Abstract:
A system includes a legal hold notification tool including a legal hold management module to manage a legal hold issued on an organization, the legal hold management module generating a notification of the legal hold to a user subjected to the legal hold, and a legal hold affirmation module to obtain an affirmation of the legal hold from the user on periodic basis throughout the duration of the legal hold.

Description:
[0001]    This present application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/946,619 filed Jun. 27, 2007, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. 
     
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    1. Field of the Invention 
         [0003]    The present invention relates to a system and method for document management, and more importantly, to a system and method for document hold management for legal proceedings. 
         [0004]    2. Discussion of the Related Art 
         [0005]    When certain legal proceedings are initiated, an organization is required to retain documents that pertain to the legal proceedings if the organization is a party or has a substantial interest in the proceedings. In the prior art, the system and process to manage these documents under the “legal hold” are manual. The responsible attorney generally sends a physical memorandum or an electronic mail (“email”) to the person subject to the hold in the organization requesting that they retain documents related to the legal proceedings. Moreover, because the legal hold placed on the documents generally spans over a significant period of time, no automated process to periodically remind the subjected person of the continuing obligation to retain the relevant documents exist. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0006]    Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a system and method for document hold management that substantially obviates one or more problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art. 
         [0007]    An object of the present invention is to provide a system and method for document hold management to assist in locating and gathering documents. 
         [0008]    Another object of the present invention is to provide a system and method for document hold management to notify a subject person of a duty to retain documents at matter inception. 
         [0009]    Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a system and method for document hold management to regularly remind a subject person to continue to retain documents while the matter is pending. 
         [0010]    Still yet another object of the present invention is to provide a system and method for document hold management to create a record of proper notification to the subject person. 
         [0011]    Another object of the present invention is to provide a system and method for document hold management to consolidate the legal hold data in an easily accessible location. 
         [0012]    Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a system and method for document hold management to reinforce the principle that electronic data are documents for purposes of a legal hold. 
         [0013]    Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings. 
         [0014]    To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described, a system includes a legal hold notification tool including a legal hold management module to manage a legal hold issued on an organization, the legal hold management module generating a notification of the legal hold to a user subjected to the legal hold, and a legal hold affirmation module to obtain an affirmation of the legal hold from the user on periodic basis throughout the duration of the legal hold. 
         [0015]    In another aspect, a method includes the steps of creating a legal hold issued to an organization via a legal hold management module, generating a notification of the legal hold to a user subject to the legal hold, and obtaining an affirmation of the legal hold from the user, via a legal hold affirmation, on periodic basis throughout the duration of the legal hold. 
         [0016]    In yet another aspect, a computer program product includes a computer readable medium having stored thereon computer executable instructions that, when executed on a computer, configure the computer to perform a method including the steps of creating a legal hold issued to an organization via a legal hold management module, generating a notification of the legal hold to a user subject to the legal hold, and obtaining an affirmation of the legal hold from the user, via a legal hold affirmation, on periodic basis throughout the duration of the legal hold. 
         [0017]    It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
         [0018]    The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the invention. In the drawings: 
           [0019]      FIG. 1  is a system diagram of an exemplary embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0020]      FIG. 2  is a block diagram of an exemplary data model of the present invention; 
           [0021]      FIG. 3  is an exemplary embodiment of a legal hold management module in accordance with the present invention; 
           [0022]      FIGS. 4A and 4B  are exemplary views of an affirmation process screen in accordance with the present invention; 
           [0023]      FIG. 5  is an exemplary embodiment of an affirmation module of the present invention; 
           [0024]      FIG. 6  is an exemplary view of persons subject to a hold in accordance with the present invention; 
           [0025]      FIG. 7  is an exemplary embodiment of a legal hold dashboard in accordance with the present invention; 
           [0026]      FIG. 8A-8C  are exemplary views of an affirmation status interface in accordance with the present invention; 
           [0027]      FIG. 9  is an exemplary view of an affirmation status tab of a legal hold management module in accordance with the present invention; 
           [0028]      FIG. 10  is an exemplary embodiment of a legal hold management grid of the present invention; 
           [0029]      FIG. 11  is an exemplary embodiment of a legal hold creation screen in accordance with the present invention; 
