2008 TIPS and TRICKS LAW CONFERENCE

Transcription

1 2008 TIPS and TRICKS LAW CONFERENCE This document provides information about the Tips and Tricks presented at the 2008 LAW conference. More detailed information on the topics presented may be found in the LAW Training Manual, Help file, and User guide. Reporting Native File Summary The Native File Summary provides an inventory of the sources selected in the Source Queue. Once processed, a summary of file extensions will be returned. The summary includes e-docs as well as attachments. Once the summary is performed you can: generate a report based on file extensions, save the summary database for processing at a later date, or begin importing into LAW. The file summary feature is a useful tool when submitting bids for projects, making the decision to process internally, or determining how the files will be processed and delivered in native, tiff, or paper format. To perform a Native File Summary: 1. Open the LAW Electronic Discovery Loader (File-Import-E-Discovery). Select the sources you wish to summarize. 2. Within the LAW Electronic Discovery Loader, select Tools-Summarize Queue. A File Type Summary Progress dialog provides a status of the inventory process. 3. Once complete, the File Type Summary dialog will appear. Files are identified based on their file extension. The All tab will display e-docs and attachments. The E-Docs tab displays those found as electronic documents while the Att. tab summarizes initial (first-level) attachments found within mail stores. Each tab displays the extension, file count, description, and size. A fourth tab, the Identified tab, will identify files based on the File ID instead of the extension. This tab will interact with the electronic discovery loader s file type manager database making it possible to select files to include or exclude from the identified files tab. (Enable File Types must be selected.) When the Identified tab is first selected, it will indicate the File Count and a Description of <Unidentified>. To identify the files, click the Identify Files button. Page 1

2 Native File Summary Report After summarizing, a report may be generated for distribution to interested parties. The report will provide a basic summary of E-Docs, Archive Parent items, s, and attachments. It will then provide a File Type Detail breaking down each file type by extension, quantity and file size. The file type detail section is divided by E-Docs, s, and Totals to indicate the number of files contained in each source type. s contained within a mailstore are not calculated in the file type detail section. 1. Click the Reports button located on the File Type Summary dialog. The View Reports dialog will appear. 2. Select the Summarized Files by Native Extensions report. Click <View Report>. The Summarize Files by Native Extension report will appear. 3. Select <Print> to print the report or File-Save As to save the report. By default the report will be saved in an RDF format; however, reports can also be saved in Adobe *.PDF, Excel *.XLS, Text *.TXT, HTML *.HTM, or Tiff *.TIF format. Enter a File name; choose the appropriate type; then click <Save>. Saving File Summaries Summaries may be saved and accessed at a later date. This feature is often used when a file summary was performed to determine the course of action for the electronic discovery. Once a decision is made, the summary can be opened. File types can be specified for the import (files are identified and Enable File Filter must be selected), and then added to the Source Queue for import. To save a summary database: 1. Within the File Type Summary dialog, select the Save As button or choose File- Save As. The Save summary database dialog will appear. 2. Choose the location to which you wish to save the summary. Summary databases can be saved in any location desired. Choose a file name. The summary will be saved as an *.edsd file type. Click <Save>. The summary database is saved accordingly. Accessing a Saved Native File Summary Database A saved file type summary may be opened and reviewed. Once opened, the summary may be queued to the electronic discovery loader for processing. To open an existing file type summary: 1. Open or create the case. Select File-Import-Electronic Discovery. The LAW Electronic Discovery Loader will appear. 2. Select File-Open Summary. The Select summary database dialog will appear. Page 2

