Letter · Defamation & Media Law
Preservation letter to a publisher
A request that a publisher or host keep the publication, drafts, and logs. It is notice that a claim is contemplated. It is not a subpoena and it does not decide that the recipient already owes a preservation duty.
- Kind
- Letter. A letter or email you adapt and send.
- Where it applies
- United States
- AI use
- Yellow You and the tool draft together, with you directing. You check every statement you rely on.
- Law stated as at
- 22 October 2026
- Status
- Maintained. Checked on 22 October 2026 against the 2 authorities it cites, for United States.
- Version
- 1
- Source
- Written for this library
When to use it
Use when a specific publication is in issue and suit about it is contemplated. Send it to the publisher the lawyer identifies. Do not use it as the retraction demand. That is a separate letter.
Used for these tasks
- Capture the publication with URL, time, audience and copies
- Calculate limitation and first-publication dates from the capture
Each task page says how far AI may help with the task and what the lawyer must review.
How AI may be used
AI may address the letter and list the URL and the systems the lawyer names. The lawyer decides whether suit is contemplated and who the publisher is.
AI may
- Insert the URL, the date, and the capture the lawyer has saved
- List logs and drafts only if the lawyer asks for them
- Flag a sentence that accuses the recipient of having already destroyed evidence
AI must not
- Must not assert that the recipient is in breach of a preservation duty
- Must not call the letter a subpoena or a court order
- Must not send the letter
The lawyer checks
- The publication is identified tightly enough that the recipient can find it
- The letter is not combined with a damages threat
- A copy of the capture is kept in the file
Method: how the Green, Yellow and Red levels are decided. This is guidance for planning, not legal advice.
Read the full text
The full text is available after you log in. It is free. When you log in you can:
- read the whole precedent, with its drafting notes beside it;
- copy it, or download it as a Word file or Markdown;
- add it to your firm’s knowledge base, so colleagues can find it;
- let the AI tools you connect read it from that knowledge base.
The summary, the law it rests on and the AI-use guidance above stay public. Privacy.
More in Defamation & Media Law
- Concerns notice under the uniform Defamation Acts (with UK letter-of-claim and NZ variants)
- Response to a concerns notice: further particulars notice, or letter declining to make an offer to make amends
- Journalist and informant identity record
- Defences assessment checklist for a publisher facing a defamation complaint
- Retraction and correction demand
- Deed of settlement and release for a defamation dispute, with agreed correction, apology and removal terms
- Offer to make amends in response to a concerns notice
- Serious harm evidence table (Defamation Act s 10A)
- Victorian proceeding suppression order check
- Defamation claim assessment checklist for an aggrieved person: publication capture, serious harm, limitation and concerns notice timing
- Digital intermediary liability map for an online publication (Defamation Act s 31A)
- Objection notice about an intimate image
- Pre-publication legal review checklist (including AI-generated text, images and quotes)
- Publication capture worksheet
- Correction, clarification or apology for publication, with placement and prominence schedule
- Takedown demand for AI-generated deepfake or synthetic content (to poster or platform)
- Elements of a serious invasion of privacy
- Complaint notice to a digital intermediary (s 31A accessible complaints mechanism) with UK and US variants
- Newsroom and publisher generative AI and synthetic media policy
All precedents for Defamation & Media Law · Tasks and AI use in this area