Evidence preservation is critical once an employer becomes aware of potential legal claims.
Best practices include:
- Issuing a litigation hold to prevent deletion of relevant documents
- Preserving emails, text messages, internal messaging platform communications, and electronic records
- Securing personnel files, payroll records, timekeeping data, and policy acknowledgments
- Preserving surveillance footage if applicable
- Electronic data should not be altered or selectively deleted
Failure to preserve relevant evidence can result in court sanctions, adverse inference instructions to a jury, or increased settlement pressure.
In California employment disputes, spoliation of evidence often becomes a separate and significant issue.
