Settings — Compliance
The Settings ▸ Compliance page configures the platform’s default litigation hold behaviour. Two settings live here: whether new matters are placed under hold automatically, and which roles can lift a hold once it’s applied.
The page deliberately scopes itself to defaults. Per-matter, per-folder, and per-document holds are managed on the matter detail page’s Drive tab — this surface is for the org-wide policy that informs those decisions.
Anatomy of the page
Section titled “Anatomy of the page”1. Page header
Section titled “1. Page header”Standard PageHeader with the title Litigation Hold and a one-line description. Lives at the top of the right-hand content panel under the Settings sub-nav.
2. Apply-at-creation toggle
Section titled “2. Apply-at-creation toggle”A bordered card with a single switch row controlling whether new matters are placed under litigation hold by default at creation time.
3. Release-approvers radio group
Section titled “3. Release-approvers radio group”Below the toggle, a radio group with three options for who can release an applied hold:
- Owner only
- Owner or Admin
- Owner, Admin, or Matter-Responsible (Manager)
Each option is rendered as a card-styled radio with label and description.
4. Save action
Section titled “4. Save action”A standalone Save button at the bottom that persists both controls in a
single mutation via useUpdateComplianceSettings.
What litigation hold does
Section titled “What litigation hold does”A litigation hold pauses retention and deletion on every record in a matter while litigation, an audit, or a regulatory inquiry is active:
- Auto-deletion of records past their retention window is suppressed for held matters
- Bulk-archive operations exclude held matters
- Held matters and their documents render an “On hold” badge in the UI
Releasing a hold restores normal retention behaviour. Records that matured into post-retention while held are not retroactively deleted; they enter the deletion queue from the release moment.
Future approval workflow
Section titled “Future approval workflow”The release-approvers setting is informational in the current release — the approval workflow (release request → approve/reject → audit-traced release) is planned for a future update. Today, anyone with hold-release permission can release directly. The setting is exposed now to:
- Let admins document their intended policy
- Pre-populate the rollout — when the approval workflow ships, your chosen role threshold takes effect immediately
Permissions and scope
Section titled “Permissions and scope”| Role | View | Edit |
|---|---|---|
| Owner / Admin | ✓ | ✓ |
| Member | ✗ | ✗ |
| Viewer | ✗ | ✗ |
Settings are tenant-wide. The whole /settings/* tree is admin-only via
RoleGuard.
Audit logging
Section titled “Audit logging”Every save emits org.compliance_settings_updated with the diff. The
event surfaces in Settings ▸ Audit Log and is one of the most
useful events to monitor — policy changes around litigation hold are
high-impact.
Per-matter hold actions emit their own events (matter.hold_applied,
matter.hold_released) regardless of org-default policy.
When to enable hold-by-default
Section titled “When to enable hold-by-default”| Situation | Recommendation |
|---|---|
| Personal-injury / commercial-litigation firm | Hold-by-default ON |
| Regulated practice (PCMLTFR, NI 31-103, etc.) | Hold-by-default ON |
| Past discovery sanctions | Hold-by-default ON |
| Solid retention discipline + low litigation rate | Hold-by-default OFF |
| Mixed practice | Off; apply per-matter as the case profile becomes clear |
Approver selection
Section titled “Approver selection”| Approver | When to choose |
|---|---|
| Owner only | High-stakes practices where hold-release is a principal-level decision |
| Owner or Admin | Middle ground; admin-level has enough audit oversight |
| Owner / Admin / Manager | Permissive; matter-responsible staff can release without escalation |
Troubleshooting
Section titled “Troubleshooting”| Symptom | Most likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Save does nothing | No edits made | Toggle a control before clicking Save |
| New matters not held with toggle on | User session cached old policy | User signs out + back in |
| Cannot release a hold | Role outside approvers | Promote user, or ask qualified role |
| Hold badge missing on existing matter | Matter pre-dates the toggle | Apply manually on the matter detail page |
| Auto-delete still fires on held doc | Per-document hold not applied | Re-confirm the hold is applied at document level |
Related pages
Section titled “Related pages”- Matters — per-matter hold via the Drive tab
- Settings ▸ Audit Log —
org.compliance_settings_updatedevents - Settings ▸ Trust Accounting — adjacent compliance surface
- Settings ▸ AML — sanctions screening