What documents should I preserve if litigation seems likely?

If litigation seems likely, you should immediately preserve all relevant documents including contracts, correspondence, emails, text messages, financial records, and any other materials related to the dispute. We advise our clients to implement a litigation hold that stops the routine destruction of documents and requires employees to retain all potentially relevant materials, both physical and electronic. This includes preserving documents stored on computers, mobile devices, cloud storage, and backup systems, as well as maintaining records of meetings, phone calls, and internal communications about the matter.

We recommend creating copies of critical documents and storing them separately while also preserving metadata and original file formats when possible. The key is to act quickly and broadly – it’s better to preserve too much than to risk destroying evidence that could be crucial to your case. We work with our clients to develop a systematic approach to document preservation that protects their interests while maintaining business operations, and we can guide you through establishing proper procedures to safeguard important evidence from the moment a dispute arises.