Legal Hold Software: What to Look For Beyond Spreadsheets

Author : Gemean Corporation | Published On : 13 Nov 2026

Legal hold software helps a legal team send preservation notices, track who has responded, and keep a dated record of every step. Many teams still run holds from an email folder and a spreadsheet. That can work for one matter and three custodians. It tends to break at ten matters and a hundred custodians.

The cost of a break is real. Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37(e), a court can order measures against a party that failed to take reasonable steps to preserve electronically stored information (ESI) once litigation was anticipated. A hold you cannot document is hard to defend.

This guide explains what legal hold software does, how it fits the legal hold process, where spreadsheets fall short, which features matter, and how to choose between software, a managed service, or both.

What does legal hold software do?

Legal hold software manages the life of a hold, from the first notice to the final release. At a minimum, a good platform should help you:

identify custodians and the systems where their data sits
issue notices and collect written acknowledgments
send reminders and escalate when someone stays silent
keep a dated record that can be exported on request
release the hold when the matter ends