How do I tell my client what to preserve for a possible dispute?
Tell them early, briefly, and mutually: ask both sides to keep the project messages, the delivered files exactly as received, the acceptance records, and any internal review notes, unchanged, until the matter is closed. Review the receipt and actual deliverable before accepting a handover.
Scope: general information about records correspondence, not legal advice. Formal preservation or litigation-hold duties are jurisdiction-specific; where a dispute is already legal, your lawyer drafts this note.
The preservation note fails socially, not legally: sent late by a lawyer, it reads as escalation. Sent early by you, in plain words, framed as mutual and routine, it reads as the behaviour of a professional who keeps records and expects to be checked. The timing and the symmetry are the message: both sides keep everything, neither side edits anything, and the record already shared (the handover, with its steps and the client's decision) sits at the centre unchanged.
Keep the ask specific and small. Messages about the project, in full. The delivered files as received, not re-exported or tidied. The acceptance and review trail: the handover link, any internal comments the client made on the work, and approvals given in any channel. And a named date: keep until the matter is closed or a date you both note.
Send it once, in the ordinary project channel, and then behave as if it binds you first, because it does: your own preservation (the sibling page in this cluster lists the 24-hour checklist) is what makes the note credible rather than tactical. If the relationship is warm, the note is never mentioned again and quietly raises your standing. If it is not, the note is Exhibit Zero.
Template: the mutual preservation note
"A short housekeeping note while we close out [project]: I suggest we both keep the full record of the work until [date or 'the matter is fully closed']: our message thread, the delivered files as received, the delivery record here [handover link], and any review notes or approvals on either side. Nothing needs to be sent anywhere; it is only about not deleting or editing originals. I am keeping the same set on my side. Thanks, [name]." Send in the normal project channel; save the sent copy in the job folder.
Worked example
The shared centre of the note, in public form: https://zambo.dev/handover/45434a17-4afc-486a-9646-e689bcee4297 shows the delivery record both sides already hold, steps and recorded acceptance included. The note's job is simply to freeze the materials around an object that is already fixed.
Frequently asked questions
Will sending this note escalate a calm situation?
Sent early, in the wording above, it rarely does; it mirrors what careful companies do at every project close. Sent for the first time after accusations fly, any wording escalates, which is the argument for making it a routine close-out habit rather than a dispute move.
What if the client ignores the note and deletes things?
Your side of the record still stands: the handover and receipts are checkable regardless of the client's housekeeping, and your sent note documents that preservation was proposed. Keep your own set complete and stop there; policing their files is not your role.
Should the note mention lawyers or legal holds?
In the routine version, no; it is a records note, not a legal instrument. If a claim is already formal, the note becomes your lawyer's document, and this template retires in favour of theirs.
By Brennan Zambo, founder of Zambo.
Last verified: 2026-10-17.
Try a handover
A handover gives your client one proof link with verifiable receipts to review, then Accept or Flag.
try it: say 'use zambo to hand this over to <client>' in your ai