How do I freeze part of a lot or move it by legal order?

Sometimes the law decides about goods your records show. A court orders a lot held, a recall asks you to stop part of it moving, an authority requests that a quantity is handed to someone else. A legal hold records that in your ledger: the holder keeps the goods but can no longer deliver, process or remove the frozen part, or the quantity is moved without the holder's signature.

The compliance account

Legal holds are signed by a separate compliance account, never by your administration account. It belongs to your company: at least two of your own people co-sign it (the owner or administrators, each with two-factor authentication and a passkey). Where the law of your legal home allows A-REX to hold keys for clients, A-REX may be one extra co-signer, never alone and never needed: your own people always reach the signatures required without it.

Freezing and moving by legal order stay off until the compliance account exists. Your country's rules decide whether legal holds are allowed, and they can also require them; an organization can require its companies to set up the account. See Legal holds.

Set up the compliance account

1. Each co-signer opens Legal holds and selects Register my passkey as co-signer, unless their passkey already signs for your company.
2. The owner selects Set up the compliance account, chooses the Co-signers (at least two) and how many Signatures needed (at least two), and, where allowed, whether to add A-REX as one extra co-signer.
3. Select Send for approval. Once approved, the owner signs with the owner passkey, so that your administration account hands legal holds over to the compliance account.

The page then shows the account as Active, with its co-signers.

Freeze, lower or lift a hold

1. Open the lot from Harvests & lots and select Freeze in the header. Only co-signers of the compliance account see it.
2. Choose the Holder and enter the Frozen quantity after: the quantity frozen after this change. A lower quantity releases part of it; Lift the hold sets it to 0.
3. Under Legal reference, choose Court order, Recall, Authority request or Other legal basis and enter its number. Under Document (optional) you can pick the order: only its fingerprint is recorded, the file stays on your device.
4. Say Why, then select Send for approval.

The approval reads "Freeze 40 kg of ‹lot› held by ‹party›".

Move by legal order

1. On the lot page, select Move by legal order.
2. Choose the Holder (who has it now), the Receiver (a party of your directory) and the Quantity. Frozen units can be moved too.
3. Fill in the Legal reference and Why, then select Send for approval.

The approval reads "Move 25 kg of ‹lot› from ‹party› to ‹party› by legal order". Only the receiver can send the goods back.

Who signs, and what happens next

Someone in your company approves the request in Approvals, as for any action. Then the co-signers who have not signed yet are notified and sign it with their passkey from the approval, until enough of them have signed. The request waits visibly until then.

Once recorded:

• the lot's Story shows the freeze, the release or the move;
• the audit trail keeps who asked, who approved, who signed, the reason and the legal reference;
• the holder is told: your company's members are notified, and so is the holder's company when it is connected to yours;
• automations and connected systems receive Part of a lot frozen by legal order, Legal hold lowered or lifted or Moved by legal order.

A legal hold acts on someone else's goods. Use it only with a legal basis you can show, and keep the document. One request at a time per lot and holder.