Create a legal hold matter and add custodians

A matter applies one preservation policy to a group of users. A user in a matter is called a custodian, and adding one begins preserving their backup data.

This article covers creating a matter, editing its details, and adding custodians. For what a hold does to a custodian's devices, see How legal hold works.

Before you begin

Creating a legal hold matter requires the following.

• This procedure requires the Org Legal Admin or Cross Org Legal Admin role.
• Create a legal hold preservation policy to apply to the matter. One policy can be applied to many matters, and each matter uses exactly one.
• Confirm the users you intend to add are active. Only active users appear when searching for custodians, and each custodian remains active, consuming a user subscription, for as long as the matter is open.
• Where a user is leaving the organization, add them to the matter before deactivating them. The deactivation is then held until the matter releases them, and completes on its own.
• If a user was already deactivated, reactivate them first. Reactivation moves their unexpired archives out of cold storage. Archives whose retention period has already passed are permanently deleted and cannot be preserved.

Step 1: Create the matter

Create the legal hold matter in the Legal Hold area of the CrashPlan console.

1. Sign in to the CrashPlan console.
2. Select Legal Hold > Matters.
3. From All Matters, select the create matter icon (+).
4. Enter a name for the matter.
5. Choose the preservation policy to apply.
6. Select Create.
   The matter is created and appears in the list of matters.

Step 2: Add details (optional)

1. From the list of matters, select the name of the matter.
2. To add a description, select Edit in the Description section.
3. To change the preservation policy, select Edit in the Preservation Policy section and choose a new policy.
4. To add an external reference, select Edit in the External Reference section and enter a reference or notes.

For the API documentation, see Tools for interacting with the CrashPlan API.

Step 3: Add custodians

1. Select the Custodians tab.
2. Select the add custodians icon (+).
   The Add Custodians dialog appears.
3. Begin entering the username or user ID of the user you want to add.
   Matching active usernames appear as you type.
4. Select the user.
5. (Optional) Add further users.
6. Select Add.
   The custodians appear in the list on the Custodians page, and preservation begins on their devices.

What happens next

Each custodian's devices begin backing up the preservation policy's selection to every destination their organization offers. Files are not available to collect until that backup completes, and the time required depends on the size of the selection.

To collect preserved data, see Collect files from a legal hold. To end preservation for a custodian or for the whole matter, see Release custodians and close a matter.