Is anyone aware of the implementation of a system where documents are checked out for access, possibly with limitted read only access and only optionally write

Is anyone aware of the implementation of a system where documents are checked out for access, possibly with limitted read only access and only optionally write access? My thought is that documents would then be slotted into categories like unimportant, contains sensitive information, must not be lost and possibly have greater barriers to access based on these criteria.