Required load files

Importing legacy data into Legal Hold requires separate imports through Import/Export for each object type. For example, import the custodians load file into the Entity object.

Note: The Entity field must have the email field populated for the Legal Hold system to work correctly. If the data is not imported correctly, you will need to restart the process.

Load file order

When using Import/Export to import legal hold data, you are required to import the load files a specific order.

Import the load files in the following order:

Entity
Projects
Communications
Attachments
Custodian Role
Custodian Status
Message

After importing the data, you can also import optional data. Optional data includes tasks and questionnaire data. For more information, see Optional load files.

Entity load file

Import the Entity load file.

Required fields

You must complete these fields when importing legal hold entity data.

(Required) Email—the custodian's email address.
This unique value appears on all Legal Hold grids and pickers when selecting a custodian. This value must be unique. We recommend generating a unique value using the fill feature in Excel when preparing the load file.
Note: Each row of a .csv file must have a unique pairing of Full Name and Email. If any row contains a duplicate full name and email pair, you will receive an error upon trying to import this file into Relativity through .
Resolve this issue by either consolidating those two entries down to one row, ideally the one with the more recent date/accurate acknowledgement info, or change the full name or email so each pairing is unique, like adding a "2" after the information.
(Required) First Name—the custodian's first name.
(Required) Full Name—this field must be in last name, first name order. Last name, comma, space, then first name. For example, Discovery, Edward. It must match the full name of that custodian exactly.
(Required) Last Name—the custodian's last name.

Optional fields

These fields are optional when importing legal hold entity data.

Address 1—the custodian's home address.
Address 2— the second line of the custodian's home address.
City—the custodian's home address city.
Company—the custodian's company.
Country—the custodian's home address country.
Department—the custodian's department within the organization. This value is available for filtering and searching when selecting custodians.
Employee Number— the custodian's employee number.
Employment Status—the custodian's current employment status.
Employment Start Date— the date the custodian's position started.
Employment End Date—the date the custodian's position ended.
Current Title— the custodian's job title.
Location—an optional field used to denote a specific building/office or to provide a friendly name for different business unites.
Manager—the custodian's manager. This value should also exist as a separate custodian in the load file.
Note: This field must be in last name, first name order. Last name, comma, space, then first name. For example, Discovery, Edward. It must match the full name of that manager exactly.
Middle Name—the custodian's middle name.
Notes—use this field to add any applicable notes regarding the custodian.
Phone Number—the custodian's phone number.
Secondary Email—the custodian's secondary email.
State/Province—the custodian's home address state/province.
Unique ID—use this field when, for example, performing Active Directory data imports using Integration Points. Because you must reference a unique field when setting up the import, you can specify the UniqueID field as unique and map it to an Active Directory field such as ObjectGuid.
Username—the custodian's employee username at the company.
Zip/Postal Code—the custodian's home address zip code and postal code.

Projects load file

Import the Projects load file.

Required fields

You must complete these fields when importing legal hold projects data.

(Required) Name—the unique name of the project, which can contain several communications. This value often reflects the matter name and must be unique.
(Required) Owner Email—the email address of the project owner. If the setting is enabled, all custodian replies to communications are forwarded to this user.
(Required) Project Status—this value is either Active or Closed. Setting a project as Closed prevents any further actions from being taken in the project. You can re-open a project at any time.
(Required) Type—you can create custom project types to classify projects according to custom workflows. The default value is Legal Hold.
(Required) Use as Template—this value is either True or False to distinguish this project as being a template. You can change the value as necessary.

Optional fields

These fields are optional when importing legal hold projects data.

Project Close Date—the date that the project was closed, corresponding to the Project Status value mentioned above.
Project Description—a description to help you classify and organize projects.
Project Owner—the first and last name of the project owner. If the setting is enabled, all custodian replies to communications are forwarded to this user.
Project Start Date—the date that the project was created.
Subject Matter End Date—the date the project’s subject matter concluded, and is useful for referencing a time period for which documents should are preserved.
Subject Matter Start Date—the date that the project’s subject matter actually began. This value is useful for referencing a time period from which documents are preserved.

Communications load file

Import the Communications load file.

Communications include both individual notices and the entire set of related messages that are connected to those notices. This includes reminders, escalations, and blind carbon copy (BCC) messages.

Note: The communication load file should include the name of the questionnaire that is associated to the questionnaire. A communication can only have one questionnaire associated to it.

Required fields

You must complete these fields when importing legal hold communications data.