           [0030]      FIG. 12  is an exemplary embodiment of a legal hold modification screen in accordance with the present invention; 
           [0031]      FIG. 13  is an exemplary embodiment of a comment screen in accordance with the present invention; 
           [0032]      FIG. 14  is an exemplary embodiment of a document upload screen in accordance with the present invention; and 
           [0033]      FIG. 15  is an exemplary view of a notification in accordance with the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0034]    Reference will now be made in detail to the embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, like reference numbers will be used for like elements. 
         [0035]    The system and method for document hold management in accordance with the present invention is a document retention and notice system. The system and method according to the present invention automates the document retention and notification process by notifying the subject person of the obligation to retain documents, including an initial and periodic affirmation from the notified person that the person is complying with the organization&#39;s obligation to retain the documents related to the legal proceedings, and storing the documents related to the hold and affirmation process. 
         [0036]    In particular, the primary functions and scenarios in accordance with the present invention include: 
         [0037]    Authorized user creates new hold; 
         [0038]    Authorized user modifies hold; 
         [0039]    Authorized user closes hold; 
         [0040]    Authorized user views affirmation status; 
         [0041]    System notifies person that they are subject to a hold; 
         [0042]    System requires affirmation from the notified person; 
         [0043]    System notifies interested parties (e.g., cc:s) that a hold has been issued for affirmation or reaffirmation; 
         [0044]    Person subject to the hold affirms; 
         [0045]    System notifies legal staff that hold is due for reaffirmation; and 
         [0046]    Authorized user adds persons or an organizational group of people to an existing hold, where the system sends an affirmation notice to only those people added (i.e., those who have not yet received notice and affirmed the hold) and does not affect those who already affirmed. 
         [0047]      FIG. 1  shows an overall system diagram depicting an exemplary architecture of the system in accordance with the present invention. In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the system of the present invention includes a data aggregation layer  10 , entitlements layer  20 , client device  30  to administer the holds, and client device  40  to view and affirm holds. Client device  40  gains access to legal hold notification tool  50  and the documents related to the hold  60 . The legal hold notification tool  50  provides access to the hold information and the documents related to the hold based on the entitlements of the user determined by the entitlements layer  20 . In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the legal hold notification tool  50  includes a document hold management module  300  ( FIG. 3 ), a user interface application described in detail below, built using a customized development scripting language, such as AJAX based on Tibco&#39;s General Interface product. 
         [0048]    The data aggregation layer  10  as shown in  FIG. 1  may be a combination of custom database tables and a customized asset repository, such as the asset database (ADb) described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/924,572 incorporated herein by reference, for person reference information as well as document information. In general, the ADb (not shown) is a relational database of the organization that contains information of every asset in the organization (e.g., hardware, software, human resources, real estate, etc.) and its relationship with other assets in the organization. In particular, the data aggregation layer  10  includes access to former employee data  70 , current employee data  80 , legal hold database  90 , and document management database  100 . The former employee data  70  is used to look up former employees subject to a hold who are no longer with the organization subject to the hold. The current employee data  80  is used to reference existing employees and includes current affirmation status (i.e., whether any outstanding hold affirmation exists). The employee data  70  and  80  may be obtained from the ADb of the organization. The legal holds database  90  includes hold information, including text and other attributes, relationships between holds and people or groups of group subject to the holds, affirmation details from each of the user, and historical affirmation status of every hold in the system. Document management database  100  includes folders with documents related to the hold and manages entitlements by folders. The data aggregation layer  10  shown in  FIG. 1  joins data from these different data sources and returns the data in a specialized format, such as XML or CDF to be presented to the client devices  30  and  40 . It is to be understood that other computer devices, components, architectures, applications, and scripting languages may be used without departing from the scope of the present invention. For example, the database layer  10  and entitlements layer  20  may be implemented on one or more network servers in communication with the databases  70 - 100  and client devices  30 ,  40  via a communication network (not shown). The communication network may be a local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), distributed network, such as the Internet, and point-to-point connections. The communication network may be implemented using wired or wireless connections. Other communication networks may be used without departing from the scope of the present invention. 
         [0049]      FIG. 2  shows an exemplary logical data model that depicts various relationships between the data in accordance with the present invention. In particular, exemplary fields, their definitions, and valid values in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention are shown below in Table 1. 
         [0000]    
       