3 3. Browse to locate the appropriate summary database. Click <Open>. The File Type Summary dialog will appear. Review files if necessary. If preparing to process the files and Enable File Filtering is selected, select or deselect file types for import through the Identified tab. 4. The Summary Database can be used to add the sources to the source queue for import. Within the File Type Summary, select Tools-Enqueue. Sources selected at the time of the summary will be added to the Source Queue tab of the Electronic Discovery Loader. Any Source Name, Custodian, or Target Location selected at the time of obtaining the summary will be maintained. Note: In order to queue a summary database for import, the sources must reside in the location where they were originally located. Extracting Page Counts and Obtaining ED Reports Once documents are imported into LAW, estimated page counts and reports of supported and unsupported file types for TIFF conversion or printing may be obtained. The page counts and reports may be useful when determining courses of action for the project. Extracting Page Counts LAW provides estimated page counts for most of the common native file formats that have been imported into a LAW case via the Electronic Discovery Loader ("ED Loader"). These page counts may be obtained without printing to paper or converting the native file to TIFF. LAW performs the page count extraction by opening the files in the native application listed in the SourceApp field and retrieving the page count value. Since some source applications are unable to provide an exact page count without actually sending the document to a printer, the page counts returned using this process should only be considered an estimated page count. To obtain a more accurate page count, convert the native files to TIFF. The Extract ED Pages feature is located in the stand alone grid view. Only records visible in the stand alone grid will be processed. Therefore, the process can be executed on all records in the case at once or on certain subsets only. Extracting Page Counts: 1. In LAW's main user interface, select Tools-Display All Records on the toolbar. The Search Results dialog will appear displaying all records in the case. 2. Select Tools-Extract ED Page Counts. The Extract ED Page Counts dialog will appear, providing a status of the extraction page counts. Page 3

4 3. Once the page count is complete, a Page Count Extraction Complete dialog appears displaying the number of files processed, pages discovered, elapsed time, speed, and number of errors. 4. Click <OK> to close the Page Count Extraction dialog. If errors occurred during the process, a Page Count Extraction Error Log dialog will appear. 5. Click <Yes> to review errors. The Log Viewer will appear, providing a list of all errors received during the page count extraction. If <No> is selected, the error log may later be reviewed by selecting Tools-Log Viewer Page Count Extraction Logs from the main user interface. ED Pages Field The resulting page count estimates are logged for each record in the "EDPages" field. This field is created automatically if a case is enabled for electronic discovery when creating a new case in LAW. The EDPages field is also used to store the number of pages actually printed to paper when using the E-Print batch process. If this field does not exist in the case, it may have been created with an older version of LAW that did not create this field automatically. If this occurs, create the field manually using the field editor (Index-Modify Fields). Name the field EDPages, choosing Document-Level as the table and Numeric as the field type. The absence of the EDPages field can also indicate the case is not ED-enabled. This feature is not supported for non-ed records. Supported Source Applications Certain source applications do not support page count extraction, such as Microsoft Outlook and Quick View Plus. If a page count cannot be extracted, a warning message will be returned to the error log. Also, the page counts for items with a source application of Microsoft Excel will be estimated based on the TIFF/E-Print Excel print options currently set in the LAW case (Tools-Batch Process-Options-TIFF Options-Excel). For information on the source applications supported, a table is provided in the LAW Help file. Page 4

5 EDPageCount INI Settings Two INI settings relate to the page count extraction. One controls the amount of threads used for obtaining page counts. The second contains the length of time LAW will timeout on a document. Refer to the LAW Help file for information on these INI settings. Warning: Extracted page counts are estimates only. Converting the native files to TIFF or printing to paper will yield a more accurate page count result. Obtaining ED Reports Once documents are imported into LAW, a report of supported and unsupported file types for TIFF conversion or printing may be obtained. ED Reports are available through the stand alone grid view. To generate ED reports: 1. In LAW s main user interface, select Tools-Display All Records. The Search Results dialog will appear. 2. Select Tools-ED Reports. 3. The Report Preview dialog will appear. Four reports can be generated in LAW: Supported Files by Type: Lists all supported files loaded via ED Loader, grouped by file type. The term 'supported' refers to records that have an application assigned in the SourceApp field. The report contains paths to each file, a total count of supported files, and a count of supported files for each file type. If the EDPages field contains data, these values will also be included in the report. Unsupported Files by Type: Lists all unsupported files loaded via ED Loader, grouped by file type. The term 'unsupported' refers to records that do NOT have an application assigned in the SourceApp field (<No Source Specified>). The report contains paths to each file, a total count of unsupported files, and a count of unsupported files for each file type. If the EDPages field contains data, these values will also be included in the report. Supported Files by Type (Condensed version): This report is similar to the Supported Files by Type report, but does not include paths/filenames to each individual file. The report contains a total count of supported files and a count of supported files for each file type. If the EDPages field contains data, these values will also be included in the report. Unsupported Files by Type (Condensed version): This report is similar to the Unsupported Files by Type report, but does not include paths/filenames to each individual file. The report contains a total count of Page 5