Note: Reminders do not work with migrated communications and projects. Relativity cannot send reminders for emails that were originally sent outside of Relativity.

(Required) Communication Type—the listed type of hold communication. There are three main communication types listed.
- Creating a communication type other than these types will contain the properties of the General Hold Notice communication type.
- The three communication type choices are:
  - General Hold Notice—the standard communication sent to custodians who must review or accept specific language or complete a questionnaire.
  - Release Notice—Legal Hold only sends this communication type to custodians that are released from a project.
  - Alert Group—Legal Hold only sends this communication type to users who must be alerted to a custodian’s specific answers to questions on questionnaires.
(Required) DisplayInPortal—this value is either Yes or No to show the custodian the legal hold in their Custodian Portal. A Yes value means the Global Reminder is enabled.
(Required) Email Body—the email body for the communication. The body should already contain the [PortalLink] merge field if the communication requires acknowledgement.
(Required) Email Subject—the email subject for the communication.
(Required) Name—the unique name of the communication, which Legal Hold sends to custodians. This value must be unique. We recommend generating a unique value using the fill feature in Excel when preparing the load file.
Note: Each row of a .csv file must have a unique pairing of Custodian Name and Communication Name. If any row has a duplicate custodian name and communication name pair, you will receive an error upon trying to import this file into Relativity via Import/Export. Resolve this issue by either consolidating those two entries down to one row, ideally the one with the more recent date/accurate acknowledgement info, or change the communication name or names so each pairing is unique, like adding a "2" after the communication name.
(Required) Project (Name)—this project name should correspond with the project name from the previous load file.
(Required) Use as Template—this value is either True or False to distinguish this communication as being a template. You can change the value as necessary.

Required when Legal Hold is the communication type

You must complete these fields when importing legal hold communications data when the communication type is Legal Hold.

Acknowledgement Required—this value is either True or False to indicate if the specific communication requires the custodian to log in to the Custodian Portal and acknowledge the communication.
Enable Reminders—this required value is either True or False to indicate if Legal Hold sends automatic reminders to non-responsive custodians. If the value is True, you must also fill out the other reminder fields below. The body should already contain the [PortalLink] merge field if the communication requires acknowledgement.
Enable Automatic Escalation—this value is either True or False to configure if Legal Hold sends an escalation to the custodian’s manager after all automatic reminders are sent.
Portal Detail—this is what custodians see and requires their acknowledgement in the Custodian Portal.

Required when enabling reminders

You must complete these fields when importing legal hold communications data when reminders are enabled.

Reminder Interval—this value determines how many days apart Legal Hold sends the reminders when Enable Reminders is set to True. For example, a value of “7” means that Legal Hold sends reminders every 7 days until the custodian responds.
Allotted Reminders—this value determines how many total reminders get sent when Enable Reminders is set to True.
Reminder Subject—this field has the subject of the reminder email when Enable Reminders is set to True.
Reminder Body—this has the email body of the reminder email when Enable Reminders is set to True. The body should contain the [PortalLink] merge field if the communication requires acknowledgement.
Escalation Detail—this has the email body that will get sent to the custodian’s manager when Enable Automatic Escalation is set to True.

Required when importing questionnaire data

You must complete the following fields in the communications load file before importing questionnaire data.

Communication Name—enter the name of the communication the questionnaire was attached to.

Optional fields

These fields are optional when importing legal hold communications data.

Response Due Date—the date at which all custodians should reply to the communication. If a custodian does not respond by this date, they are flagged as having an overdue communication.
Communication Description—the description of the communication. You can add any details regarding the communication’s purpose or content.
Send As—this value populates an email alias as the sender for all holds going forward.
BCC People—this requires the custodian’s full name value from above and will then send these custodian's notices when other custodians receive the hold going forward.
BCC Subject—the subject of the BCC email that Legal Hold sends to the BCC People above.
BCC Body—the body of the BCC email that Legal Hold sends to the BCC People above.

Attachments load file

Import the Attachments load file. This a list of all the attachments that custodians view on the Portal and the Projects that those attachments are associated with.

(Required) Name—the name of the attachment file. You can use the file name.
(Required) File Link—this should contain a link to the attachments field you want to import.
(Required if you are linking attachments) Communication Name—this should contain a link to the communication attachment. You must specify the exact communication name to correctly associate the attachment to the communication.
System Generated—set to No on each attachment entry. This way the attachments show up in the Attachments tab. When set to No, you'll be able to be add attachments to new communications.

