Specific Bates-Numbered Production

This technical note explains how to produce documents using specific Bates order (by upload time).

General

The Lexbe eDiscovery Platform (LEP) does not automatically allow for production of the specific Bates order. Within the application, it Bates numbers by Privilege & Work-Product documents and then Doc Title. This means that the production set is broken into two parts. The first part is the documents to be produced and the second part (anything Privilege or Work-Product) is documents withheld. Within each category, the documents are sorted by Doc Title.

If the user has a collection of scanned documents, date coding will be required.  If the user has uploaded by named batch, it is possible to run productions one at a time, by batch, and that will meet the goal of grouping by batch for Bates numbering (but not a specific order within). Getting a specific order within batches may be achieved by adding Doc Dates or adding numbers to the beginning of titles (e.g., 01 Any Doc, or Statements 01 Any Doc). It is possible to bulk rename titles before upload using third party software such as Bulk Rename Utility.

Options within LEP to Control Bates Order of Documents:

1) Modify document titles to be ordered. Rename documents with leading numbers to get the desired order. 

For example, multiple BEDROCK SOFTWARE documents could be renamed to:

-01 BEDROCK SOFTWARE

-02 BEDROCK SOFTWARE

-03 BEDROCK SOFTWARE

-04 BEDROCK SOFTWARE, etc., either within LEP after uploaded or before upload.  Bates naming in Doc Title order would achieve the desired effect.

Alternatively, name the documents using the upload folder:

2011-09-30 BEDROCK SOFTWARE 01

2011-09-30 BEDROCK SOFTWARE 02

2011-09-30 BEDROCK SOFTWARE 03

2011-09-30 BEDROCK SOFTWARE 04

This methods would permit the user to do larger productions (across upload folders). Renaming may be done in Excel using the Metadata Upload. 

2) Apply beginning Bates numbers to the documents in the desired order using the Document viewer, Doc tab or using the Metadata Upload, with edits done in Excel.

In either case, code the Bates prefix and beginning Bates number. This requires the user to note the page numbers of the document (a column in Browse or may be downloaded in Excel) and manually (or in Excel) increment to the next starting Bates number.  Instead of running a Production, the user would download the documents to produce to a Briefcase, selecting to print the Bates number as a Briefcase selection.

This method is not best practice as it bypasses the logic of Productions, and therefore, the user would need to check the Briefcase very carefully, to avoid producing privileged or work-product documents.  Use the redacted version of documents, not the original or PDF version. Native files should not be produced in this method without careful review as they might include privileged information in files or containers.  

Consider adding a date to the beginning of documents in the form YYYY-MM-DD Statement, when scanning documents.  This would allow the desired title sort.

Further Assistance

We offer Project Management and Professional Services (billable hourly) to support production.  Contact your Sales Consultant for a quote or professionalservices@lexbe.com.