Forensically Sound Copies

When you copy a file from one place to another, do you know for a fact that you have an exact copy? Midwest does. When you make those copies, could you prove in court that they are an exact copy? Midwest could. Can you copy multiple documents from many different locations on your network, all at the same time? Midwest can. When native files need to be copied from your clients system, ensuring that all the metadata is intact does your vendor go on site to collect that data, without leaving a “footprint” on their system that they were there? Midwest will.

With only a Pen Drive, and an external drive, Midwest can very quickly copy Gigabytes of data from one source to another, guaranteeing that the files are all exact copies of the original. This process requires no software to download to the clients system, so there is no “footprint” left to muck up their system. We can also generate a chain of custody report that will show that each file is an exact MD5 hash duplicate of the original file.

Last 2 questions. When you send electronic discovery to your vendor to process, will they ensure that every last bit of metadata is kept intact and captured when they copy it to their system – especially date created (often ruined by copying)? Do they have people you can put on the stand and testify as such? Midwest does. Contact Rick Stieghorst for a project quote.

TIFF vs. PDF
When Producing Documents, Which Should You Get?

by Rick Stieghorst

This topic seems to come up again and again. What is the best format for imaging documents? You know the answer: It depends. I will skip the technical stuff for now, and get right to the meat of this issue. For most legal review or production, TIF images are your best bet. When using a legal database (like Concordance or Summation), Midwest recommends: single page TIF’s (JPG’s for color documents) with corresponding OCR and load file.

TIF is one of the simplest, most stable and well defined image formats (PDF’s are technically a text format), and is very easy for all legal software to use. There really is not a lot you can do to a TIF (other than some compression settings), which makes it so versatile for legal programs to use. TIF’s 2 disadvantages are they tend to be larger than most of the other formats, and they do not contain searchable text.

For just about any other use, PDF’s are an excellent choice. OCR can be contained within the documents. Color and detail are often very rich. Unless you are using Acrobat 8.0 professional, be careful of doing redactions in PDF’s as the text is still contained in a searchable PDF.

So, that is the short answer. Here is the longer and more complete answer (not highly technical).

PDF – Portable Document Format (.pdf). Developed by Adobe Systems to use documents independent of their original format. In other words, you don’t need 10 different programs to view 10 different file types, just Acrobat reader.

• PDF’s are also system independent, meaning it does not matter what type of operating system or hardware you have, you can still view and use PDF documents. This makes them very easy to use on the internet and in sending as an e-mail.
• PDF’s are technically a text file format. The advantage to this is that you can manipulate the file in various ways such as; adding hyperlinks, watermarks and signing, bookmarks, and security.
• PDF files are smaller than most image files, so storage space can be held to a minimum.
• PDF image and text characteristics tend to display well in most outputs, and print extremely well using a high quality printer.
• PDF’s can be “searchable” in themselves. There is no need for a separate .txt file for OCR.
• Once something is converted to a PDF file, it is much more difficult to extract it out of that format. This is especially true for multi-page PDF’s and PDF’s with searchable text. If you have an inkling that you may do more with these documents, PDF may not be the route to go.
  * NOTE: PDF files seem to be the preferred type for most court e-filing.
  

TIFF – Tag Image File Format (.tif). Developed by Aldus as a better postscript printing tool than the traditional bitmap (.bmp), it is the Image file of choice for most software and hardware applications. By the way, Aldus is a part of Adobe. Other mainstream image file formats (JPEG, GIF and Bitmap) while useful for creating computer graphics and photographs, have their disadvantages for broad business applications.

• No data corruption. Meaning you get exactly what you image. Also meaning it is easy to convert and keep your original image.
• Extremely universal. Almost every computer has a viewer that is installed free of charge.
• Best multi-page format. (You can go from multi-page TIFF to multi-page PDF, but you cannot go from multi-page PDF to multi-page TIFF)
• Better grey-scale images.
• Uncompressed, the file size of Tiffs is very large, making storage more difficult.
  

So, PDF or TIFF, either one is good. It really depends on what you are going to do with the image.

When choosing a vendor to handle your eDiscovery processing the following checklist can be used to make sure that the processing is happening at the level of expertise expected.

