In the first of this three-part series on mastering legal holds, I introduced the concept of a legal hold and outlined steps for implementing a hold. Part II discussed when a legal hold duty arises and set forth key considerations for fulfilling your duty to issue and monitor a hold. I now turn to the scope of the required preservation and best practices in executing preservation and holds.

When a legal hold duty arises, an organization must decide what to preserve and how to do it. In some circumstances, the duty to preserve requires only locating and preserving a limited amount of information. In other circumstances, the scope of the information is larger and the sources of the information may not be immediately known.