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Sample Litigation Hold Directive

To:
From:
Copy:
Date:
Subject: Notice of Litigation and Required Preservation of Electronic Data

[Company Name] recently received notice of litigation. Electronic data contained in [Company Name's] computer systems may be very important as a source of discovery and evidence in this cause. [Company Name] is required by law to take steps to ensure that all electronic data that is potentially relevant to this litigation is preserved. To satisfy [Company Name's] legal obligations, your assistance is necessary and required for the preservation of [Company Name's] electronic data, which includes, but is not limited to:

Directive Regarding Preservation of Electronic Data
  • Email
  • Microsoft Office documents
  • PDF Files
  • TIFF Files
  • TXT Files
  • Databases
  • Calendars
  • Computer Usage Logs
  • Internet Usage Logs
Such electronic information or data may reside on workstations, laptops, network servers, removable media, handheld devices, voicemail and backup tapes.

Any question about the relevance of a particular file, email or other electronic data should be addressed to [Company's attorney] and resolved in favor of preserving and retaining information. Failure to preserve relevant information may result in significant penalties against [Company Name].

At the network and systems administration level, this directive requires you to preserve and retain all potentially relevant files stored on servers and to refrain from doing any administrative work that has any potential to destroy potentially relevant files. In addition, all automatic deletion functions must be disabled on both the network and individual workstation level. All back up tapes must be preserved and pulled from recycling rotation. Forensically sound full images of mailboxes, hard drives and network drives should be created upon receipt of this directive.

If you have any questions, please contact me.

[Signature]

 

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