Court: 'saved everything' defense not good enough.

• Position: E-DISCOVERY - Brief article

If you think you don't need to issue a formal legal hold because your policy is to save everything, think again.

A California magistrate judge recently reminded a party of that. It seems the party neglected to issue a legal hold when it became apparent that litigation was likely. As it turns out, e-mails from key players were destroyed in the absence of a legal hold. The defendant later argued that it had a company-wide "no documents are to be deleted" policy that was equivalent to a legal hold. The judge disagreed.

"Although defendants argue that there was no need for a litigation hold because of...