         
               
               
               
               
             
           
               
                 TABLE 1 
               
               
                   
               
               
                   
                   
                 Valid Values 
                   
               
               
                 Field Name 
                 Definition 
                 (if approp.) 
                 Logic/field type 
               
               
                   
               
             
             
               
                 Hold Name 
                 Name of the Legal 
                   
                 Free form text 
               
               
                   
                 Hold (typically the 
               
               
                   
                 case name) 
               
               
                 Matter ID 
                 Relates the hold to a 
                   
                 Link to new matter management 
               
               
                   
                 case in the matter 
                   
                 system for drop-down select; 
               
               
                   
                 management system 
                   
                 (Free form - optional) 
               
               
                 Matter P&amp;L 
                   
                   
                 P/L picker 
               
               
                 Affirmation 
                 Brief text describing 
                   
                 Free form text 
               
               
                 Description 
                 the hold (1-2 
               
               
                   
                 sentences). Displays 
               
               
                   
                 on the affirmation 
               
               
                   
                 survey page. 
               
               
                 Hold Start Date 
                 Effective start date of 
                   
                 Calendar date picker 
               
               
                   
                 the hold. This is the 
                   
                 Drives the affirmation cycle 
               
               
                   
                 date from which the 
                   
                 Current Date 
               
               
                   
                 Firm is required to 
                   
                 (optional: past or the future date 
               
               
                   
                 retain documents. 
                   
                 may be allowed) 
               
               
                 Hold End Date 
                 Effective end date of 
                   
                 Calendar date picker 
               
               
                   
                 the hold. This is the 
               
               
                   
                 date on which the 
               
               
                   
                 Firm is no longer 
               
               
                   
                 obligated to retain 
               
               
                   
                 documents. 
               
               
                 Type 
                 Legal area in the firm 
                 Litigation 
                 Drop-down with predefined 
               
               
                   
                 responsible for the 
                 Regulatory 
                 values 
               
               
                   
                 hold 
                 Tax 
               
               
                 Entitlement 
                 Determines if the hold 
                 Regular 
                 Drop-down with predefined 
               
               
                   
                 is confidential and is 
                 (open to all 
                 values 
               
               
                   
                 entitled to a smaller 
                 members of 
               
               
                   
                 pool of people 
                 Litigation, 
               
               
                   
                   
                 Regulatory, 
               
               
                   
                   
                 and Tax 
               
               
                   
                   
                 Groups) 
               
               
                   
                   
                 Confidential 
               
               
                   
                   
                 (open to a 
               
               
                   
                   
                 discrete set 
               
               
                   
                   
                 of people 
               
               
                   
                   
                 who 
               
               
                   
                   
                 administer 
               
               
                   
                   
                 sensitive 
               
               
                   
                   
                 cases) 
               
               
                 Status 
                 Describes the state of 
                 Open 
                 Drop-down with predefined 
               
               
                   
                 the hold. An 
                 Closed 
                 values 
               
               
                   
                 affirmation notice will 
               
               
                   
                 only go out if the hold 
               
               
                   
                 has a status of “open”. 
               
               
                 Frequency 
                 The frequency with 
                 4 months 
                 Drop-down with predefined 
               
               
                   
                 which reaffirmations 
                 6 months 
                 values 
               
               
                   
                 take place 
                 12 months 
                 If “none” is selected, 
               
               
                   
                   
                 None 
                 the hold will never be subject to 
               
               
                   
                   
                   
                 reaffirmation. 
               
               
                 Attorney 
                 Attorney in charge of 
                   
                 People picker 
               
               
                   
                 the case. 
                   
                 Name displays as 
               
               
                   
                   
                   
                 contact on the hold dashboard. 
               
               
                 Assistant 
                 Legal Assistant 
                   
                 People picker 
               
               
                   
                 assigned to the case. 
                   
                 Name displays as 
               
               
                   
                   
                   
                 contact on the hold dashboard. 
               
