Create a legal hold matter

Overview

To put backup data on legal hold, create a matter, apply a preservation policy, and add custodians. This article describes how to create and manage a matter.

Legal hold is a part of the eDiscovery process undertaken in response to actual or prospective litigation. For information on how to leverage Code42 for Enterprise for eDiscovery, see our eDiscovery Integration Guide.

You can also preserve files with Legal Hold for enhanced surveillance as part of your company's security program. For more information, see Detect and respond to insider risks.

Video

Watch the short video below to learn how to create a legal hold matter. For more videos, visit the Code42 University. 

Considerations

• You can only place active users in a legal hold. If you want to place a deactivated user in a legal hold and retain their data, first reactivate the user. 
• In most Code42 environments, placing a user (called a custodian) on legal hold creates a new backup set on devices that belong to that user. Placing a user on legal hold changes their backup selection, so they might notice more files and folders selected for backup. The backup set associated with a legal hold is not visible to the end user, but the files backed up by the legal hold are available for user restores.

  In the following destinations, placing a user on legal hold creates a new backup set, but that legal hold backup set and any files it contains is not visible or available to the end user.

  • Any destination in the Code42 federal cloud for customers that have an Incydr Gov product plan.
  • Any destination starting with Code42 Destination for customers with any other product plan.

  In these destinations, users on legal holds see only their own backup sets (and the files those sets contain) and do not see any additional files that may be included in a legal hold backup set.

• All devices for a user on a legal hold will back up to all destinations available to the user, even destinations that are not selected for backup. As a result, the user may notice an increase in bandwidth usage or delays in the progress of non-legal hold backup sets.
• A user on a legal hold cannot upgrade the archive security level.
• A user on a legal hold cannot delete an archive.
• A custodian's files cannot be collected if the user meets one or both of the following conditions:
  • Is in an organization that has Compliance Settings activated
  • Has upgraded encryption key security 

• If users who are custodians under a legal hold are selected for deactivation (for example, from the Code42 console, a provisioning provider, or API), they are not deactivated immediately because their data must be retained for legal hold purposes. Instead, they are blocked. Once these blocked users are released from legal hold, they are deactivated automatically. 

Potential data loss when moving users
If a user on a legal hold is moved to an organization that offers different destinations, any legal hold archives on destinations not offered by the new organization will go into cold storage. The legal hold backup set starts over with a new archive on the new destination. As a result, previously backed up files, version history, and deleted files will be lost.

Before you begin

• Create a preservation policy to apply to your matter.
• The steps in this tutorial require one of the following roles:
  • Org Legal Admin
  • Cross Org Legal Admin

Step 1: Create a matter

1. Sign in to the Code42 console.

2. Select Administration > Legal Hold > Matters.

3. Select the Create Matter icon (+) from All Matters.
4. Enter the matter's name.
5. Choose a preservation policy to apply to your matter.
6. Click Create.
   The matter is created and appears in the list of matters.

Step 2: Edit matter details (optional)

1. From the list of all matters, click on the name of the matter.
2. To create a description, click Edit in the Description section.
3. Add a description.
4. To change the preservation policy, click Edit in the Preservation Policy section.
5. Choose a new policy for the matter.
6. To add an external reference, click Edit in the External Reference section.
7. Enter an external reference or notes.

External reference field is searchable
External references allow you to set fields that are searchable using the Code42 API LegalHold resource, and allow you to reference external sources of information or databases, such as case files, spreadsheets, legal documents, or eDiscovery tools.

Step 3: Add custodians

1. Click the Custodians tab.
2. Click the Add custodians (+) icon.
   The Add Custodians dialog appears.
3. Start entering the username or the user ID of the user you want to add.
   Matching usernames display as possible choices. Only active usernames are shown; deactivated users can not be added as custodians of a legal matter. To add a deactivated user to a legal matter, first reactivate that user.
4. Select the user you want to add.
5. (Optional) Add additional users if necessary.
   
6. Click Add to save your selection.
   The selected custodians appear in the list of custodians on the Custodians page.

Release or reactivate custodians

Release a custodian

Releasing a legal hold custodian removes the legal hold backup set for the user.

Data loss risk
Releasing a legal hold custodian may lead to data loss. Files and folders included in the backup set of a released legal hold custodian that are not part of another backup set will be permanently deleted at the next archive maintenance. To avoid data loss, do not release a custodian until you are absolutely sure that the custodian's legal hold data will not be required in the future.

1. Sign in to the Code42 console.
2. Navigate to legal hold matters.

   Select Administration > Legal Hold > Matters.

3. Select the legal hold matter that includes the custodian.
4. Select Custodians.
5. In the list of custodians, hover over the custodian you want to release.
   The release icon appears at the end of the row.
   
   
6. Click the Release icon.
7. The Release custodian message opens. 
   
8. Click Yes, Release to release the custodian.
   The custodian is released.

Video

Watch the short video below to learn how to release a custodian from a legal hold. For more videos, visit the Code42 University. 

Reactivate a custodian

Reactivating a custodian does not recover data
Reactivating a custodian does not recover data lost by deactivating the custodian. If archive maintenance has already purged the legal hold backup set, then the selected files and folders need to be backed up again.

1. Sign in to the Code42 console.
2. Navigate to legal hold matters.

   Select Administration > Legal Hold > Matters.

3. Select the legal hold matter that includes the custodian.
4. Select Custodians.
5. From Choose status on the right, select Released.
6. In the list of custodians, hover over the custodian you want to reactivate.
   The reactivate icon appears at the end of the row.
   
7. Click the Reactivate icon.
   The custodian and all devices associated with this user account are reactivated immediately.

Related topics

• Create a legal hold preservation policy
• Configure a legal hold
• Legal Hold reference
• Collect files from a legal hold
• eDiscovery integration guide