Legal hold
An access request, a dispute, an investigation: every document covered freezes in one move, and nothing is destroyed while the hold stands.
The clock is running.You have nothing to watch.
Constellio’s compliance module manages the full document lifecycle (creation, semi-active, final disposition) under archives law, access to information, Law 25 and the LCJTI. Digital or paper, with the proof at the end.
- Retention schedule applied
- Legal hold
- Transfer to BAnQ under OAIS
HOW IT WORKS
Set. Let it run. Approve. Prove.
Four moves, ten years apart.
Records compliance isn’t a project you finish: it’s a rule you write once that applies for years. What matters is that nobody has to remember it.
- 01 Set
The schedule is built once.
Every heading of the classification plan gets its periods: active, semi-active, final disposition. The rule then applies to everything filed under it, with nothing re-entered.
- Retention schedule per heading
- Active and semi-active periods
- Disposition: transfer, destroy or keep
- 02 Let it run
States change on their own.
At the due date the record turns semi-active. If it also exists on paper, its box, shelf and warehouse are tracked, with labels and a loan system.
- Automatic switch to semi-active
- Warehouses, shelves, boxes and labels
- Loans and returns tracked
- 03 Approve
Nothing is destroyed without a signature.
The disposition produces an approval list: what has to be transferred, destroyed or kept, put in front of the person who decides. A legal hold freezes anything covered by a request.
- Approval lists generated at the due date
- Legal hold on a set of documents
- Decision recorded and attributed
- 04 Prove
Every disposition leaves a trace.
Each destruction produces its certificate, each transfer its slip. Deposits to the national archives follow the OAIS standard, and the logging module keeps the full history.
- Destruction certificates
- Transfer and submission slips
- OAIS deposit and the link with BAnQ
A deadline nobody has to watch beats a spreadsheet everybody forgot to update.
TEN YEARS IN FOUR STEPS
A record filed in 2026,
and what is left of it in 2036.
Scroll and time moves. The same record goes from active to semi-active, leaves in a box, gets frozen by an access to information request, then receives its final disposition, without anyone having to think about it in between.
- 01The rule
The clock starts the day it is filed.
The record inherits its heading’s schedule: two years active, eight semi-active, then transfer. The disposition date is known today, ten years ahead.
- Schedule inherited from the heading
- Disposition date computed on filing
- No period typed in by hand
- 02Semi-active
It leaves the office without leaving the system.
At the due date the state changes. The paper copy goes to the warehouse in a labelled box whose location stays on the record, and which can be borrowed and returned like a library book.
- State changes on the planned date
- Warehouse, shelf and box on the record
- Loans and returns tracked
- 03The hold
A request arrives, the clock stops.
An access to information request covers this record: the legal hold freezes it. Time keeps running for everything else, but nothing covered can be destroyed while the hold stands.
- A set of documents frozen in one move
- Disposition blocked while the hold stands
- The release logged like the hold
- 04Disposition
Transferred or destroyed, never quietly.
Once the hold is lifted, the approval list goes to the records manager. What is transferred follows the OAIS standard to BAnQ with its slip; what is destroyed leaves its certificate.
- Approval list signed
- OAIS package sent to the national archives
- Destruction certificate kept
Lifecycle312 Redevelopments › Quotes
Structural quote 2026.docx312 Redevelopments › Quotes
Active Rule applied · 2 years active · 8 years semi-active · transfer to the archives Disposition due · 14 March 2036
Physical location
- Warehouse
- B, Sainte-Foy
- Shelf
- B-14, level 3
- Box
- 2026-084
Loan · Borrowed by S. Nadeau · due back 18 April 2028
Legal hold
Access to information request AI-2031-117 destruction blocked
See the documents coveredApproval list
- 2026 quotes › batch ATransfer
- Working draftsDestroy
- Site layoutsKeep
- Destruction certificateCERT-2036-014
- Transfer slipBAnQ · OAIS package
Log
- 2028Switched to semi-active · automatic
- 2031Legal hold placed · AI-2031-117
- 2034Hold released · request closed
- 2036Disposition approved · M. Tremblay
REAL-WORLD USE CASES
The warehouse everyone forgets,
and the request that lands on a Tuesday.
Two moments where compliance stops being theory: when a box has to be found among thousands, and when an access to information request forces you to freeze everything it touches.
For paper records
Paper has an address too.
Warehouses, shelves, boxes, labels, slips, loans and returns: paper is tracked in the same system as the digital, under the same schedule. A box is found through a search, not by going down to the basement.
See document capture
For access requests
Freeze first, search afterwards.
The legal hold module gathers every document covered by a request in one move and blocks their destruction, even if their retention period falls due in the meantime. The release is logged like the hold.
See annotations and redactionWhat the compliance module covers
- Unified lifecycle
- Retention schedule
- Link with BAnQ (Gala)
- Approval lists
- Paper records management
- Logging module
- Certificates and slips
- OAIS submission
Digital and paper, one schedule
ONE RULE, THEN TEN YEARS
Time is the only thing
still working on this record.
The other diagrams on this site show a route or a structure. This one has a scale: years. Periods run left to right, a hold can stop them, and at the end the record splits three ways: transferred, destroyed or kept forever.
Standard submission
Deposits to the national archives follow the OAIS standard, slip included, and the link with BAnQ saves rebuilding the package by hand.
Complete logging
Holds placed and released, state changes, approvals, destructions: every move leaves a dated, attributed line.
See unified content managementOUR KEY FIGURES
Less doubt.
Less keeping things just in case.
When nobody knows what may be destroyed, everything is kept. A schedule that applies itself replaces expensive caution with a date.
Figures published by Constellio01
0
Reduction in search time
02
0
Reduction in search costs
03
0
Reduction in security incidents
Why choose Constellio
Efficiency
Optimized document management replaces hand-kept inventories and retention spreadsheets.
Collaboration
Documents are centralized and shared in real time, including between the people who produce them and the people who keep them.
Savings
Fewer linear metres rented, fewer records lost, less retention beyond what the law asks for.
Security
Documents are protected against internal and external threats, and what has to disappear really does.
Organizations running on Constellio
YOUR SCHEDULE
Unlock the potential
of your content.
Book a demo with your own retention schedule in hand. We put it into Constellio and you watch the disposition date appear on your records.
Or write to contact@constellio.com. Open source at its core, hosted the way you want it.
