We just got served with a lawsuit—what's the first thing we should preserve in the first 48 hours?

Being served is stressful, but the first 48 hours are about one disciplined goal: stop the loss of potentially relevant information. In US civil litigation, the duty to preserve generally attaches once litigation is reasonably anticipated — which may be before you are formally served. Acting quickly reduces the risk of spoliation (the loss or destruction of evidence) and the sanctions that can follow.

Issue a Litigation Hold

Your first action is to issue a written litigation hold (also called a legal hold). This is a clear instruction to relevant employees to stop deleting, overwriting, or altering information that may relate to the matter.

• Identify likely custodians — the people who created, received, or managed relevant records.
• Send the hold in writing, describe the subject matter plainly, and ask for acknowledgment.
• Suspend routine deletion that touches in-scope data, including automatic email purges and document-retention schedules.

Suspend Automated Deletion

Many systems destroy data on a timer. Coordinate with IT immediately to pause anything that could erase relevant content:

• Email auto-deletion and mailbox cleanup rules.
• Backup rotation and overwrite cycles.
• Auto-purge in chat, collaboration, and ticketing tools.
• Re-imaging or reassignment of departing employees’ devices and accounts.

Map and Lock Down Sources

Spend the rest of the window identifying where relevant information lives. Common sources include email, file shares, cloud storage, messaging and chat apps, mobile devices, databases, and structured business systems. Note locations now; you do not have to collect everything in 48 hours, but you must prevent its loss.

Document Your Decisions

Record what you preserved, when, and why — including scope choices and any data you reasonably excluded. Defensible decisions made in good faith hold up far better than perfect-but-undocumented ones.

A Few Cautions

• Jurisdiction matters. The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure govern much US federal civil e-discovery, but state courts and other countries have their own rules and deadlines.
• Consult counsel. Scope, timing, and obligations are fact-specific; this is general education, not legal advice.

For more on the discovery lifecycle and preservation duties, see our e-discovery topic hub.