               
                 Records 
                 Records Management 
                   
                 People picker 
               
               
                 Management Rep(n) 
                 Representative 
                   
                 Multiple people may be 
               
               
                   
                 assigned to the case. 
                   
                 assigned, e.g., based on location 
               
               
                 Applies to P&amp;L 
                 Allows users to make 
                   
                 P/L picker 
               
               
                   
                 entire departments of 
                   
                 All employees within a P/L 
               
               
                   
                 people subject to hold 
                   
                 become subject to the hold and 
               
               
                   
                 by selecting P/L 
                   
                 receive individual notifications. 
               
               
                   
                 groups. 
                   
                 If an employee leaves a 
               
               
                   
                   
                   
                 department after a hold is 
               
               
                   
                   
                   
                 instituted, they remain on the list 
               
               
                   
                   
                   
                 as an “employee subject to 
               
               
                   
                   
                   
                 hold”. 
               
               
                 Employees Subject 
                 Individual employees 
                   
                 People picker 
               
               
                 to Hold 
                 subject to document 
               
               
                   
                 retention as it relates 
               
               
                   
                 to the case. 
               
               
                 Employees CC 
                 Interested parties who 
                   
                 People picker 
               
               
                   
                 receive an 
               
               
                   
                 informational 
               
               
                   
                 notification of the 
               
               
                   
                 people subject to the 
               
               
                   
                 hold. 
               
               
                 Former Employees 
                 Record of former 
                   
                 Former employee people picker 
               
               
                   
                 employees who were 
               
               
                   
                 involved in projects 
               
               
                   
                 related to the case. 
               
               
                   
                 There is no logic 
               
               
                   
                 associated with this 
               
               
                   
                 field. 
               
               
                   
               
             
          
         
       
     
