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Legal Hold

A legal hold freezes an asset so it cannot be archived or deleted, regardless of any retention policy. Use it whenever an asset may be needed for litigation, an audit, or a regulatory investigation.

Today, legal hold applies to Sign agreements and templates: assets on hold are skipped by retention runs and protected from archival and deletion until the hold is released. A native legal-hold workflow for Locker documents — placing or releasing a hold on an individual stored document — is planned but not yet available; see Planned coverage for Locker documents below.

Coming Soon

Screenshot: locker-legal-hold-badge, a document card showing the Legal Hold status badge in the document list

What Is Enforced Today​

BehaviorStatus
Sign agreements on hold are skipped by retention archival and deletionActive
Templates on hold are skipped by retention archival and deletionActive
Placing a hold on a Sign agreement or template through Propper supportAvailable
Releasing a hold through Propper supportAvailable
Every hold event (placed, released) is permanently logged in the Audit LogActive
Self-serve hold management (a holds page or the public API)Not available
Native legal hold on an individual Locker documentPlanned
Placing/removing a hold from the document detail pageComing soon

Planned coverage for Locker documents​

Locker documents do not yet have a dedicated legal-hold workflow. If you need to retain a Locker document indefinitely, the practical options today are: leave it un-archived in the repository, or ask Propper support to place a hold on the parent Sign agreement (if the document originated from Sign) so retention does not delete the linked artifacts. Native Locker legal hold is on the roadmap.

Place a hold immediately when any of the following applies (today this means a hold on the underlying Sign agreement or template; native Locker document holds are planned):

  • Litigation or threatened litigation, the document may become relevant evidence
  • Regulatory investigation or audit, an agency or auditor may request the document
  • Internal investigation, HR, compliance, or legal teams are reviewing relevant records
  • Discovery hold notice, counsel has issued a hold covering certain records
  • GDPR erasure request that conflicts with a statutory obligation, the document must be retained despite a deletion request (see Legal Hold and GDPR)

Do not wait for formal legal proceedings to begin. Place the hold as soon as there is a reasonable anticipation the document may be relevant.

Holds are not self-serve today: there is no holds page in Propper and no public API for them. To place a hold, contact Propper support at support@propper.ai with:

  1. The Sign agreements or templates to hold, by name or ID.
  2. A reason for the audit record (e.g., "Acme litigation hold, case #2025-0042"), specific enough to identify the underlying matter.

Each hold event is recorded in the Audit Log with its timestamp and reason.

caution

Legal holds are serious compliance operations. Ensure the person placing the hold has the authority to do so. The acting user and reason are permanently logged and cannot be altered.

Remove a hold when the matter that triggered it has been resolved, litigation concluded, investigation closed, audit completed.

To release a hold, contact Propper support at support@propper.ai with the held assets and a reason for removal (e.g., "Matter settled, hold released 2025-11-14").

Once released, the asset is subject to retention again. If its retention period has already expired, it is processed at the next scheduled retention run. If you need to preserve it further, ask for a retention override to be set before the hold is released, see Retention Policies.

Checking Hold Status​

  • In the UI, A hold status badge is not yet available. Contact Propper support to confirm whether an asset is on hold.
  • In Audit Logs, Go to Settings → Activity Log and filter by action Hold Placed or Hold Removed to see the full hold history for any document.
Coming Soon

Screenshot: locker-legal-hold-document-detail, the document detail page showing the Legal Hold status badge and the active hold's reason and date in the metadata panel

A verified GDPR erasure request can override retention policies and trigger early deletion, except when a legal hold is active:

ScenarioResult
Erasure request received, no active hold, no statutory obligationErasure proceeds, document is deleted
Erasure request received, active legal holdErasure is blocked, hold takes precedence
Erasure request received, statutory obligation applies (e.g., tax law)Erasure is blocked, statutory obligation recorded
Erasure request received, hold removed before processingErasure proceeds if no other blocker

When a request is blocked by a legal hold, Locker records the legal basis and notifies the requestor that processing is restricted. The decision is permanently recorded in the Audit Log.

See Compliance for the full GDPR and CCPA workflow.

Use this checklist whenever you need to place or manage a hold:

  • Identify all documents relevant to the matter (search by vendor, contract type, date range, or parties)
  • Ask Propper support to place a hold on each relevant Sign agreement or template
  • Record the matter name and case reference number in the hold reason
  • Notify document owners that their documents are on hold
  • Confirm with Propper support that each hold is in place
  • Export the hold log from Audit Logs as a record of the preservation step
  • When the matter resolves, ask Propper support to release each hold with a documented reason
  • Verify documents re-enter the correct lifecycle and check their retention period status