Legal Holds
A matter — litigation, an audit, an investigation, a public records request, a grievance or a complaint — holds the records it may need. While a hold is active the records it reaches cannot be changed, deleted, archived or purged, and their files cannot be deleted: the database refuses, whoever asks. Name the people (employees, applicants), the document types, the dates and, if you want, only some tables. A hold is never deleted; Release ends it and both stay on record.
Where to find it
- Module: Platform
- Group: Data & Documents
- Section: Records & Legal Hold
- Screen: Legal Holds
Address in the console: /platform/legal-holds
List · 11 columns · 11 fields on its form · 2 of them required · 3 actions
Records here are not deleted. Where something must be undone it is reversed or superseded, so the trail survives.
What the list shows
These are the columns of the list, in the order they are drawn. Any of them can be sorted on, filtered on, hidden, or exported.
| Column | Kind | Field name |
|---|---|---|
| Hold | Code | hold_no |
| Matter | Text | matter_name |
| Reason | Status | reason |
| Status | Status | status |
| Employees | Number | employee_count |
| Applicants | Number | applicant_count |
| Document types | Number | document_type_count |
| Custodian | Text | custodian_user_name |
| Placed by | Text | placed_by_name |
| Placed | Date and time | placed_at |
| Released | Date and time | released_at |
The form
What is asked for when a record is created here. Required fields are marked; a choice drawn from a configuration list is one an administrator can extend without a release.
| Field | Type | Choices | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Matter required | Text | e.g. Smith v. Agency, or Open records request 2026-114 | |
| Reason required | Choice | litigation, audit, investigation, public_records_request, grievance, complaint | |
| Description | Long text | ||
| Custodian | Choice | Looked up from existing records | The person answerable for the held records. |
| Custodian (outside the system) | Text | Counsel or an auditor who has no sign-in. | |
| Employees | Text | Looked up from existing records | |
| Applicants | Text | Looked up from existing records | |
| Document types | Text | Looked up from existing records | With people: only these documents of theirs. Alone: these documents of everybody. |
| Records made from | Date | ||
| Records made to | Date | ||
| Only these tables | Text | Looked up from existing records | Empty = every table a hold can reach (see Hold Coverage). |
What you can do here
What it holds primary
The records this hold holds now
Export its records
Export everything this hold holds
Release
Release this hold
Asks for confirmation: Release this hold? Its records can be changed again, and retention may reach them.
Asks for: Why it is released*
* required
The rules that apply here
Everything on this screen obeys the platform rules rather than rules of its own. The ones worth knowing before you use it:
- Narrowing a list — search, conditions, sort, totals, export and saved views.
- What may be changed — the five grounds a record may not be edited on.
- Companies and business units — what the switcher above this list is doing to it.
- Creating a record — required fields, where choices come from, and how the number is allocated.
- Importing a spreadsheet — this screen accepts one, and it runs through the same rules as typing.