Implement a legal hold notification and data preservation workflow

Verified steps

1. Trigger a legal hold when litigation is reasonably anticipated; record the hold initiation in an immutable audit log with timestamp, initiating attorney, matter identifier, and scope description.
2. Identify custodians (individuals whose data is potentially relevant) and data sources (email, document management, databases, cloud storage) from the matter scope; consult the assigned attorney to confirm scope before notifying.
3. Send legal hold notices to each custodian via email, capturing delivery confirmation and read receipts; include: hold description, data categories to preserve, prohibited actions (deletion, modification), and a point of contact.
4. Implement technical preservation: suspend auto-deletion policies, enable litigation hold flags in email systems (e.g., Exchange In-Place Hold or Microsoft Purview eDiscovery holds), and snapshot or lock relevant database records and object storage buckets.
5. Track custodian acknowledgments (require explicit confirmation reply or form submission) and send escalating reminders for non-responders; loop in management for continued non-compliance.
6. Periodically reissue hold notices (e.g., quarterly) and update scope as discovery proceeds; release holds only on written instruction from the supervising attorney and document the release.