Seamus E. Byrne's - In Pursuit of Relevance

Preliminary

Document numbering when producing discoverable documents is readily made more difficult than it should be!

Document Numbering - Why?

Dealing with an ever-increasing volume of discoverable documents, litigators, and the Court, must be able to easily identify and manage their documents.  This is most commonly facilitated by uniquely numbering each document (or each page of a document) with a Document Identifier (Document ID) (not dissimilar to the concept of Bates numbering).

With a unique identifier, documents may be efficiently managed independently or within the additional feature set provided by a litigation support system.

A capable litigation support system generally provides:

1. Integrated document search/filtering, review and tag functionality; and
2. Automated generation (and export) of Document Lists for exchange.

Disclaimer: eDiscovery Tools offers Reviewer, an online (web-based) document review platform and litigation support system.

Document Numbering - When?

The particulars of document numbering in a particular proceeding should be agreed to as early as possible in the proceeding (i.e. prior to commencement of discovery, or at the latest, prior to the processing of documents for discovery).

The particulars of document numbering should be agreed to between all parties and recorded in a document management protocol (protocol).

Document Numbering - Historical Perspective for Paper-Based Documents

Traditionally, paper-based documents would be physically stamped or affixed with a barcode containing a Document ID.

Document Numbering – Today

Electronic Stamping

Fortunately, many software utilities are available to 'electronically stamp' Document ID's to discoverable documents when converted to an electronic image format (e.g. TIFF or PDF).

Conversion to an electronic image format may occur by:

1. Scanning paper-based documents into an electronic image format; or
2. Converting electronic documents and e-mail, in their native format, to an electronic image format.

Disclaimer: eDiscovery Tools Processor is used by a large number of Global 100 law firms, professional services firms and government legal to process, electronically stamp and produce electronic documents and e-mail.

Electronic Stamping Location

Depending on the protocol agreed to, you will likely need to stamp the Document ID in a particular area of the page (e.g. top-right, bottom-right, top-left, bottom-left).

Where large volumes of documents are electronically stamped, it is recommended that these are reviewed by a paralegal or litigation support staff, as a matter of quality control, to ensure that the Document ID does not cover any required and/or notable content.

Document Numbering Methodologies

Traditional - Page Count

In Australian courts, the traditional method of document numbering may be observed as the following (or similar):
SSS.BBB.FFF.PPPPP_NN

What does the above five-level document numbering protocol represent?

1. SSS - Source or Party Code: Represents a three (3) character, alphanumeric string, identifying a party to the proceedings;
2. BBB - Box: Represents a three (3) character, numeric string, identifying a specific physical archive box or e-mail mailbox (Optional);
3. FFF - Folder: Represents a three (3) character, numeric string, identifying a specific physical or electronic folder;
4. PPPPP - Page: Represents a five (5) character, numeric string, identifying a page (of a document, within the folder);
5. _NN - Page Insert: Represents a two (2) character, numeric string, preceded by an underscore, which may be used where subsequent pages need to be inserted within an pre-ordered series of pages, forming a document (e.g. where pages from a paper document were originally not scanned) (Optional).

A Document ID generated using this protocol may be:
ABC.001.002.00001

This represents that a document, discovered by party 'ABC', begins on the first page, in the second folder of the first box. For the purposes of this example, this document is an e-mail, which when converted to PDF, is five (5) A4 pages in size.

The subsequent Document ID generated using this protocol would be:
ABC.001.002.00006

You should note that:

1. The Document ID is generally referenced as the first page of the relevant document;
2. Where a particular count (e.g. Page Count) does not 'fill out' the available field length, padding with zeroes is used to ensure document numbering length consistency;
3. In this example, a full-stop is used as a 'separator' to separate the levels of document numbering. However, unless specified, a separator does not need to be used, an underscore can be used as an alternate separator; and
4. When producing a discoverable document, it should be electronically stamped with its Document ID and the  filename of exchanged document should also reflect this, e.g. ABC.001.002.00001.pdf.

Emerging - Document Count

With a progressive move for parties to exchange documents in their native form, it is not feasible to 'count by pages', due to the fact it is not a uniform metric when dealing with spreadsheets, databases, etc.

This has lead to the emerging trend of simply assigning a 'Document Count' to each document to effectively replace the traditional 'Page Count'.

In Australian courts, the emerging method of document numbering may be observed as the following (or similar):
SSS.BBB.FFF.DDDDD

What does the above four-level document numbering protocol represent?

1. SSS - Source or Party Code: Represents a three (3) character, alphanumeric string, identifying a party to the proceedings;
2. BBB - Box: Represents a three (3) character, numeric string, identifying a specific physical archive box or e-mail mailbox (Optional);
3. FFF - Folder: Represents a three (3) character, numeric string, identifying a specific physical or electronic folder; and
4. DDDDD - Document: Represents a five (5) character, numeric string, identifying a page (of a document, within the folder).

A Document ID generated using this protocol may be:
ATO.001.002.00001

This represents that a document, discovered by party 'ATO', is the first document, in the second folder of the first box.

Regardless of how many pages the document contains, the subsequent Document ID generated using this protocol is the next sequential document number:
ABC.001.002.00002

You should note that:

1. This emerging document numbering method may be used for discoverable documents in their native format OR as a 'one count' identifier for documents converted to an electronic image format.
2. When producing a discoverable document in native form, it is unlikely that you will be able to electronically stamp the contents of the native document. Consequently, it is essential that the filename of an exchanged document reflects the assigned Document ID, e.g. ABC.001.002.00001.xls (Where a Microsoft® Excel® spreadsheet has been exchanged in native format).