Legal Hold Issuance
Issues, tracks, and releases legal holds so the right people preserve the right files and confirm it in writing.
Tools
Exterro, Relativity, Microsoft Purview, iManage
Outcomes
Every hold has a named matter owner • Custodian confirmations tracked to completion • Released holds removed from preservation • Hold scope documented at issue
Documentation
Instruction-ready detail below
What breaks: a hold notice goes out by email, and confirmations come back for perhaps half the custodians. Nobody tracks the ones who never replied, so a year later the company cannot show that it preserved the documents in scope. The opposite problem is just as common: holds are never released, so employees keep preserving personal email years after the matter closed. What the workflow does: it records the matter, the scope, the custodians, and the preservation date, issues the notice with the acknowledgment wording, then tracks each response individually. Custodians who have not confirmed are listed daily, and the matter owner sees the gap before the deadline rather than after. Reminders go out on their own and stop the moment a confirmation lands. On release, it lists everything still under preservation, asks the owner to confirm scope, and clears the custodian so normal retention resumes. What a person still approves: the matter owner sets the scope and approves the release, and no hold is issued or lifted without that approval.