1. Identification of the document association. Make sure you capture the parent/child relationship of documents. This allows you to pull in documents that are related, not because of a keyword search – but because it is associated with a document that had a keyword or name hit.
2. When working with drawings etc. in a production, make sure your vendor is utilizing the dot extension research to open up those less common software types. A “can’t open” response should be followed by an explanation of what due diligence was done to ensure the statement is accurate.
3. Eliminate the larger spreadsheets that print hundreds, and sometimes, thousands of pages of blank pages – only to put a total on the last page. This is a waste of tiffing time, or paper if you print.
4. Ensure that your vendor is opening up the larger files to assess the data that is included. If it is software products and key code, it may not make sense to process it. A representative sample can easily be provided to serve as a place card for the document’s production.
5. Request a report of your CD/DVD/Hard Drive contents. It allows you to focus on the document types that could quickly provide substance. This also allows you to prioritize the areas of focus, once you see the “bigger picture”.

Maintenance: The Gift That Keeps On Giving

Anyone ticked off about Maintenance? I don’t mean the matrimonial type – I’m discussing the checks we make out on an annual basis for a software product we thought we already purchased.

When deciding on the investments your firm or law department are going to make technologically, don’t forget to factor in the years of maintenance. Since Midwest does extensive electronic discovery, all that related software must be maintained. Midwest has multiple licenses to manage the process and budgets over $12,000 annually just to maintain the scanning and eDiscovery product lines. This does not cover the maintenance charges related to Trial Director; Summation and Concordance. Oh My.

Maintenance is meant to cover the research and development costs incurred in trying to stay ahead of the advancing product lines. Midwest has assisted in several instances in identifying problem “features” that need to be tweaked. It is also our normal coarse to not upgrade to a new product line, until the extension or (update to the update) has been released.

eDiscovery?
You Hate Computers & You're Too Young To Retire, Now What?

By Shawn Olley

Midwest has established a wide range of assistance to match the wide range of attorney users that are working through the eDiscovery world.

• What is the cheapest way to handle a disk of pdf’s?
• What is the most efficient way to handle a production of email?
• Do you want documents in pdf or should they be in tiff?
• Can you have the corporation’s in-house team just copy the requested documents?
• What happens when there are questions on retrieval from the court?
• What’s the best way to convert everything to paper the way you are comfortable with your documents?

First of all, paper is available. I doubt war rooms and case files will ever completely disappear. If you define how you want your files, Midwest’s staff can work to get the media to match. As familiarity with the process increases the comfort factor, in-house staff can be trained to take on whatever matches the skill set.

If you are interested in consulting on a project, contact Glenn Hertel at (414) 764-2772.

Paralegal Fees Are Recoverable
US Supreme Court!
See: No. 06–1717. Argued March 19, 2008—Decided June 2, 2008

After prevailing against the Government on a claim originating in the Department of Transportation’s Board of Contract Appeals, petitioner (Richlin) filed an application with the Board for reimbursement of attorney’s fees, expenses, and costs, pursuant to the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA). The Board concluded, inter alia, that Richlin was not entitled to recover paralegal fees at the rates at which it was billed by its law firm, holding that EAJA limited such recovery to the attorney’s cost, which was lower than the billed rate. In affirming, the Federal Circuit concluded that the term “fees,” for which EAJA authorizes recovery at “prevailing market rates,” embraces only the fees of attorneys, experts, and agents. Held: A prevailing party that satisfies EAJA’s other requirements may recover its paralegal fees from the Government at prevailing market rates.

Bon Voyage Marge!!!

Marge Kilpatrick retired from the Eastern District Court. If you had the pleasure of working with Marge, you know she was the systems administrator for the Court. She handled the electronic filing process. The Eastern District is currently looking for a replacement for Marge.

• Shawn Olley spoke at the Madison, MATC paralegal program on resume and job searching guidelines. Shawn has given this presentation two other years and really enjoys meeting the graduating students of the program. May 27, 2008
• Rick Stieghorst spoke at the Paralegal Association of Wisconsin annual seminar on Friday, May 16, 2008. His topic was FREDS - Computer Forensics and eDiscovery.
• John Powers, former intern at Midwest, made the Dean’s List at the University of Minnesota.

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