Managing Legal Holds with Matter Management Software
It’s important to find the right software to manage legal holds
Attorneys and paralegals in legal departments of corporations and universities deal with legal holds on a regular basis. Also called litigation or preservation holds, the term refers to the process of keeping relevant materials (such as documents, email, phone logs, video, etc.) while a lawsuit is ongoing.
Anyone in the legal profession knows that legal holds can result in an overwhelming amount of hold materials (i.e., documents, emails, spreadsheets). The key to managing the chaos is effective organization, and the key to effective organization is finding the right matter management solution for the job. Legal Files Software offers incredible versatility and functionality for both legal holds and legal matter management.
Legal Files Software can handle legal holds and daily legal matter management
The legal hold process requires more than just storing hold materials that are related to a lawsuit. It also requires attorneys in corporate and university legal departments to communicate the legal hold to the custodian, or keeper, of those materials. The attorney must not only contact the custodian, they must also keep track of who they contacted, when they contacted them, what they said to the custodian, and what the custodian said in response. As if managing the materials involved in the legal hold wasn’t enough work! While there is software that has been designed to simplify and organize the legal hold process, it can only manage legal holds. As a result, this type of software is very limited, which means legal departments need to find a separate corporate legal matter management software to handle their everyday operations. It hardly seems cost-effective or efficient.
There is the option of using Excel spreadsheets, folders, and calendars to manage legal holds. While this might seem less expensive than purchasing software for legal holds, it can actually end up being more costly. Using such a complex and disorganized method is not only time-consuming, but it can lead to human errors that can have high financial and professional costs. According to Matt Ryan, Legal Files Senior Consultant, “Legal Files Software is different. You can use the software for matter management and legal holds, because it’s customizable. Legal Files Software allows you to kill two birds with one stone.”
Clients love the versatility of Legal Files Software
One of the biggest advantages of using Legal Files Software to manage legal holds is the fact that it can adapt to the levels of compliance required by your organization. For example, universities might have several departments using Legal Files Software as their legal hold and matter management software. Each of these departments might have different legal hold requirements, and Legal Files Software can be modified to meet them all. “When clients see how versatile Legal Files Software is, they say, ‘This is what we wanted all along.’” Matt said. “Offering the ability to customize software to meet a client’s unique needs for matter management and legal holds is just one of the many features that sets Legal Files Software apart from the competition.”