         [0050]    As shown in  FIG. 2 , data are related to each other as many-to-many (M-M) or many-to-one (M-1) relationships. However, other relationships, fields, definitions, and values may be used without departing from the scope of the present invention. 
         [0051]      FIG. 3  shows an exemplary embodiment of a legal holds management module in accordance with the present invention. Legal holds management module  300  is an administrative tool to allow the legal staff, such as attorneys and assistants, to create, update, and track the status of the legal holds. The legal holds management module  300  is implemented as a web page application on the client devices  30 ,  40  including tabs  310  to display various aspects of the legal holds. However, other implementations may be used without departing from the scope of the invention. For example, the exemplary embodiment of  FIG. 3  includes the following data tabs: “Overview,” which displays the general information about the legal holds process; “My Holds,” which displays all holds where the user is the attorney or the assistant; “All Holds,” which displays the complete inventory of non-confidential holds; “Confidential Holds,” which displays the complete inventory of confidential holds (i.e., holds with elevated entitlements); “Affirmation Status,” which displays the affirmation status; and “Confidential Affirmation,” which displays affirmation status for all confidential hold. 
         [0052]      FIG. 3  shows an exemplary user interface (“UI”) of the “Overview” tab in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Examples of the UI may be a web page or portal that opens to an overview page on client devices  30 ,  40  with informational text and contact information regarding the legal hold. The “Overview” UI of  FIG. 3  includes a nugget  320  (i.e., “My Legal Holds”) that shows a personalized view of the holds to which the user is subject, the affirmation status, and the date when the hold was affirmed, for example. Each of the holds listed in the UT may be invoked (e.g., click-through) to allow the user to view and/or affirm the hold. 
         [0053]    The system and method in accordance with the present invention disseminates an initial hold notification and periodic notifications thereafter to people subject to the hold informing them that they are subject to one or more legal holds and that affirmation of the legal hold is required. In accordance with the present invention, the hold notifications may be batched and sent at a specified time (e.g., after-hours to alleviate network traffic) or may be sent whenever a new hold is detected in the system. 
         [0054]      FIG. 4A  shows an exemplary notification of a legal hold that a person subject to a legal hold receives via email, for example. The notification may contain a link  410  to the details of the legal hold that allows the person to complete the affirmation process. The periodicity of the notification may be set when first creating or updating the hold details. In addition to, or in the alternative, the system and method in accordance with the present invention provides a reminder  420  on a user&#39;s homepage, for example, of the person subject to the legal hold as shown in  FIG. 4B . The reminder  420  on the homepage may contain link  430  to the affirmation survey in the legal hold notification tool  50 . 
         [0055]    In accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, a person subject to a hold launches the legal hold affirmation module  500  shown in  FIG. 5  by click through link  410  on the email ( FIG. 4A ) or link  430  on the reminder  420  ( FIG. 4B ), for example, to affirm the receipt and understanding of the legal hold. For example, the legal hold affirmation module  500  may be a web page where the person is asked to answer several questions  510  to affirm the user&#39;s understand of the obligations under the legal hold. The questions may be binary questions to affirm the user&#39;s understanding of the obligations under the legal hold, such as: 
         [0056]    1) I worked on the project(s) relating to this Legal Hold; 
         [0057]    2) I have documents relating to this Legal Hold; 
         [0058]    3) I know of others who worked on the project(s) relating to this Legal Hold; and 
         [0059]    4) I understand that I am required to comply with this Legal Hold. 
         [0000]    The types and numbers of questions may be used without departing from the scope of the invention. 
         [0060]    In accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the system and method of the present invention provides for persons subject to a hold to help identify other potential persons in the organization that may be subject to the legal hold, thereby allowing the list of the subject persons to be expanded appropriately. As shown in  FIG. 6 , the legal hold notification tool  50  of an exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes a search and view module  600  to allow the users to (1) view a list of current persons subject to the hold to identify gaps  610 , and (2) identify these persons in the system of the present invention  620  through the affirmation module  500 . 
         [0061]      FIG. 7  shows an exemplary legal hold dashboard embodiment of the present invention to facilitate review of the details of a legal hold by the person subject to the hold or a member of the legal team. Dashboard  700  may be implemented as a web page or as a separate application on top of the data aggregation layer  10 . Other implementations may be used without departing from the scope of the invention. The dashboard  700  displays detailed information regarding the legal hold, such as legal contacts for the case including the attorney and legal assistants responsible for the matter  710 , description of the matter  720 , description of the legal hold  730  including description of the documents to be retained  740  and instructions for retaining the documents  750 , the subject&#39;s affirmation status on the current hold  760 , a summary of other holds to which the person is subject  770 , and any related documents the viewer is entitled to see  780 . Members of the legal team  710 , for example, may also edit hold details from the dashboard  700  or review the affirmation status and responses for all persons subject to the hold  790 . 
