U4 Legal Holds

1) What U.S. case provided the foundation of legal holds (aka: litigation holds) in the United States? Briefly describe the facts and decision in this case that established case law. (hint: see the reading materials) 2) What components or elements should be contained within a legal hold notice, and how often should custodians be reminded of their legal hold obligations? 3) Are governments or private corporations in another country required to comply with legal holds? If yes, what is the legal precedent? If not, what can one do to ensure compliance? Scenario: Six months ago, an employee at a company makes an allegation of sexual harassment to her immediate supervisor, who does nothing about it. The victim employee repeatedly asks her supervisor to do something about it and even makes calls to the employee complaint portal, which is supposed to notify management. The nature of the sexual harassment complaint is severe and involves repeated harassment over a period of ti​‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‍‌‌‍‍‍‌‍‌‌‌‍​me. Six months have passed, and nothing has been done until the victim employee resigns and meets with the Human Resources Director where the victim employee describes how the subject employee sent her texts and emails involving sexual material and comments about the victim employee. The subject employee also made sexual advances in the office environment and in the company parking lot. The victim employee contacts an attorney who is now involved in litigation with the company for failing to act on this situation. 4) Regarding the scenario above, the attorney requests you to draft elements of a legal hold. Describe what you would advise the attorney to include in this document in detail. How quickly should preservation occur, and would you prioritize any devices or sources over others? 5) Regarding the scenario above, it is now one year since the initial complaint, and the company said that they have no policy on preserving text messages on the company issued mobile phones. Should the company have acted to preserve ESI in advance, even with no retention policy? 6) Regarding the scenario above, the company responds to a legal hold request regarding video surveillance within the workplace. In a common area inside of the building, the victim employee stated the subject employee physically touched her in an inappropriate manner, and the legal hold document describes this common area, the date it occurred, who was present, etc. The company claims the video surveillance is present but refuses to release the video segment, stating the content of the video contains a visual of proprietary company technology (trade secrets) of their newest and unreleased products that have several patents pending. How would you advise to address this situation to withhold surveillance video of the incident? Can the attorney involve the court​‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‍‌‌‍‍‍‌‍‌‌‌‍​?