Compose, preview, and send preservation notices from the Notices subtab. A notice tells a custodian what to preserve, who to ask if they have questions, and how to acknowledge. Hintyr sends the email, tracks delivery and engagement, and routes acknowledgments back into the case audit record.
What a preservation notice is
A preservation notice is a written instruction to a custodian that they must preserve potentially relevant materials. It names the matter, the categories of records to preserve, and a contact at the firm. Hintyr renders the notice for the custodian, captures their clickwrap acknowledgment, and stamps the audit record with the time and method.
Four notice types cover the typical lifecycle: an Initial notice when the hold first goes out, a Reminder when a custodian has not acknowledged, a Scope amendment when the categories or date range change, and a Release notice when the duty ends.
How to issue a notice
- Open the case, then open Case Settings and select the Legal hold tab.
- Select the Notices subtab and click Compose new notice.
- Choose the notice type, fill in the matter description, pick the categories to preserve, and confirm the preservation contact.
- Pick recipients. The selection panel pre-selects every active custodian; toggle the boxes to narrow the list.
- Click Preview to see the recipient view, then Send notice. A confirmation modal shows the recipient count before the send fires.
Options and fields
Each control in the compose pane:
- Notice type with values Initial, Reminder, Scope amendment, and Release. Default is Initial. Switching types swaps in a typed template for the subject and body, but only when you have not edited them.
- Language dropdown. Default and only value today is English (US). Other languages will appear here when they ship.
- Matter description is a short paragraph the custodian reads first. Keep it factual and plain. Avoid sharing privileged work product or your trigger basis narrative.
- Categories to preserve is a chip multi-select pre-filled from the hold scope categories. Add or remove chips to tailor the notice without changing the underlying hold.
- Suspend auto-delete instruction is a multi-line textarea with a pre-filled boilerplate that asks the custodian to stop auto-delete on their accounts. Edit it for firm voice or to add system-specific guidance.
- Preservation contact picks the firm user the custodian should contact with questions. Default is the user composing the notice; switch when delegating the contact role.
- Subject and Body are pre-filled from a template. Edit either; switching notice type after an edit keeps your text.
- Recipients is a checkbox list of active custodians. Default selection is every active custodian on the hold. Released custodians do not appear.
The escalation ladder
Hintyr sends reminders automatically. The default cadence is 90 days from the last acknowledgment activity, set on the hold and editable per custodian. If a custodian has not acknowledged by the next cadence window, the first escalation level fires: a Reminder notice addressed to the same custodian.
A second missed window raises the second escalation level, which can include an additional recipient like the custodian's manager. You'll see the escalation level on each recipient row in the tracking table. Acknowledgment resets the level to zero.
Notice send rate
Hintyr caps notice sends to one per minute per hold to prevent accidental duplicates. Bulk sends are queued, not dropped. A second send within the same minute waits in the queue and goes out as soon as the throttle releases. The recipient count in the confirmation modal reflects the queued total, not what has already been sent.
Notice templates
Reuse past notice content as a starting point. Open a prior notice from the list, copy the body, and paste it into the new compose pane. Edit the matter description and categories for the current case. Save your firm's preferred phrasing in a shared place outside Hintyr if your team uses a standard tone across matters.
Native template versioning is on the roadmap. Today, the template you see at compose time is whatever ships in the current notice type. The audit record captures the exact body that went out, so a future template change does not rewrite history.
Edge cases and limits
- Notices can only be composed when the hold is in the Active (Issued) state. Draft holds and released holds disable the compose button.
- You can send a Reminder to a single custodian rather than the whole roster. Open compose, pick the Reminder type, and check only the recipient who needs the nudge.
- A custodian who acknowledges from their phone gets the same clickwrap experience as on desktop. The notice page is mobile-friendly.
- Custodians who reply to the notice email reach the preservation contact's inbox, not Hintyr. Hintyr does not parse those replies into the case record.