Electronic Discovery
Production
Production means providing copies of relevant records to opposing counsel in an agreed-upon format for use during discovery and at trial. Depending on the volume of data to be produced, production may be made on paper, on CD/DVDs, on hard drives, or a combination of these formats.
- There are pros and cons to using the various types/classes of production (native, near-native, near-paper, and paper)
- Various forms of production include: files, searchable text, fielded data, load files, other metadata, etc.
- Form of production should be agreed upon with opposing counsel early in litigation (Rule 26(f)). Parties should weigh the pros and cons of native production or image documents with load files, for example.
- In cases with voluminous ESI, consider having records of key custodians produced first and prioritize further production on a rolling basis
- Consider that some data is excluded when records are converted to images, e.g., Excel formulas and hidden cells, blind carbon recipients and "date read" are not available when spreadsheets and emails are converted to image form; PowerPoint notes may not automatically be converted and animations may not work; comments and/or track-changes may or may not appear in converted Word documents
How 
Can Help
- Prepare paper or electronic files (in various formats, with electronic Bates numbers, and with or without load files) for opposing counsel
- Ensure Excel files are properly formatted if produced in image format
- Provide objective data coding and/or OCR’d text to facilitate and improve searching abilities
- Establish a rolling production schedule for voluminous ESI
- Electronically redact privileged or confidential information properly to ensure it is cannot be revealed
- Electronically add Bates numbers or "confidential" stamps prior to production
- Organize paper documents in tabbed notebooks
- Prepare / generate production and/or privilege logs