6 unsupported files and a count of unsupported files for each file type. If the EDPages field contains data, these values will also be included in the report. 4. A watermark, such as a company logo, may be applied. To apply a watermark, check the Apply watermark to reports option; then, browse to locate the image file you wish to apply. The watermark will be applied to the upper right corner of the report. 5. Click the name of a report from the list or choose it from the "Selected Report" dropdown list. The Report Preview dialog will display the report. Once the report is opened, it can be printed (File-Print) or saved in PDF or HTML format (File-Save). Customized CSV Reports Within the Grid View or Session Viewer, CSV reports (File-Save As) of any displayed fields may be saved. When saving a report, only the fields displayed will be saved. Customized reports are often used for exception reporting on errored files. Session Viewer A session database is created each time electronic discovery is imported into LAW. The session database will provide information, such as errors and warnings, about the electronic documents selected for import. As a best practice, the Session Viewer should be the first point of quality control. It will provide you with information about the records created in LAW as well as files that were not imported into LAW. Opening the Session Viewer and Session Use one of the following methods to view a session: After a session has been imported, click the <View Logs> button on the Complete dialog. Through the LAW Electronic discovery Loader: 1. In LAW s main user interface, select File-Import-Electronic Discovery. The LAW Electronic Discovery Loader dialog will appear. 2. Select File-Sessions. The Session Browser appears, listing all sessions ran for the case so far. 3. Select the desired session. A summary about the session is displayed. The Status will indicate if the session was Completed or Cancelled (recoverable). 4. Click <View Session>. The Session Viewer will open the selected session. Page 6

7 Reviewing the Session Viewer The Session Viewer displays the session database in a grid view. Items appearing in bold are either parent documents or documents that are not, and have no, attachments. The Session Reviewer provides information about the session. While some records receiving warning or error messages are imported in LAW and recorded in the ErrorMsg field of the LAW database, other documents may not be imported. The Session Viewer will provide information about the documents selected for import. More importantly, it will provide you with information about the documents that were not imported into LAW. When reviewing the Session Viewer, special attention should be given to the following tabs: Incomplete: This indicates the file was inventoried, creating a record in the Session database, but has not been imported into LAW. Resuming a session will often resolve an incomplete item. Processing Errors: While documents receiving a processing error will typically be imported in LAW, it is recommended that you verify the record exists in LAW. The DocID can be used as a reference to ensure the document is imported. Commit Errors: A commit error is a result of the record not being committed to the LAW database. Commit errors should be addressed immediately. One method of resolving a commit error is to use the Insert-Electronic Documents feature. You may also want to review the following: SuspectExt: Files that were determined to have suspect extensions are listed in the SuspectExt tab. Interested parties should be made aware of any suspect extensions that appear to be intentionally changed. Looking at the metadata information may help to determine whether the files were intentionally altered. FT Filtered: If file filtering was enabled, this will provide a list of all files that were excluded or marked for exclusions based on file type. The file may or may not have been imported into LAW, depending on the action selected. Duplicate: If de-duplication was enabled, the action chosen will depend on whether the file was imported in LAW. Page 7

8 Exporting Session Data Data contained within the various tabs of the Session Viewer may be exported to a.csv or.txt file format. This feature is useful when generating reports. For example, you have enabled file filtering and chosen to exclude the files from the import (File Types). You wish to generate a report of all files that were excluded and provide the report to the appropriate parties. The following steps are necessary to create such a report. The directions assume the Session Viewer and appropriate session is already opened. 1. Choose the Tab containing the data you wish to export. For this example, FT Filtered is selected. 2. Within the Fields section, select the Fields you wish to export. For this example: Folder, Filename, DocExt, and FilterAct fields are chosen. 3. Select File-Save As. Enter a file name, file type, and location to save the file. Click <Save>. The current tab will be saved in either CSV or TXT format. Note: Each tab must be saved separately; there is currently no way to export all tabs at once through the Session Viewer. Opening the Session Viewer Outside of LAW The Session Viewer is its own application and may be opened outside of LAW. To open the session viewer: 1. Browse to the LAW executable directory. 2. Open the EDLoader folder and locate the EDLoaderLogViewer.exe. Launch the viewer. 3. If not already selected, locate and select the LAW case list (caselist.mdb). All cases contained within the case list will be available in the drop-down list. 4. Select the case you wish to view. The case will open, listing all sessions ran. The sessions are named by the Session Label identified at the time of import. 5. Highlight the appropriate session. The session data is now viewable in the Session Viewer. Page 8

