Legal Hold Notice Template (FRCP 37(e), PD 57AD)

Trigger decision, custodians, data sources and auto-delete suspension, plain-language notice and acknowledgement, reminders, US/UK/EU rules, release

法务运营标准FRCP Rule 37(e) (2015); UK PD 57AD paras 3-4; Sedona Commentary on Legal Holds 2nd ed. (2019)legal hold notice更新于 2026年10月29日

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使用方法: Use it as soon as litigation or an investigation is reasonably anticipated. Fill the trigger record and the data source list first, and suspend automatic deletion at the same time as the notice goes out. The main pitfall is sending the notice while retention jobs keep deleting data.

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Legal Hold Notice: [Matter name or code]

A legal hold (litigation hold, preservation notice) package: the trigger decision, the scope of what must be kept, the custodian and data source lists, the notice sent to custodians, acknowledgements and reminders, and the release. It follows the preservation duties in US Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 37(e) (as amended effective 1 December 2015), the preservation paragraphs of UK Practice Direction 57AD (Business and Property Courts, in force from 1 October 2022) and the process described in The Sedona Conference Commentary on Legal Holds, Second Edition (June 2019). Replace every [bracketed] value and every row marked Example. This is a documentation format, not legal advice; check the current official texts and consult a qualified professional.

Document control

Field	Value
Hold ID	[LH-2026-007]
Matter	[MAT-2026-0142, supplier dispute]
Version	[1.0]
Status	[Active / Partially released / Released]
Hold owner	[@litigation-counsel]
Outside counsel	[Firm, lead partner]
IT and records contacts	[@it-ediscovery-lead], [@records-manager]
Date issued	YYYY-MM-DD
Last updated	YYYY-MM-DD
Classification	[Confidential, privileged where applicable]

Revision history

Version	Date	Author	Change
1.0 (Example)	2026-09-23	Litigation counsel	Hold issued to 6 custodians
1.1 (Example)	2026-10-14	Litigation counsel	Custodian C-07 added after interview

1. Trigger and scope decision

Item	Record
Triggering event	Example: letter before claim from supplier dated 2026-09-21 alleging unpaid fees and wrongful termination
Date litigation reasonably anticipated	Example: 2026-09-21
Decision maker and date	Example: General counsel, 2026-09-22
Claims and issues	Termination of the hosting services contract, unpaid invoices, service level failures
Relevant period	Example: 2025-01-01 to present, ongoing
Jurisdictions likely involved	Example: England and Wales (contract governing law), US (supplier parent)
Regulator or investigation	[None / Name]

Questions for the trigger decision:

Has a claim been threatened, or would a reasonable person in the organisation's position expect one?
Has a regulator, auditor or law enforcement body asked for information or opened an inquiry?
Is there an internal event (a dismissal, a data breach, a product failure) that commonly leads to claims?
If you decide not to issue a hold, record why.

2. Custodians

Custodian ID	Name and role	Why relevant	Notice sent	Acknowledged	Interviewed
C-01 (Example)	Head of infrastructure	Contract owner, service reviews	2026-09-23	2026-09-23	2026-09-29
C-02 (Example)	Procurement manager	Negotiation and termination letters	2026-09-23	2026-09-25	2026-09-30
C-03 (Example)	Finance accounts payable lead	Disputed invoices	2026-09-23	2026-09-24	Not needed
C-04 (Example)	Site reliability engineer	Incident records, SLA reports	2026-09-23	Reminder sent 2026-09-29	2026-10-01
C-05 (Example)	Former vendor manager (left 2026-06)	Early contract period	Mailbox preserved by IT	n/a	n/a
C-06 (Example)	Managed service provider	Holds monitoring logs for us	Written request 2026-09-23	Confirmed 2026-09-28	n/a
C-07 (Example)	Customer success manager	Named in C-01 interview as holder of customer complaints about the outage	2026-10-14	2026-10-15	2026-10-20

For former employees, preserve their accounts and devices through IT. Where a former employee may still hold relevant documents that the organisation does not have, consider a written request to them, as UK PD 57AD paragraph 4.2(2) requires for proceedings it covers.

3. Data sources and preservation steps

Source ID	Source	Owner	Preservation method	Auto-delete suspended	Confirmed by
DS-01 (Example)	Email and calendars	IT	Mailbox hold for C-01 to C-05	Yes, 2026-09-23	IT eDiscovery lead
DS-02 (Example)	Chat and channels	IT	Retention hold on named channels and users	Yes, 2026-09-23	IT eDiscovery lead
DS-03 (Example)	Contract management system	Legal operations	Record locked	Not applicable	Contract manager
DS-04 (Example)	Ticketing and incident tool	Engineering	Export of tickets 2025-01 onward, deletion job paused	Yes, 2026-09-24	Engineering manager
DS-05 (Example)	Finance system	Finance	Invoices and payment records retained, no purge run	Yes, 2026-09-24	Finance systems lead
DS-06 (Example)	Laptops of C-01 and C-04	IT	Kept on reissue, not wiped	Yes	IT service desk
DS-07 (Example)	Logs held by managed service provider	Vendor manager	Written preservation request	Vendor confirmed	Vendor contact

Check: does any records schedule (compliance/iso-15489-records-schedule) or system retention rule destroy items in scope during the hold? If so, suspend it for those items and record the suspension here.

