Sexual harassment cases are frequently decided by evidence captured — or lost — in the first weeks, long before anyone files anything. And the rules for preserving that evidence are not intuitive, because they run in opposite directions depending on where the evidence lives. Material on your devices should be preserved aggressively. Material on company systems should not be touched at all. Getting this distinction right protects your case; getting it wrong can hand the other side a defense.

What to Save: Everything on Your Personal Devices

Messages sent to your personal phone and personal accounts are yours to preserve, and you should do it thoroughly and immediately:

  • Text messages: screenshot full threads, including the sender’s contact card or number and the date/time headers. Scroll so the timestamps are visible in the images.
  • Social-media DMs: Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, LinkedIn — screenshot immediately. Some platforms let senders delete or expire messages, so capture them before they can vanish.
  • Photos, voicemails, and emails sent to your personal address — save the originals and export copies.
  • A contemporaneous log: a dated, written record of incidents that left no digital trace — comments, touching, who was present, exact words where you can recall them. Notes made close in time carry real weight later.
  • Back everything up off employer-controlled accounts. A personal cloud account or personal email — never a company Google or Microsoft account, never a work laptop, never a company phone. If your personal phone is on a company plan or has employer management software installed, tell your lawyer that at the first conversation.

Why “Never Delete” Is a Rule With No Exceptions

Do not delete anything — not the explicit messages, not the ones that embarrass you, and especially not your own replies, even the friendly-sounding ones you sent while trying to keep the peace. Courts understand that people deflect and placate someone who controls their paycheck; your lawyer can put those replies in context. What is much harder to fix is a gap. A curated thread invites the argument that something exculpatory was removed, and deleting material after a dispute is reasonably foreseeable can carry serious consequences of its own. The complete record — awkward parts included — is almost always the stronger record.

The Bright Line: Do Not Take Company Files

Here is the side of the rule that surprises people. Evidence that lives on company systems — work email, Slack or Teams messages, HR files, personnel records, schedules, security video, customer data — should be left exactly where it is. Do not download it, forward it to your personal account, photograph the screen, or carry copies out the door, even with the best intentions of “protecting the proof.”

The reasons are practical, not technical. Taking company data can violate confidentiality agreements and computer-use policies, and it can transform you from the wronged party into someone the employer claims it had cause to fire. Under the after-acquired-evidence doctrine, courts have held that employee misconduct an employer discovers later — including taking company documents — may limit the remedies available even in an otherwise meritorious case. In plain terms: forwarding yourself a folder of “evidence” can shrink your own case while handing the company a clean story to tell about you.

How the Evidence You Can’t Touch Gets Protected Anyway

So who protects the company-side evidence? A lawyer can — immediately. One of the first things an employment attorney can do after a consultation is send the employer a litigation-hold letter: a formal preservation demand that puts the company on notice and obligates it to preserve relevant records — emails, chat logs, schedules, personnel files, video — while the matter is evaluated. Once on notice, an employer that lets evidence disappear faces potential spoliation consequences in court.

Timing matters more here than people realize. Many company systems delete on a schedule by default — chat platforms can purge messages after thirty or ninety days, security video is often overwritten within weeks, and routine email retention policies run continuously. None of that requires bad intent; it is how the systems are configured. A hold letter stops the clock. Every week before one goes out is a week those deletion cycles keep running, which is one of the strongest reasons to talk to a lawyer early — even if you are not yet sure you want to bring a claim.

Never Contact a Lawyer From a Work Device

This part is non-negotiable. Never email, message, or call a lawyer from a company device, a company email account, or the workplace network — and do not store notes about your situation on a work laptop or phone. Employers can monitor their own systems, and communications sent through them may not stay private. Use your personal phone, on your own data plan or home network, every single time.

Deadlines and Next Steps

Preserved evidence only matters if a claim is filed in time. Harassment claims generally must reach the EEOC within 300 days, or the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission within 180 days — short windows that run while you deliberate. Our reference entry on the EEOC filing process walks through how the administrative stage works.

If you are dealing with harassment now, you don’t have to sort the evidence questions out alone. The Law Office of Steven T. Auerbach handles sexual harassment matters across Pennsylvania, and a confidential consultation can cover what to preserve, what to leave alone, and whether a preservation demand should go out now. Call from your personal phone, or use the consultation form on this site.

This article is for general educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Every situation is unique and fact-dependent. If you believe your rights have been violated, contact the Law Office of Steven T. Auerbach or a qualified Pennsylvania employment attorney promptly — many claims have strict filing deadlines.