9 Importing File Lists When selecting electronic discovery sources, it is possible to import only the files contained within a file list. The file list should be a text file containing at least the file name. If the path is included, additional steps for locating the files will not be necessary. Each filename will be separated by a hard return. The file list feature is most often used when specific files have already been identified through an initial review process, for example, a De-Nist list. The File List feature may also be useful for handling commit errors or excluded file types from the initial import provided the files were not contained within a mail store. Advanced Numbering Page and Document Numbering using Field Values LAW allows users to assign document-and or page-level numbers to records in a case. When a user-defined numbering scheme is assigned to a document-level index field, this is considered document-level numbering. To number records at a page-level, users may number the PageID field or a user-defined page-level index field (records with images only). When numbering, users will select to number at the page- or document-level. Once selected, the target field is chosen from user-created text fields. Finally, a starting number is assigned. If a value is entered, each page or document will increment by one. Field names may also be selected for numbering, offering additional flexibility. The following fields can be used when numbering field codes: &[Page] Current page of the document &[Pages] Total pages in document &[Page ID] Page ID value &[0] - &[ ] (12 zeroes) Displays an incrementing value starting at 1 and resets at the beginning of each document. The zeroes are used to format the string with zero padding &[<fieldname>] Valid for all other LAW fields The table below provides samples for using field values in numbering, the starting # that would be assigned, and a result sample. Page 9

10 Sample for Field Numbering Starting# Entry Result Sample Multiple custodians exist in the case. The scope of the project requires the document number to be the custodian followed by an underscore and a five digit number. &[Custodian]_00001 Custodian name; then incremental number at document level Smith_00001 Jones_00002 Documents have been converted to TIFF. A page level number will be assigned combining a document-level field (for this example ProdNo is used) and a page-level incremental number that will reset to 1 at the start of each document. Documents need to be named based on the production number field and filename. While the BateRange field can be exported out of LAW, it is not visible in the database grid. You would like for the Bate range to be populated in a field that may be displayed in the actual grid view. Note: The PageID must be populated to perform this action. Page number and page count needs to be assigned to a specified page-level field. &[ProdNo]_&[0000] &[ProdNO]_&[Filename] &[Begdoc#]-&[Enddoc#] &[Page]-&[Pages] Combines document number to page-level number, restarting page level numbering with each new document. Doc0001_0001 Doc0001_0002 Doc0002_0001 Combines the ProdNO and FileName field. Doc0001_LAWHowTo.doc Document-level field (BatesRange2) is populated with the BegDoc# and EndDoc#. ABC00001-ABC00005 ABC00006-ABC00009 Enters the page number in the field; then page count Page 10

11 Document Numbering for Attachments Certain venues require a specific standard of numbering documents with parent/attachment relationships. Documents are to be numbered incrementally; all groups (parent/attachments) are to be named by the document id of the parent record followed by a suffix containing the attachment number and attachment count as seen in the sample below: ABC0001[00-02] - Parent ABC0001[01-02] Attachment 1 ABC0001[02-02] Attachment 2 ABC0002 Document without an attachment ABC0003[00-01]-Parent ABC0003[01-01] - Attachment The Use document level attachment numbering option located under Tools- Options-Preferences will force LAW to assign a special suffix to a user-specified document-level number scheme for parent and attachment records. When document-level numbering is applied, documents with parent/attachment relationships will appear similar to the sample below. Optimizing Document Numbering-Auto Increment Field An alternative to assigning document numbering through batch process is to use an autoincrement field and the batch update feature in the grid view. Using this feature will yield faster results when numbering documents, because it is eliminating the overhead required in batch processing. To number documents in this manner: 1. Create a new document-level field such as DocID_New, and set to auto-increment. 2. Open the grid to all documents or a subset of documents to be numbered. 3. Click the batch update icon, selecting the DocID_New field, and then enter a starting number. Since the field is auto-increment, the documents will be numbered logically from the starting number. Note: If the actual DocID field needs to re-numbered, unlock the DocID field, and use the copy feature to copy the DocID_New field to the DocID field. Page 11