4. Notice to custodians

Subject: Legal hold: do not delete information about [matter description], hold [LH-ID]

Confidential. Please read and acknowledge by [date].

You are receiving this notice because you may have information related to [short neutral description, for example: "the hosting services contract with a supplier, its performance and its termination"].

What you must do

Keep all documents and data, in any form, that relate to [subject] from [start date] until you are told in writing that this hold is released. This includes email, chat messages, text messages on work and personal phones used for work, files, notes, calendar entries, recordings and paper.
Do not delete, overwrite, edit, move to a personal account or throw away any of this information, even if a policy or system setting would normally remove it.
Do not create new documents to comment on this matter unless asked by legal.
Tell legal about any other place where relevant information is kept, and about any colleague, former colleague or supplier who may hold it.
Acknowledge this notice by [replying to this message / using the link below] within [2] business days.

What this notice is not

This notice does not mean you have done anything wrong. It is a standard step to make sure information is available.

Questions: [@litigation-counsel], [phone]. Do not discuss this matter with anyone outside the organisation.

4.1 Acknowledgement

I confirm that I have read the legal hold notice [LH-ID], that I understand it and that I will comply with it until I receive a written release.

Name	Signature or electronic confirmation	Date
[Custodian]	[ ]	YYYY-MM-DD

5. Reminders, monitoring and changes

Activity	Frequency	Owner	Record
Follow up custodians who have not acknowledged	After [2] business days, then escalate to their manager	Hold owner	Section 2
Reminder notice to all custodians	Every [quarter] and at key case events	Hold owner	Section 7
Joiner, mover, leaver check for custodians	Each HR change	HR and IT	Section 2
Re-confirm system holds	Every [quarter] and after any system migration	IT eDiscovery lead	Section 3
Scope review with outside counsel	At each pleading or disclosure stage	Hold owner and outside counsel	Revision history

6. Jurisdiction notes

Jurisdiction	Rule	What it means for this record
United States, federal courts	Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Rule 37(e) (amended effective 1 December 2015)	Where electronically stored information that should have been preserved is lost because reasonable steps were not taken and cannot be restored or replaced, the court may order measures no greater than needed to cure prejudice, and the most severe measures (adverse inference, dismissal, default) require a finding of intent to deprive. Rule 26(f)(3)(C) asks the parties to address preservation in the discovery plan. https://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/frcp/rule_37
England and Wales, Business and Property Courts	Practice Direction 57AD, paragraphs 3 and 4 (in force from 1 October 2022)	A person who knows it is or may become a party must take reasonable steps to preserve relevant documents, suspend deletion processes, send written notification to relevant employees and former employees who may hold disclosable documents the party does not also hold, and take steps so that third parties holding documents for it do not destroy them. Legal representatives must obtain written confirmation of these steps. https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/part-57a-business-and-property-courts/practice-direction-57ad-disclosure-in-the-business-and-property-courts
European Union, personal data	Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR), Article 5(1)(e) and Article 17(3)(e)	Personal data kept under a hold is still subject to storage limitation (kept no longer than necessary, Article 5(1)(e)) and still needs a lawful basis (Article 6), so record when the hold ends. The right to erasure does not apply where processing is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims. Record the hold in the records of processing (`compliance/gdpr-ropa`). https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2016/679/oj

Cross-border matters: transferring preserved personal data to another country for disclosure can raise data transfer and blocking statute issues. Ask privacy counsel before collection leaves the country.

7. Release

Item	Record
Reason for release	[Settlement signed / Final judgment, appeal period expired / Threat withdrawn]
Decision maker and date	[@general-counsel], YYYY-MM-DD
Other holds covering the same custodians or sources	[None / LH-ID list]
Release notice sent to custodians	YYYY-MM-DD
System holds removed and retention resumed	YYYY-MM-DD, confirmed by [IT]
Third parties told	YYYY-MM-DD

Release notice text: "Legal hold [LH-ID] about [subject] is released from [date]. You may now manage this information under the normal retention policy. Other legal holds you have received remain in force."

Standard and licence note

Based on the US Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Rule 37(e) as amended effective 1 December 2015, and Rule 26(f); UK Practice Direction 57AD, Disclosure in the Business and Property Courts, paragraphs 3 and 4 (in force from 1 October 2022); and Regulation (EU) 2016/679, Articles 5(1)(e) and 17(3)(e). The process structure follows the themes of The Sedona Conference Commentary on Legal Holds, Second Edition: The Trigger and The Process (June 2019), cited by name only; read it at https://thesedonaconference.org/publication/Commentary_on_Legal_Holds. All text is original wording. Check the current official texts before use. The organisation, people and dates in the example are fictional. This is a documentation format, not legal advice; consult a qualified professional.

Template licence: MIT.