Adobe Document Production - Steps to Take

Example of using PDF's for document production

1) Prepare documents that you have received by sorting into significant piles.

-Sometimes the documents are inherently organized (i.e. they are kept in folders etc)
-If they are in folders then create separator pages with the names of the folders
-If there is a correspondence file then put the correspondence in chronological order (from oldest in the front to most recent at the end)
-Do any other organizing that will make sense in the context of working with scanned documents

2) Scan documents to one large PDF file

-(exception: if the file is larger than 1000 documents make each batch of 1000 a single file); and if there are multiple files then you will have to renumber them to match the bates numbers later

3) Comb throught the documents quickly to identify possible privilege documents

-Pull the potentially privileged documents out of the files, and put them in a separate file
-Bates number the files that you have left (and this will require renumbering if there is more than one file) you will want to keep a digital back up copy of the file you are working on bates-numbering in case you make a mistake otherwise you will have to rescan etc.

4) Produce the Bates numbered files on disk, or in paper format

-If you convince the other side that the disk is more useful than paper then you can charge back some of the scanning cost (which is a sunk cost to you, so anything you get back is gravy); if not, then give them paper, charge them for the full cost of copying, and laugh heartily whenever they fumble around for documents that they have lost or can't find quickly.

5) Review the documents quickly and bookmark highly significant documents

-Do this quickly and only pick the most salient; you will go back later and look for the more significant stuff.
-After flagging the most significant stuff you can go through in more depth and enter data in CaseMap, Summation or other case managment tool
-If using CaseMap you will need to enter the cast of characters first (i.e. it is best to enter as many of the key names and players before you start entering data so you don't have to slow down and do this while entering data, although invariably you will come upon names of bit-players in the events that you will have to enter.
-The point here is to have a chronological index of events. You are starting with documents, but later depositions will add to the dated information and so will key events that aren't recorded in documents

6) After entering the data in, say, CaseMap you now have a complete chronology of all events that involve documents

-Later you can replicate the information in the "Objects" field for documents, and then assign to a paralegal the task of adding the author, recipient, and cc'd fields (which will be easy for them to do).
 

Last update: 6/21/2002; 10:23:21 PM.