8315 - LITIGATION HOLD PROCEDURE

Cedar Springs Public School District

Administrative Guidelines

8315 - LITIGATION HOLD PROCEDURE

Any Board member or employee who receives specific information and/or written notification regarding one of the following instances shall immediately provide that information and/or written notification to the Superintendent:

	A.	an individual, parent or student intends to appeal a student discipline to State court;

	B.	litigation is imminent even though the litigation has not yet been filed in Federal or State court;

	C.	the Board is served with litigation, including, but not limited to, notice of a lawsuit in Federal or State court, or notice of a student disciplinary appeal to State court;

	D.	an employee, labor union or other person intends to file a claim against the Board, its member, employees or agents at an administrative agency such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Michigan Civil Rights Commission, State Employment Relations Board, U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, State Personnel Board of Review, or a Civil Service Commission;

	E.	an administrative agency, such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Michigan Civil Rights Commission, State Employment Relations Board, U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, State Personnel Board of Review, or a Civil Service Commission, intends to investigate a claim against the Board, its members, employees or agents;

	F.	a third party requests that a Board member or employee maintain information that could be at issue in litigation or potential litigation against that third party;

	G.	the Superintendent recommends the termination of an employee to the Board pursuant to a labor contract;

	H.	the Board is exploring, contemplating or initiating litigation.

Upon receipt, the Superintendent shall review the specific information and/or written notification to determine whether Policy 8315 - Information Management - applies. If it does, the Superintendent shall initiate a Litigation Hold applicable to all relevant information. The Superintendent also will notify the Board of the scope of and reason for implementation of the Litigation Hold.

To initiate a "Litigation Hold," the Superintendent or designee shall immediately notify the School District Records Commission to suspend all records disposal procedures until the matter under the "Litigation Hold" is fully defined and information falling under the "Litigation Hold" identified. The notification to the School District Records Commission shall be documented.

A "Litigation Hold" is a procedure that identifies and preserves information relevant to a matter by identifying individuals in possession or custody of paper documents, electronically stored information ("ESI") and electronic media storing ESI, and informing them of their obligation to preserve such information outside the "Records Retention Schedule". Third parties with control or custody of paper documents, ESI or electronic media storing ESI also are notified of the "Litigation Hold" and requested to preserve that information until notified otherwise. All information covered by a "Litigation Hold" must be prospectively preserved and cannot be disposed of under the "Records Retention and Disposal" requirements until the "Litigation Hold" is removed.

Definitions

"Information" includes all paper documents and ESI.

"Documents" includes, but is not limited to, writings, drawings, graphs, charts, photographs, blueprints, sound recordings, images and other data or data compilations stored in any medium from which information can be obtained or translated if necessary.

"ESI" includes, but is not limited to, writings, drawings, graphs, charts, photographs, blueprints, sound recordings, images and other data or data compilations stored in any electronic media from which information can be obtained or translated if necessary. It includes, but is not limited to, e-mails, e-mail attachments, instant messages, word processing files, spreadsheets, pictures, application program and data files, databases, data files, metadata, system files, electronic calendar appointments, scheduling program files, TIFF files, PDF files, MPG files, JPG files, GIF files, network share files, internal websites, external websites, newsgroups, directories, security and access information, legacy data, audio recordings, voice mails, phone logs, faxes, internet histories, caches, cookies or logs of activity on computer systems that may have been used to process or store electronic data.

"Electronic Media" includes, but is not limited to, hard drives (including portable hard disk drives "HDD's"), floppy drives, disaster recovery media, and storage media (including DVD's CD's, floppy discs, Zip discs/drives, Jazz discs/drives, USB memory drives, jump discs/drives, flash discs/drives, keychain discs/drives, thumb discs/drives, smart cards, micro-film, backup tapes, cassette tapes, cartridges, etc.), accessed, used and/or stored on/in/through the following locations: networks and servers; laptop and desktop work computers; home and personal computers; other computer systems; backup computers or servers; archives; personal digital assistants ("PDAs" – including Palm, Blackberry, cellular phone, tablet PC, etc.); pagers; firewalls; audit trails and logs, printers; copiers; scanners; digital cameras; photographic devices; or video cameras and devices. Electronic media shall also include any item containing or maintaining ESI that is obtained by the District for Board member or employee usage or that Board member or employee uses for such purpose (even if privately owned by the Board member or employee) from the date this policy is adopted into the future.

ESI Team

The Superintendent may utilize an Electronically Stored Information Team ("ESI Team") to implement a "Litigation Hold." The ESI Team shall be responsible for recommending to the Superintendent actions necessary to implement the "Litigation Hold" and for any other action(s) designated to it by the Superintendent. The ESI Team shall be comprised of the District Record Custodian, the primary District Information Technology administrator, a District Operations Administrator, and any other individual the Superintendent designates. If the District is utilizing an attorney to handle the matter that is the cause of the "Litigation Hold," the attorney will also be a member of the ESI Team or attend key ESI Team meetings as directed by the Superintendent. The ESI Team shall document any meetings held and recommended actions.

The Superintendent or designee, or the ESI Team (if the Superintendent determines to utilize one), will (a) define the matter under the "Litigation Hold"; (b) identify information falling under the "Litigation Hold"; (c) identify all individuals and third party entities who have custody of documents, ESI or electronic media containing ESI regarding the matter under the "Litigation Hold"; and (d) identify all individuals responsible for records disposal "Records Retention and Disposal". If the ESI Team completed the above actions, it will report the above information to the Superintendent. The Superintendent or designee will notify all identified individuals, third party entities and the School District Records Commission of the "Litigation Hold" and their responsibility to preserve all information regarding the "Litigation Hold" matter in their custody or control in a readily accessible form. After distribution of the "Litigation Hold" notifications, the ESI Team (if one is used) or the Superintendent or designee shall be responsible for regularly verifying that all documents, ESI and electronic media containing ESI regarding the "Litigation Hold" matter are properly preserved. The ESI Team (if one is used) or the Superintendent or designee will review the "Litigation Hold" as necessary, and at least on a quarterly basis, the Superintendent or designee will reissue the Litigation Hold notice to the affected individuals and third party entities to remind them of their ongoing duty to properly preserve all information covered by the "Litigation Hold." The Superintendent or designee, in conjunction with the ESI Team (if one is used), will document all steps taken to implement the "Litigation Hold."

A "Litigation Hold" shall remain in place until removed by the Board. A "Litigation Hold" may be removed when the litigation or administrative agency matter has been resolved or can no longer be initiated. The Superintendent or designee shall notify the School District Records Commission and all individuals and third party entities notified of a "Litigation Hold" when the "Litigation Hold" for a matter is removed.

This administrative guideline, along with Policy 8315, shall be posted and distributed in a manner that places all Board members and employees on notice of their responsibilities under Policy 8315 - "Information Management" – and this administrative guideline.

Records Retention and Disposal Schedule for – Michigan Public Schools (Education Bulletin #522 Revised)

http://www.michigan.gov/recordsmanagement/

F.R.C.P. 34, 37(f)
R.C.P. 34, 37(F)