Lexis LAW PreDiscovery - Importing ESI

If you try to import files into LAW which are at a path containing more than 260 characters, LAW will copy the files to a temporary location so they can be processed.

In LAW, you can get detailed lists of file types used by different operatings systems (Windows, MAC, Linux, even Atari!), different file categories (graphic, database, etc.), and those used by common applications (such as Adobe Acrobat, MS Outlook, Corel WordPerfect et al.) Go to File . . . Import . . . Electronic Discovery , then Tools . . . File Type Manager. You'll see different groups in the menu to the left, which can be export to an Access database by going to File . . . Save as.

By default LAW supports importing ESI from archive files such WinZip, 7Zip, and RAR files, and will automatically extract the contents of these files. It can also handle compound documents - so for example it will extract an Excel spreadsheet embedded in Word document.

LAW contains a Auto Assign Suspect Extensions module that will ressign extensions in the case of files with extensions that don't match their actual file type. This should save you the trouble of having to identify files using a Hex Editor.

When performing de-NISTing (the removal of system files) LAW makes reference to SHA-1 hash values from a database of the National Institute of Standards and Technology - it doesn't just make reference to file extensions.

Lexis LAW PreDiscovery - Fields & Folders

If you want to change the default fields for a new case in LAW, edit the 'Default.xml' file saved at C:\Program Files (x86)\Law50\Templates . If you open this .xml file in a text editor like NotePad ++ you can just copy down the information between <Field1> and the second reference to <Field1> and modify the values as needed. There is a field type option that works by references to numbers. Text is 0 and Memo is 3.

LAW functions like Access in that a text field can only be 255 characters, but the Memo field any be any length but is not indexed. Be careful when you alter the field types. If you change a date field to a text field any invalid dates will be erased.

If you want to set up a series of values to choose from in a field, go to Index . . . Modify Fields . . . choose a field that is type 'List' and choose Edit List from the top toolbar. You will then be able to import a long list of values. Just save a text file listing the values you need with simple returns, and change the extension to '.lst'.

There's also an option to 'Add all new list field values to list on update' under Tools . . . Option . . . Preferences, that will update the drop down list for field with any entries made during coding.

Fields in LAW must be on one of three levels. PageID gets applied to individual pages (e.g., header, footer, page color, etc.); DocID is for documents (Author, Recipient, DocTitle), but not specific pages; Extended table data are meta data values created for documents during the import process into LAW.

Note that by default LAW will process folders in alphabetical order. A series of folders can be created by going to Folder . . .Auto Create N Folders .

Lexis LAW PreDiscovery - Early Data Analyzer

Lexis LAW comes with a separate application (or module) called Early Data Analyzer. EDA can be used to filter out or cull data, and reduce the overall cost of electronic discovery, based on several criteria:

1. File hashes - for files that do not contain user related data.

2. Duplicates

3. Date ranges.

4. File types.

5. Email sender domain.

6. Language

Note that EDA makes it possible to export email threads without attachments that are filtered out.

EDA has settings for analysis which give you the option to use either MD5 or SHA1 either across custodian sources, and within individual custodians. Text extraction can be skipped in order to improve performance. Language identification analysis can be restricted to only a specified number of KB from the beginning of a file, or restricted to only 'common languages'.

The Indexing features can be modified to ignore or include accents, make text case sensitive, or insert spaces between Asian language characters. Email addresses, dates, and credit card numbers can also be automatically identified.

During the import process LAW will generate an exception log which will indicate which files it could not recognize or process.

EDA has a Global Dashboard which allows it to take advantage of the processing power of multiple networked computers.

In addition to endorsing documents with bates numbers, and indexing text extracted from native files, LAW EDA has two different programs which can render OCR, Abbyy FineReader and ExperVision OpenRTK. As noted in the Tip of the Night for May 16, 2015 different kinds of OCR software will generate different results. Abbyy is 2 to 3 times slower than OpenRTK but it supports Asian language characters, can run multiple instances on a single PC, and can generate PDF/A files. See the Tip of the Night for September 25, 2015. EDA can be configured to detect multiple columns of text on a page while OCRing, and also be modified to deal differently with dot matrix, typewritten, or laser & inkjet printed pages.