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us Work & employment crises legal hold notice at work • litigation hold request • preserve emails and documents • stop deleting work emails • preserve electronically stored information • preservation notice workplace • email retention hold • preserve teams messages • preserve slack chats • preserve google chat work • preserve text messages for work • preserve shared drive files • preserve onedrive documents • preserve google drive files • preserve email attachments • preserve calendar invites • preserve meeting notes • do not alter documents • do not overwrite files • workplace lawsuit hold • workplace investigation preserve records

What to do if…
you receive a request at work to preserve emails and documents for a legal hold

Short answer

Immediately stop deleting or changing any potentially related emails, chats, texts, and documents, then follow the hold notice and ask IT/legal to apply a technical litigation hold so routine deletion doesn’t occur.

Do not do these things

  • Do not delete emails, chats, texts, files, drafts, or calendar items related to the matter (even if they seem unimportant).
  • Do not “clean up” by renaming, re-saving, backdating, editing, or consolidating files (it can change metadata and create suspicion/confusion).
  • Do not move work material to personal email, personal cloud storage, or a USB drive.
  • Do not forward the hold notice broadly or discuss details in large group chats.
  • Do not decide on your own what is “relevant enough” to keep—preserve first.
  • Do not assume backups mean you’re covered; retention settings can still delete content unless a hold is in place.

What to do now

  1. Stop any deletion right now (including auto-deletion habits).
    Don’t empty Trash/Deleted Items, don’t clear chat histories, don’t delete old versions, and don’t wipe call/text logs if they relate to the matter.

  2. Freeze any “auto-cleanup” you control.
    Pause mailbox cleanup rules, auto-archive, scripts that purge folders, or routines that wipe downloads/temp folders—until IT confirms what’s allowed under the hold.

  3. Open the hold notice and capture the essentials (privately).
    Write down:

    • matter name/reference
    • time period
    • topics/people/projects
    • systems covered (email, Teams/Slack, SharePoint/OneDrive, Google Drive/Chat, local drives, phones, paper)
    • who to contact with questions

  4. Acknowledge receipt promptly and ask for two clarifications if needed.
    Ask:

    • what data sources are in scope for you, and
    • whether IT will apply a platform hold (so preservation doesn’t rely on manual behavior).

  5. Ask specifically how the technical hold will be implemented in your environment.
    You are not asking to do it yourself—just to ensure it exists. Examples you can name if relevant: a Microsoft 365/Purview eDiscovery hold, or a Google Vault hold that overrides retention/deletion for the accounts/spaces/drives in scope.

  6. Flag anything that could be routinely deleted or wiped.
    Tell IT/legal today if any apply: mailbox quotas that force deletions, short chat retention, planned device replacement, offboarding steps, shared folders with deletion schedules, or project tools with “auto-delete after X days”.

  7. List likely locations of relevant information (without exporting/collecting).
    Make a quick inventory: Outlook/Gmail folders, Teams/Slack/Chat DMs, shared drives, SharePoint sites, OneDrive/Google Drive, local folders, notes apps used for work, work phone messages, paper notebooks. Share the inventory only with the designated contact if they ask.

  8. If any work on this topic touched personal devices or personal accounts, disclose it—don’t move it.
    Example: “Some client texts were on my personal phone.” Don’t self-export, screenshot, or forward anything unless legal/IT gives the approved method (privacy, policy, and chain-of-custody issues can apply).

What can wait

  • You do not need to decide what the case is “about” or who is right—your job is preservation.
  • You do not need to start producing documents to anyone unless the official process requests it.
  • You do not need to write a full narrative statement unless HR/legal asks you to.
  • You do not need to contact outside parties yourself unless instructed by counsel/HR.

Important reassurance

A legal hold often goes to many people and can be routine when litigation, a government inquiry, or an internal investigation is possible. The safest response is consistent and simple: don’t delete, don’t edit, don’t move data off-system, and route questions through the official contact.

Scope note

This is first-steps-only guidance to prevent accidental deletion or irreversible mistakes. Your employer’s legal/HR/IT teams may have specific instructions based on your systems and role.

Important note

This guide is general information, not legal advice. If you’re unsure about scope, personal-device involvement, or what counts as “changing” a record, ask the designated legal/HR/IT contact before taking any action that alters, moves, or deletes data.

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