         [0062]      FIG. 8A-8C  show an exemplary embodiment of an affirmation status UI. The legal team, for example, may view the overall affirmation status of a hold from the legal hold dashboard  700  ( FIG. 7 ) or the affirmation status tab  910  on the main legal holds management module  300  ( FIG. 9 ), for example.  FIG. 8A  shows an exemplary view of the main affirmation status display of the affirmation status UI  800 . As shown in  FIG. 8A , the main affirmation status information displayed on the affirmation status UI  800  includes affirmation status of each hold (e.g., legal hold “Company X”), such as the name of the person subject to the hold (“Name”), whether the subject person has affirmed the obligation of the hold (“Status”), and how the subject person responded to each of the questions (e.g.,  FIG. 5 ) asked during the affirmation process (e.g., “Worked on Project,” “Have Documents,” “Know of Others,” “Understand Obligation”).  FIG. 8B  is an exemplary embodiment of an expanded view that also includes when the people subject to a legal hold were notified (e.g., “Affirmation Email Date”) and when any reminders were sent (e.g., “Reminder Email Date”). For example, if a person has not yet affirmed a hold, (e.g.,  FIG. 8B , “Person  1 ”), a reminder notification may be sent (e.g., “Send Mail”  810 ) manually or automatically after a set period of time has passed without an affirmation. Additionally, the exemplary embodiment of the present invention generates periodic reminders to re-affirm the hold and tracks continued affirmation status throughout the duration of the legal hold.  FIG. 8C  shows an exemplary embodiment of the affirmation status UI  800  that includes a history view  820  of the people subject to the hold and the affirmation status throughout the duration of the hold. Alternatively,  FIG. 9  shows the “Affirmation Status” tab in the legal holds management module  300  displaying the same information, but allows the reviewer to sort and filter by any attribute (e.g., person, case name, affirmation status, etc.) using attribute filter  910 . Other attributes may be used with the attribute filter  920  without departing from the scope of the invention. 
         [0063]      FIG. 10  shows an exemplary embodiment of a legal holds management grid in accordance with the present invention. As shown in  FIG. 10 , the legal holds management grid  1000  is a UI implemented under the “All Holds” tab on the legal holds management module  300 . The legal holds management grid  1000  displays all of the legal holds of the organization and the status of the holds. An attribute filter  1010  may be used to filter the information to view specific holds based on the attributes of the hold. 
         [0064]    The legal hold management module  300  in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes a legal hold creation/edit module  1100 . To create a new hold, the legal hold management module  300  includes a link on the top right hand portion of the page, for example, to invoke the legal hold creation/edit module  1100 . By selecting the “create new hold” link on the top of the legal holds management module  300 , the legal hold creation module launches a Create New Hold screen  1110  as shown in  FIG. 11 , for example, to allow a user to create a new hold. The user is provided with instructions and descriptions to enter the necessary information to create the hold, such as the hold name, matter ID, matter P&amp;L (profit/loss group), description of the hold, hold start date, type of hold, frequency of the affirmation, legal staff in charge of the hold, records management personnel, and the identify of those subject to the hold. Those subject to the hold may be identified individually (e.g., current employees, former employees, etc.) and/or by group (e.g., all employees assigned to a P&amp;L group). 
         [0065]    To make modifications or add comments to an existing hold, a user only has to select a hold from the legal holds management grid  1000 , for example, to invoke the legal hold creation/edit module  1100 .  FIG. 12  shows an exemplary embodiment of an Edit Legal Hold screen  1210 . The Edit Legal Hold screen  1210  allows an entitled user (i.e., user identified by the entitlements layer  20 ) to modify the hold information. The Edit Legal Hold screen  1210  may be identical to the Create New Hold screen  1110  with the fields already populated, or may be a different interface. If a new person subject to the hold is added to the hold, the subject person will receive a notification to affirm without affecting the remaining subjects or their responses. From this screen, users can enter running commentary on the hold that is date/time/user stamped and uneditable, for example, and add files that are indexed to the hold either in a folder that is accessible to the entire organization, or entitled to the legal department, for example. The Edit Legal Hold screen  1210  is accessible to the legal team from the legal hold dashboard ( FIG. 7 ) or the main legal hold management grid ( FIG. 10 ). From the Edit Legal Hold screen  1210 , members of the legal team, for instance, can log and view comments ( FIG. 13 ) or add documents related to the case ( FIG. 14 ). 
         [0066]    Interested parties, such as attorneys, legal assistants, records management representative, and others identified as interested parties receive an informational copy of the notification when the hold is activated or ready for reaffirmation.  FIG. 15  shows an exemplary embodiment of a notification issued in accordance with the present invention. The notification displays, for example, a list of the employees subject to the hold. In addition, the attorneys, legal assistants, and others overseeing the hold receive a reminder notification (e.g., via email) within a predefined time period before a hold is ready for reaffirmation. This allows them to verify all information about the hold before a reaffirmation notice goes out to the subjects. 
         [0067]    As described above, the system and method for document hold management in accordance with the present invention offers many benefits and improvements, such as convenient and simplified platform (e.g., web-based) that deploys within the organization&#39;s existing system infrastructure (e.g., intranet infrastructure); personalized view of holds for subjects, as well as for legal staff, such as attorneys and assistants overseeing the hold; single, generic notification to subjects for all holds that apply to them; modularity for tapping into existing organization-central data for people information; periodic reminders to attest and reaffirm; convenience of allowing for groups or individuals to be assigned as subject to a hold; and persistent record of the hold details, case description, and retention of documents and communications. Moreover, the system and method of the present invention obtains entitlements and employee information by leveraging the information available in the ADb of the organization to accurately identify those subject to the hold and the documents related to the hold. 
         [0068]    It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the system and method for document hold management in accordance with the present invention without departing form the spirit or scope of the invention. Thus, it is intended that the present invention cover the modifications and variations of this invention provided they come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.