apply the hold to. You can search for them and add them.
14. After adding the necessary accounts, click “Next.”
15. Review your settings and click on “Create this hold.”
Remember that only users with eDiscovery Manager or equivalent permissions can perform these steps.
Please note that instructions can change due to updates by Microsoft. If you can’t find a feature or have issues, it’s always a good idea to check the official Microsoft documentation or reach out to Microsoft support.
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