Custodian Role load file

Import the Custodian Role load file. These values link a custodian to a specific project and, if they are a custodian, specifies whether they have been released. A custodian requires one Custodian Role value for each project.

Each custodian, or entity, must have only one custodian role associated to it for each project. Multiple custodian roles assigned to the same custodian for a single project will cause issues. These issues include assigning custodians. releasing custodians, sending emails, and closing the project.

Required fields

You must complete these fields when importing legal hold custodian role data.

(Required) Communications—the specific communication name from above that Legal Hold sent to the custodian.
Separate multiple communications by entering each communication on separate lines.
Note: Use the field settings when merging data.
(Required) Custodian—the custodian, full name, who received the communication.
(Required) Name—this value must be unique.
Note: We recommend generating a unique value using the fill feature in Excel when preparing the load file. The end user never sees this value.
(Required) Project—the specific project name that the communication belongs to.
Note: For Import/Export, click Choose in the Additional Field Settings column and select Parent Object.
(Required) Role—you can generate any number of custom roles, but we recommend importing with the default: Custodian.
- You must create custom roles in Relativity before importing a load file that includes custodians with custom roles.
- If you already created roles in the front end, then Relativity will use any role tags associated with that role.
- For more information, see Roles.
(Required if the custodian is released) Release Date—populate this with the release date if the custodian was released from the Project.

Optional fields

These fields are optional when importing legal hold custodian role data.

Access to Sensitive Material—this value is either True or False to indicate if the custodian on this project has access to sensitive material.
Notes—an optional area to store specific notes about this custodian’s involvement on this specific project. For example, ESI Tier.

After importing Custodian Role data into RelativityOne, you can view the data on the Custodian Projects tab. For more information, see Custodian Projects tab.

Custodian Status load file

Import the Custodian Status load file. These values link specifics regarding when custodians receive and respond to notices.

Required fields

You must complete these fields when importing legal hold custodian status data.

(Required) Name—the end users never sees this value but it must be unique. We recommend generating a unique value using the fill feature in Excel when preparing the load file.
(Required) Communication—the specific communication name from above that Legal Hold sent to the custodian.
(Required) Custodian—the custodian's full name that received the communication.
(Required) Project—the specific project name that the communication belongs to.
Note: For Import/Export, click Choose in the Additional Field Settings column and select Parent Object.

Optional fields

These fields are optional when importing legal hold custodian status data.

Acknowledgement Date—the date that the custodian acknowledged the communication. Leave this value blank if the custodian did not acknowledge the communication.
Communication View Date—if known, the date that the custodian actually viewed the communication.
Escalation Date—the date that Legal Hold sent an escalation to this custodian and communication.
Notice Last Sent Date—the last date that Legal Hold sent a communication to the custodian.
Reminders Last Sent Date—the last time that Legal Hold sent a reminder to the custodian.
Reminders Sent—the total number of reminders that Legal Hold has sent to the custodian for the communication.
Resolved By User—the Relativity User artifact ID who acknowledged a communication on behalf of this communication within Relativity.
Note: The user entered for this field must have a Relativity account. This is meant to indicate that the hold was acknowledged on behalf of someone in the system. You can provide this information when importing Legal Hold data into Relativity.
Resolved By Custodian—the custodian who acknowledged a communication on behalf of this communication when the Custodian Interaction Level field is set to Redirect. For more information, see Custodian Interaction Level.
Resolved By Reason—for auditing purposes, the reason why someone else acknowledged the communication on behalf of this custodian.

Message load file

Import the Message load file. These values link specifics regarding messages sent or received in specific holds.

You must complete all fields.

(Required) Communication—name of the communication.
(Required) Custodian—custodian name.
(Required) Last Sent Date—the date that the last communication was sent.
(Required) Message Status—enter Sent into this field.
(Required) Message Type—enter General into this field.
(Required) Name—unique identifier for the row of data.
(Required) Project—name of the project to which the custodian is being added.
Note: For Import/Export, click Choose in the Additional Field Settings column and select Parent Object.

Re-save communications.

For any communications that have scheduled reminders, go into those communications from the front end and resave them so that Legal Hold schedules the automatic reminder or escalation job. For communications with scheduled reminders, resave the communication from Legal Hold so that Legal Hold schedules the automatic reminder or escalation job.
If custodians need to see any portal attachments, you must go into each communication on the front end and add them.

After importing Message data into RelativityOne, you can view the data on the Mailbox tab. For more information, see Mailbox.