Onit's Legal Holds application within Legal Holds enables users to quickly create a wide variety of Legal Holds for their needs.
Here, well take you step-by-step through the process of creating a standard Legal Hold or a Silent Hold.
1. Log into Onit Legal Holds and click on the Legal Holds application on the left-hand-side menu.
2. On the Legal Holds application page, you will be able to get a quick snapshot of current matters, seeing things like Phase, Matter Type, Status, and much more.
Note that you can also click on the Select Fields and Filter options to adjust what you would like to see on the screen.
3. Click on the blue Plus button on the top of the screen and then on New Legal Hold to create a new Hold.
NOTE: This option is also available for easy access at the top of most screens within Legal Holds.
4. The Build Hold screen will appear.
5. Fill in the Hold Name. This is required.
6. Select the Matter this Legal Hold should correspond to. This is required. The Matter drop-down will be populated with values from the Matters table from either OnitX Matter Management or the Matters application in Legal Holds.
7. Select the Legal Hold Type this Legal Hold should utilize. This is required. The Legal Hold Type drop-down will be populated with values created in the Legal Hold Type application.
8. Select the Legal Hold Start Date. This is required and is populated with today's date by default.
9. Choose if you want to Send a Survey With the Hold Notice. This is required. Your options are Yes or No.
If you click on Yes, pick out the survey from the Custodian Questionnaire drop-down menu. The Custodian Questionnaire drop-down is populated from the templates created in the Surveys application.
10. Choose if you want to Copy Details from an Existing Hold. If you click this checkbox, you will have to:
- Select Legal Hold from a drop-down menu
- Select what fields to Copy from the drop-down menu. You can copy Custodians, the Notice, and/or the Survey. Click the X next to any option added to remove the selection.
Additionally, the Copy Custodians Count will also show you how many custodians there are on the Hold.
11. Click Private if you would like to make the Legal Hold private. That means only users you grant access can see the Hold.
12. Click on Silent Hold if you want to make this Hold silent. No custodians on a Silent Hold will receive a notice that they are on a Hold.
NOTE: More on the Silent Hold creation process HERE.
13. Click on Enable Microsoft Purview Preservation if you want to preserve specific Microsoft-related communications. Under Microsoft Services to Preserve, you can choose to preserve Mailbox and/or OneDrive communications.
14. Click on Enable Google Vault Preservation if you want to preserve specific Google-related communications. Under Google Services to Preserve, you can choose to preserve Gmail, Drive, and/or Chat communications.
15. Click on Enable Slack Preservation if you want to preserve specific Slack-related communications. Under Slack Services to Preserve, you can choose to preserve Only Direct Messages. If you leave this unchecked, all communications and channels will be preserved.
16. Click on Enable Dropbox Preservation if you want to preserve files stored on Dropbox. If you enable Dropbox Preservation, choose its start and end date in the two date fields.
The start date can be in the past or the day you are setting the preservation up. The end date is optional and should be left blank if you do not want preservation to stop. It is essential to set these dates correctly to match the timeline of the legal matter.
Note: Dropbox limits preservation to 100 custodians.
17. Click Submit to create your Legal Hold.
18. You will be sent directly to the Legal Holds page and the Hold Guide tab. Note that the top of the Legal Holds page will give you a quick snapshot of important Hold details. The Hold Guide takes you through the full process of finalizing and distributing the Hold in 4 easy steps.
19. Step one is to Select Custodians. Click the Select Custodians button on the right to start.
The Custodian Intake form will come up. Here you can select the custodians to be put on the Hold by using one (or more) of the methods below.
Your first option is to add by importing from a list.
To do this, follow the link to download the import template.
After you are done, upload your completed spreadsheet to the Custodian List to Import field.
Your next option is to Add By Individual Custodian. Click on Select next to Individual Custodians List to select the custodians individually.
A list of available custodians will appear based on the data available from the People application. Check the box next to the names of the custodians needed and click Add Selected to add them to the Legal Hold.
NOTE: You can also click on the Select Fields and Filter options to adjust the details of what you would like to see on the screen.
After you add the selected custodians to the Hold, they will appear in the Selected field on the bottom of the screen. You can check the box for the contact and click Remove to remove the contact as needed.
Click on Confirm Selection when you are done to finalize the custodian selection.
Your individual custodians will show up on the Custodian Intake screen.
You can also Add Custodians by Departments by selecting from a drop-down menu.
Finally, you can also Add Write-in Custodians by filling in email addresses in the text field, separated by commas.
Add CCs to the Hold by selecting individuals from the Add CCs drop-down menu. The CCs will receive information about the Hold but will not be subject to the Hold and therefore will not need to acknowledge the Hold.
You can also detail the Hold Reason to indicate why the custodians are on this Hold by filling in the text field. This field is optional.
Click Submit to finalize the Custodian Intake form.
On the Select Custodians step, or any step before the Hold is completed, you can also use the tabs across the screen to Preview Custodians and look at the Survey.
On the Preview Custodians page, you can Remove the Custodians from Preview which will remove them from the Hold or mark any custodian as Silent or Not Silent.
NOTE: If using a SILENT HOLD, the process is slightly different from this point on. See the Creating a Silent Hold section for more details.
Click on the Survey tab to see the Survey attached to the Hold Notice.
Within that Survey you can edit the survey name (click Edit on the General tab).
Click on the Survey Builder tab to edit the survey questions as needed following the same steps as shown in the Legal Hold Surveys User Guide.
20. The next step is Draft Notice — create, select, or edit Hold Notices to be sent to custodians. Click on Draft Notice to get started.
