Record which third-party systems (email, document storage, messaging, video conferencing, or custom systems) your firm has confirmed are preserved for this matter. Hintyr does not toggle preservation in those systems for you; this page is where the firm captures the steps it took to verify each one. The entries become part of the audit log.
What this page does and doesn't do
Hintyr does not directly toggle preservation on email servers, cloud storage, or messaging platforms. This page is where your firm records that you have confirmed preservation in each system. Document the steps you took to verify each one. The firm remains the system of record for external preservation; this checklist is the audit trail.
How firms use the checklist
Most matters touch material that lives outside Hintyr: the custodian's mailbox on Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, files in shared cloud storage, Slack or Teams threads, meeting recordings on the video-conferencing platform. Preservation in those systems is the firm's manual responsibility. What Hintyr does is give you one place to capture the status, who confirmed it, when they confirmed it, and what notes belong with the verification.
Walk the checklist after issuing the hold and again at major scope changes. The list of systems is fixed (mailbox, document storage, messaging, video conferencing, plus a free-text Other slot for systems unique to the matter, like a field office's paper records). Each row carries a status pill so anyone reading the audit log sees the firm's position at a glance.
Options and fields
System types
- Email mailbox - Custodian mailboxes (e.g. Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, hosted Exchange). Coverage usually means an in-place hold or retention policy applied to the named mailboxes.
- Document storage - Shared cloud storage (e.g. OneDrive, Google Drive, SharePoint, Dropbox). Coverage usually means the relevant folder trees or document sets have retention paused.
- Messaging - Workplace chat (e.g. Slack, Microsoft Teams). Coverage usually means relevant channels or DMs are exported or retention is paused.
- Video conferencing - Meeting recordings. Often Not applicable for matters where no recordings exist.
- Other - Free-text custom label for systems specific to the matter (field office paper records, a niche industry application, a vendor system).
Status values
- Not applicable - This system does not hold material relevant to the matter, or no relevant artifacts exist (e.g. no meeting recordings for the period).
- Pending - The firm has asked IT or the system owner for the change but has not received confirmation yet. Use this when an IT ticket is open.
- Enabled - Preservation is confirmed live in the system. Fill in Enabled by and Enabled date when you flip to Enabled.
- Declined - The firm decided coverage is not needed (e.g. the field office has no paper records for this matter). Treat Declined as an active decision, not absence of one; the notes field is where you record the reasoning.
Notes, enabled-by, enabled-at
- Notes - Free-text. Record the concrete step taken: who you spoke to, what ticket was filed, what setting was flipped. Sample: "Confirmed with IT on 2026-05-04 that auto-delete retention is paused on the affected mailboxes."
- Enabled by - The person who confirmed preservation. Use the actual name so the audit log is attributable.
- Enabled date - The date preservation went live. Important for matters where retention windows are short; enabling on day 14 of a 30-day auto-delete window is not the same as enabling on day 2.
Edge cases
For systems your firm doesn't administer (e.g. a customer's shared workspace, an opposing party's system), use Pending plus a notes entry describing the third-party request. Don't mark Enabled until you have written confirmation. If a system becomes unreachable during the hold (e.g. an IT migration breaks the in-place hold), update the row to Pending and note the regression with the date you discovered it; the audit log will carry both the original Enabled entry and the regression.
Departing custodians complicate the mailbox row. When the firm offboards an employee, retention on their mailbox is sometimes configured to delete after a fixed window. Confirm with IT that the legal-hold setting overrides the offboarding retention before the employee leaves; record the confirmation in notes.