Track who has acknowledged a preservation notice and who has not. Each recipient row shows when the email was delivered, when the custodian opened the notice, confirmed their identity, and acknowledged, a state chip, and how the acknowledgment was collected. When a custodian acknowledges off Hintyr, you can record the acknowledgment manually with the method, date, notes, and a scanned attachment.
How acknowledgment tracking works
Expand a notice in the Notices subtab to see its acknowledgment table. Each row is one custodian. The State chip is the furthest step the custodian has reached, or Not delivered when the notice did not reach them, and the timestamp columns tell you exactly when each step happened. Hintyr updates the row as the custodian moves through the acknowledgment flow.
Some custodians acknowledge offline: they return a paper form, they confirm in a phone call, or they tell their attorney in person. Use Mark offline ack to capture the method and notes. The recipient row flips to Acknowledged, and its Method chip reads Offline instead of Portal, the chip for a clickwrap acknowledgment.
How to record an offline acknowledgment
- Expand the notice in the Notices subtab.
- Find the recipient row and click the gavel button (Mark offline ack) in the Actions column. The button is off once the custodian has acknowledged.
- Fill in the dialog: pick the date, select the method, write notes, and attach the signed return form if you have one. Click Save acknowledgment. The row updates to Acknowledged with an Offline method chip.
Options and fields
Columns of the acknowledgment table:
- Custodian and Email: who the notice went to. Click the Custodian heading to sort by name (the default).
- Delivered, Engaged, Recognized, Read ack, and Compliance ack: when each step happened, in your local time. A cell stays blank until that step happens. An acknowledgment, through the portal or recorded offline, fills both Read ack and Compliance ack. Delivered is when the custodian's mail server accepted the email; it keeps that time even if a bounce or spam report comes back later.
- State: a chip for where the row stands (see below). Click the heading to sort by state.
- Method: how the acknowledgment was collected, Portal for the clickwrap or Offline when you recorded it. Blank until the custodian acknowledges.
- Actions: the gavel button opens the offline acknowledgment dialog.
State chip values and what each means. When more than one applies, the chip shows the first of Acknowledged, Recognized, Engaged, Not delivered, Delivered, Sent, and Pending.
- Pending: the notice has not been sent to this custodian yet, for example while a send is still in progress.
- Sent: the email went out and the email service accepted it for delivery, but the custodian's mail server has not confirmed it yet.
- Delivered: the custodian's mail server accepted the email. The email can still land in a spam or junk folder, so Delivered does not mean the custodian has seen it. Most rows wait here until the custodian opens the notice.
- Engaged: the custodian opened the secure link and landed on the acknowledgment page. The clock on the audit record starts here.
- Recognized: the custodian confirmed their identity on the acknowledgment page.
- Acknowledged: the custodian submitted the clickwrap, or you recorded an offline acknowledgment on their behalf. This is the legal record of preservation duty.
- Not delivered: the notice did not reach the custodian. Their mail server rejected the address, they reported the notice as spam, the email service blocked the address (for example because earlier email to it bounced or was reported as spam), or the send failed. Correct the custodian's email, then send them a Reminder. If the address is right, reach them another way and record an offline acknowledgment. An acknowledgment recorded another way still shows as Acknowledged.
Not delivered outranks Delivered. A bounce or spam report can come back after the custodian's mail server accepted the email; the row then changes from Delivered to Not delivered, and a later delivery confirmation never changes it back. While the newest notice or reminder a custodian was sent on the hold is not delivered, automatic reminders to them stop. The hold's audit log records why each notice was not delivered.
Offline acknowledgment dialog fields:
- Acknowledgment date: the day the custodian confirmed. Defaults to today; backdate when the conversation happened earlier.
- Method: pick Paper return, In person, or Verbal. Default is Paper return. The method appears on the audit record so a future reader can tell how you collected the acknowledgment.
- Notes: attorney notes about the conversation, including who was present and any caveats the custodian raised. Write enough that a future reader of the case record can reconstruct what happened.
- Attachment: optional. Upload the signed paper return, a photo of the in-person sign-off, or any document that backs up the offline acknowledgment.
Following up with non-responders
Hintyr's automated reminders close most of the gap, but every matter has a custodian who never clicks. Use the recipient table to spot them: rows that stay Sent or Delivered for more than a week, and every Not delivered row, deserve a phone call. Treat it as a practice issue, not a software issue. Pick up the phone, walk to their desk, or ask their manager for help routing the question.
For departed or non-responsive custodians, attorney-to-attorney follow-up is the right move: contact their personal counsel or former employer's general counsel. Document every follow-up in the notes field of the offline ack dialog. The notes become part of the audit record, so a court evaluating preservation can see the firm worked the problem.
Repeat outreach is the firm's responsibility. Hintyr captures what happened; it does not phone the custodian for you.
Edge cases and limits
- You can record an offline acknowledgment for a custodian who never opened the secure link. The recipient row shows the Offline method chip; engagement timestamps stay blank.
- Once acknowledged, a row cannot be reverted to a prior state from the UI. If you marked the wrong recipient, contact support.
- A custodian who clicked the wrong identity button (No, this is not me) stays at Engaged, and the hold's audit log records the repudiation. The row does not advance to Recognized or Acknowledged. The firm investigates and re-sends if needed.
- The recipient table is sortable by name and by state. The state sort follows the chip order: Pending, Sent, Delivered, Not delivered, Engaged, Recognized, then Acknowledged, so you can scan for the rows that still need attention.