The Draft Hold Notice screen will appear.
Pick your Draft template from the drop-down menu (this is required). The drop-down values will be populated from the Templates application. You can also click the Save as New Template box to create a new template from your edited Hold.
Fill in your Email Subject line (this is required). This will automatically fill in with some preset text; you can modify as needed and copy/paste fields from the Available Tokens box to use specific Legal Hold information in the subject line.
Fill in the Email Body. Just as in the email subject line, you can copy/paste fields from the Available Tokens box to use specific Legal Hold information. The toolbar above the text box provides you with different formatting options bold, italic, underline, bullets, as well as a variety of fonts.
Add any files you need to attach to the Hold Notice in the Attachment field. Note that adding an attachment or changing the template will replace the attachment from the current template (if there is one). Click the Remove Attachment From Hold box to take off the templates pre-set attachment without adding a new Attachment.
NOTE: The attachment will be sent out as a link.
Click Submit to finish the Draft Hold Notice.
NOTE: If additional approval is not required, you will move right on to the Review and Send step. Learn more about that step HERE.
If additional approval is required, you will go to the Draft Notice page. Click Edit if you want to make any additional changes to the Hold Notice recommended by the approver.
You can also click on the Preview Notice tab to see what the final Hold notification looks like.
Click Back to Hold Guide to go back to the Hold Guide process until the approval is received.
21. The next step is Review and Send. Here, you can review the Final Hold Information to ensure the Hold data is correct.
NOTE: Changes can still be made here but NOT past this phase. Also note that if your Legal Hold requires approval from someone else, that approval MUST take place before you can move on to this stage.
Click on the Review and Send button to start.
The Review and Send screen will appear. Here, you will set the options to specify preferences for sending the notice.
Choose the Send Notice Timing. Your options are Immediately or Other Date. If you pick Other Date fill out the date in the date field.
Click the Notify Me when Custodians Have Been Notified box to get an email alert when the custodians receive the Hold.
Click the Notify Matter Manager to send the matter manager an email alert when the custodians receive the Hold notification.
Click on Allow Custodians to Revise their Responses if you want to let custodians edit any survey responses after they have submitted them.
Click on Next when you are done with the Hold Details to move on to the Notice Details page.
On the Notice Details page, you will get a snapshot of all the information you need current status, start date, custodian questionnaire, type, reminder, and a look at the Hold itself.
Click Send Notice when you are satisfied with everything to distribute the notice.
22. The final guide step is Hold in Progress. Here, you can track custodian acknowledgements, check in on responses on surveys, send reminders and escalations, and view Hold data.
The UnAcknowledged Custodians tab will show you the Custodians who HAVE NOT acknowledged the Hold. The Acknowledged Custodians tab will show you the Custodians who have acknowledged the Hold.
On both of these pages, you can use the Actions menu to:
- Release the Custodian - If one or more custodians need to be released from the Hold, but the Hold remains active, use the Release Custodian option.
- Set Hold Reason as Relevant Witness
- Set Hold Reason as Application Owner
- Set Reason for Reason as Custodian Data is no longer relevant
If the Hold Reason is not set during the Custodian Intake process, it can be edited here using one of two options: "Relevant Witness" or "Application Owner.”
If the Reason for Release is not set during the Release Custodian step, then the Reason for Release can be set here to "Custodian data is no longer relevant.”
NOTE: Additional reasons can be added for either action through customization.
Click on the Correspondence tab to view all correspondence associated with the Hold.
Click on the Survey Responses tab to see the custodian responses to the Survey attached to the Hold Notice.
The survey responses can be exported as needed using the Export menu.
The Log tab will show you all of the important events within the history of the Legal Hold.
Click on Preservation Log to see the status of the preservation records across the different systems (Microsoft Purview, Google, and Slack).
- The Preservation System Column indicates which Preservation was enabled
- The Request Execution Status indicates if it was successful or not. Note that it will show as a Failure if even one Custodian failed on the Preservation.
- The Preserved Custodians column shows the successfully preserved custodians.
- The Un-Preserved Custodians column indicates which custodians failed to be preserved.
Click on Revise Hold on the main page to edit the Hold that is in progress if needed. The Revise Hold History page will appear.
Here, you can Add or Revise Custodians and/or Revise the Notice. Click on what you would like to tweak and then on Submit.
You will go back to the step on the Hold Guide screen for edits. Click on Select Custodians and / or Edit Notice and go through the steps outlined above.
Note that after you go through this process, the Review and Send box will have an additional option to Send Revised Notice to either All Custodians or Custodians added or revised in the revision.
23. You have several other options on the More Actions right-hand menu.
Here, you can:
- Re-Issue the Hold to send out the same Hold information to the same Custodians again.
- Release the Hold. For this, you will have to fill out a Hold Close form. On this form, you can include any Notes, can opt to Close the Matter by clicking a checkbox, and also detail the Reason for Release. Click Next to go to Draft Release Notice and see a preview of the release.
- View History
- Add Custodians (note that this will bring you back to the “Review and Send” page)
- Add Participant(s) that have specific roles for viewing or managing this Hold
The creation of a Silent Hold differs slightly from the process above. As a reminder, click the Silent Hold box on the Build Hold page to mark it as silent.
From there, you will go through the Select Custodians process as detailed above.
However, once you have selected your custodians, you will now have a Create Hold button on the right side of the screen.
Once you click that, you will immediately go to the Hold in Progress stage as the Hold is now complete. Additional approval steps can be added prior to completing the hold as needed.
From there, you can access the Revise Hold and other options under More Actions, as outlined above.