Legal hold checklist
When litigation or an investigation is reasonably anticipated, the clock on preserving documents starts before anything formal happens, and getting a hold wrong can turn into a spoliation problem. This checklist keeps a legal hold calm and defensible: what to do, in what order, and what to record.
It is a practical starting point, not legal advice. Work with your own counsel on when a duty to preserve arises and what it covers.
When a hold is triggered
Get the start of the duty on record first. Everything else refers back to it.
Trigger
Confirm with counsel that a duty to preserve has arisen or is reasonably anticipated.
Identify the matter clearly, so everyone knows what the hold relates to.
Note the date the duty to preserve began. This is the line that matters later.
Scope the hold
Scope is about people and places as much as documents.
Scope
Identify the categories of documents that may be relevant.
Identify the people (custodians) whose documents are in scope.
Identify where those documents live: the document system, drives, inboxes, and any paper.
Err toward over-preserving. It is safer to hold too much than too little.
Place the hold
A hold only works if it beats the retention schedule that would otherwise dispose of documents.
Placement
Freeze the in-scope documents so they cannot be altered or deleted.
Confirm the hold overrides any retention schedule that would otherwise dispose of them.
Restrict who can lift the hold to authorized people only.
Record what was held, when, and by whom.
Notify custodians
A hold nobody knows about preserves nothing.
Notification
Send a clear preservation notice to everyone holding relevant documents.
State plainly what to preserve and what not to delete or alter.
Keep a record of who was notified and when.
Re-issue reminders periodically while the hold is active.
Maintain the hold
Matters evolve, and the hold has to evolve with them.
Maintenance
Track the hold's status and scope as the matter develops.
Add newly identified documents or custodians as needed.
Keep the audit trail intact for every held document.
Lift the hold deliberately
Releasing a hold deserves the same care as placing one.
Release
Confirm with counsel that the matter is resolved and the hold can be released.
Lift the hold as a deliberate, recorded action.
Return the affected documents to their normal retention schedule.
Where a system helps
Most of the risk in a legal hold comes from the scramble: hunting for documents by hand while unsure whether a retention process is still deleting things in the background. When documents are already filed and searchable, and a hold overrides retention automatically and is fully logged, placing one becomes a controlled action rather than a fire drill. See records retention, read legal holds without panic, or book a demo.