Companies create thousands of written, printed, and electronic records every day. To control this vast amount of data, every company should have a document retention policy that sets out how employees should manage company data from creation through destruction. Over-preservation and under-preservation of documents may present certain legal risks.

When a company anticipates, or becomes a party to, litigation, an investigation, or an audit, it must suspend routine document deletion and issue a litigation hold to preserve all relevant information. Failure to timely issue a litigation hold notice can subject a company to severe sanctions. The litigation hold notice should require:

Companies may avoid liability by training their employees on the importance of document retention and litigation holds. In-house attorneys should educate employees at all levels about document retention and litigation holds generally, and about each employee's individual roles and responsibilities. To ensure that their employees know how to implement requisite procedures, companies should provide both:

Document Retention: Presentation Materials provides a general overview of document retention policies and explains:

Litigation Holds Overview: Presentation Materials provides a general overview of what employees should expect when the company issues a litigation hold. It covers:

Additionally, Complying with the Litigation Hold Notice: Presentation Materials provides training for employees when the company issues a specific litigation hold. It specifically:

For more information, Practical Law's Litigation Hold Toolkit offers a suite of resources on litigation holds and document retention, including resources for counsel to train employees about litigation holds, document retention policies, and best practices for ensuring that company records are properly preserved and retained.