12 Removing an Endorsement not Created in the LAW Database Images have been imported into LAW with an existing Bates Number. It is evident the Bates number was electronically labeled. The number needs to be removed or a new label needs to be assigned. LAW will need to be fooled to think it performed the endorsement. Understanding how the LAW endorsement process works: LAW s endorsement process works by appending a blank area to the top or bottom of an image, creating the header and footer sections, and then stamping the specified text onto the image. Once an endorsement is applied to an image, the tblpage table in the LAW database will reflect a header and/or footer. For example, if you applied a Bates label endorsement of.25 as a footer in your LAW case, then the database will reflect a value of 25 in the page-level footer field. If endorsed in LAW, it is easy to remove the endorsement by simply removing any values from the header/footer options and re-running the Endorse process. In this example, the database value is 25, telling LAW to remove.25 from the bottom and/or top, literally chopping off the bottom or top of the image accordingly. In another situation, the current LAW case did not create the actual endorsement and therefore LAW does not have size information about the existing endorsement in the database header/footer fields. In order to remove the header/footer, you will need to trick LAW into thinking the images were actually endorsed within the LAW case. This will then allow LAW to remove the existing header or footer. To remove an endorsement from an image that LAW is unaware of, follow these steps: 1. Create a back up of the LAW case. 2. Close all instances of LAW. 3. You will need to add a command line switch in order to edit the header and footer fields in the LAW database grid. To do this: right-click on the LAW shortcut and select Properties. The Shortcut tab should appear. You should see something similar to C:\Program Files\Law50\LAW50.exe in the target field. 4. The /su command will make the header/footer field available for editing. To add this in the target line: enter a space and /su after the target path. The path should then appear similar to the following string: C:\Program Files\Law50\LAW32.exe /su. 5. Click <OK> and close the Properties dialog. 6. Open LAW, and then open your case. 7. Open the Stand Alone grid view by selecting Tools->Display All Records or by clicking the globe icon. 8. Since headers and footers are page-level fields, you will need to perform a query returning all pages. Page 12

13 a. Choose Query->Query Builder or click the binocular icon. The Query Builder dialog will appear. b. Place a check in the box to the left of Return all Page IDs with query results. c. Click <Accept>. All records will be returned at a page level. 9. From the Search Results grid, unlock the header/footer fields by selecting Tools- >Unlock Header/Footer. A warning message will appear indicating these fields will be editable if unlocked. Select <Yes>. A second dialog will appear indicating the fields have been unlocked and the supported values for those fields. 10. Currently, the Header/Footer values should indicate 0. You will want to replace these with the appropriate value. The header/footers are on a 1/100 scale. So.25 is 25,.50 is 50,.75 is 75, and so forth. To replace the field: a. Select Edit->Replace. b. In the Find What field, enter 0 (presuming that 0 is the current value). c. In the Replace With field, enter the margin size of the pre-existing header/footer you wish to remove (see scale above). If you want to remove a ¼ inch footer, then type 25. d. In the Search section, choose Selected Field, and then choose Footer. e. Now choose Replace All. All 0 footer values are updated to the value entered. (In this example 25.) 11. Once the footer values have been replaced in the database, go to the Batch Process utility (Tools-Batch Process). Select Options-Header/Footer. The Header/Footer dialog will appear. Set the Header/Footer margin sizes to None, remove any values contained within the header/footer sections, then click <OK> to close the Header/Footer dialog. 12. In the Batch Process dialog, select Endorse, and then <Begin>. The image will be cropped according to the value(s) entered in the header/footer fields of the database. For example, if 25 was entered for the footer, the bottom.25 will be removed from the image. WARNING: You are editing the original image by removing portions of the images from the header and/or footer. If the size specified in the header or footer field is too large, it could possibly remove important document data from the image. It is recommended to run a few samples prior to running the entire batch process to ensure the correct height has been selected. It is not recommended that you attempt this when the hardcopy is scanned with a Bates label, regardless if it is obvious that the Bates label contained on the hard copy is that of an electronic endorsement. This is because different scanners will pull pages through differently and while the Bates label looks like it is in a consistent location, it may be off a bit resulting in unfavorable results. HINT: The header/footer removal may be a solution for removing a date generated when processing s as MSG files. Page 13