File Types
I just couldn’t help it when I found this image. My German Shepherd gives me this look all of the time but it’s the same way
I feel when I’m handed a CD from a client that didn’t request the production in a certain file format.
Do you remember when we received a production from opposing counsel and the challenge was, “where are we going to store all of these boxes?” With today’s technology being incorporated into the law firm, that problem has somewhat diminished but brings with it another challenge, what is that? When the attorney hands you a CD, DVD or a hard drive and you spend an hour or two trying to identify what they gave you, that’s a problem. Let’s discuss some of the things you might find on a CD and what they provide you.
In the past, I have had several paralegals, vendors and attorneys receive a CD with single page .tiff files and go through the painful and tedious job of identifying where one document begins and ends. So let me ask you this, would you ever allow opposing counsel to shop up at your office with a box of unstapled documents and throw them up in the air in response to your production? In essence, that what you’re allowing by using your time to identify how the documents were maintained in the ordinary course of business. Unless opposing counsel was really trying to be dirty, chances are there is a load file on the CD somewhere! Understand that when you’re using a database to review documents, they are scanned in at a single page level. This provides the application to be able to open the document faster and regroup them if necessary. It is the load file that instructs the database whether a document is one page or five pages and they are fed in accordingly.
In any case, different offices use different applications so depending on whether the load file is coming from a vendor or opposing counsel will dictate the various types of files you might encounter. Educating the attorneys about how to request the files within the Request for Production based on your needs and protocols is preferable if possible.
Before we take a look at these files, remember that if you receive anything in any type of an electronic format, you’re already ahead of the game. Please don’t start printing, there is a way to take those files and convert them for loading into your review platform. Let’s talk about the different files and what they offer:
Browser Briefcase: This is a file format proprietary to Summation and is the result of briefcasing a group of documents and providing them to a party that does not own Summation. Summation installs a viewer in the browser briefcase which can be accessed with an Internet Explorer “browser”. If you receive a Browser Briefcase from opposing counsel, go back to them and ask them to export it as a .sbf file since you have Summation and this will allow you to drop their documents right into your case.
Control List: The method for loading text documents into the ocrBase and is intended for scenarios where you are batch loading a large number of OCR documents, but not the images associated with those documents. A control list is an ASCII text file that contains the data necessary to link OCR documents to database records. If you’ve loaded your documents and the OCR did not load you should either see if there is something wrong with the .dii file or look for the control list, “.lst”.
DAT file: is really no different than a .csv file. It is important to identify the fields of data that are being delivered within the .dat file so that you can match them to a field in your database or create one. It also has delimiters that should have been requested on the front end. If not, you should be able to make adjustments at the “setup” before the import. Of course, you can also do a full global search and replace to get the data imported but sometimes that can become frustrating. A .dat file only loads the text and does not load images.
CSV File: A CSV file is commonly described as a ‘Comma Delimited File’ or a ‘Character Separated File’. The second description is more accurate since any character including the comma, can be used to delineate each piece of data. CSV files are used to import data into most databases from another database, spreadsheet or electronic discovery. You would use this file in lieu of the .edii file but would also need a .dii file to get the images into the database.
DCB, INI, KEY, LAYOUT, NDX, TAG, TEX, TRK files: are all related to Concordance. Of course you would need Concordance to open any of these related files.
Dii Loading: The Dii file (document image information) is the load file which is a proprietary Summation file and is used to batch load images, OCR, and objective coding into the database. The Dii file instructs Summation on the unitization of the documents in the database so that the team reviews the discovery as it would otherwise appear in a file cabinet with appropriate page breaks. You can use a dii file to load images without OCR or objective coding.
eDii: The eDii file (electronic document image information) is the load file which is a proprietary Summation file and is used to batch load images and data extracted from native files. The eDii file instructs Summation on the unitization of the documents in the database so that the team reviews the discovery as it would otherwise appear in a file cabinet with appropriate page breaks in addition to loading data into fields such as TO, FROM, E-MAIL DATE, SUBJECT, BODY, etc
EDRM XML: The Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) Project was created to address the lack of standards and guidelines in the electronic discovery market. The goal of the EDRM XML project is to provide a standard, generally accepted XML schema to facilitate the movement of electronically stored information (ESI) from one step of the electronic discovery process to the next, from one software program to the next, and from one organization to the next. The ESI includes both underlying discovery materials (e.g., email messages and attachments, loose files, and databases) and information about those materials (e.g., the source of the underlying ESI, processing of that ESI, and production of that ESI). Summation’s Enterprise system is EDRM compliant.
LFP file: the .lfp file indicates the documents were prepared using IPro’s software. Many of the service bureaus use this application. The benefit is that IPro has a free utility that will convert the .lfp file to a variety of formats in particular, a .dii file. Visit IPro’s web page for the free download.
OPT File: is a Concordance load file that can be converted using Ipro’s Converter+ to create a load file that will work in almost any litigation support software tool;
PDF: (multi-page) files are helpful since they identify where one document begins and another ends. Don’t start printing to re-scan them as single page files. There are conversion tools available that will convert them to single page tif files and generate a load file based on the breaks specifically for your review platform.
PST file: Is the acronym for personal storage folder in Microsoft Outlook. Upon exporting a personal file folder from Outlook, a .pst file is created. If you receive a PST file, I would recommend creating a dummy case and then use the E-Discovery console to load the .pst file to sneak a peak and identify search terms and dates ranges before having the data processed.
SBF: A file format propriety to Summation and is used to bundle documents and/or transcripts which can be imported or exported electronically. SBF files delivered from a court reporter are a bundle of both the transcript and deposition exhibits and even the video if applicable. However, an .sbf file delivered from opposing counsel would be a bundle of documents that can be dropped right into your Case Explorer tree and subsequently merged into your Core Database.
TIF: (single pages) – this should be an alarm to you that a load file exists somewhere. If single pages were produced to you and are useless since they don’t identify where one document begins and another starts, they are useless to opposing counsel as well. As for a load file, even if it is not a load file for your review platform, chances are it can be converted.
TXT File: A text file is one which holds just text with no document formatting information. They are the most basic type of file and so can be opened with any text editor or word processor. TXT files are used to import data into most databases from another database, spreadsheet or electronic discovery.
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