Litigation Technology – The Knight Writer

Discovery and Mac Users

Mac1 I have dealt with issues lately with opposing counsel asking that I convert electronic discovery into a format for their Macs. I won’t tell you what I REALLY said but I have always been very rigid about turning over data to opposing counsel in the way we have received it. This issue with law firms having Macs and discovery defies common sense. Let’s say it like this….if we were turning over paper that was in Chinese, would we be responsible for translating those documents? Heck no. No one would trust the other side for translating it for them.

Another thing about these Mac-only firms. That can’t be an excuse. Just go out and buy a Windows laptop. Goodness sakes people.

So what are we – as litigation technology specialists – supposed to do with this?

As far as Electronically Stored Information (ESI) goes, the U.S. Courts have an ESI protocol which states:

b. ESI received from third parties should be produced in the format(s) it was received or in a reasonably usable format(s). ESI from the government’s or defendant’s business records should be produced in the format(s) in which it was maintained or in a reasonably usable format(s).

d. When producing ESI discovery, a party should not be required to take on substantial additional processing or format conversion costs and burdens beyond what the party has already done or would do for its own case preparation or discovery production. For example, the producing party need not convert ESI from one format to another or undertake additional processing of ESI beyond what is required to satisfy its legal disclosure obligations.

Always check with your local courts regarding their policy on how to handle ESI. Personally, I wouldn’t want to convert discovery for opposing counsel in fears that it would alter the data in some way or that something would be corrupted in the conversion process. It just doesn’t make sense to do it. Of course, if someone asks for a single file or two and they understand the process, I would do it but not entire volumes of discovery.

We are not responsible for the operating systems chosen by each individual opposing counsel. It’s just silly that because they don’t have the compatible system with which to run certain applications that we should do anything to the data. I’m sure most reasonable people can see the potential problems of catering to those who have Macs or any other forms of computer operating systems.

In today’s world, most Windows-based software have a Mac version which can be downloaded and installed. There are times when this isn’t the case, especially when working with surveillance videos and third-party software. I had an issue once when a company using their own proprietary software was not compatible with Macs. The opposing counsel in this case simply went to Staples and purchased a Windows laptop.

Sure, there are some problems with Macs opening some executable files and other Windows-compatible programs. Honestly, there have been many times I have received data which could not be accessed on our computer so I just purchased what was needed to open it. Nothing difficult about that. For instance, many times we have received QuickBooks files and we do not have the software so I just had to go through the process of getting it. Not much you can do about that. I couldn’t stop and just say we can’t open it. Yeah, I don’t see that working out for me.

Another way to resolve Mac issue is to make the discovery available for review. Set up an office or conference room with a Windows PC and let the opposing counsel know they can spend the day at your office reviewing the discovery. You will find that they will usually opt to purchase a Windows laptop.

I have found that some Mac users are very adamant about their Macs although they are seriously outnumbered in the computer world. It’s almost an offense to them if you don’t have Mac-friendly data. Okay, well, let’s slide back over into the REAL world now. Windows still rules whether we like it or not. That’s just the way it is. With the volumes of electronic data we deal with on a daily basis, we simply have to use the tools to get the job done.

How To Compare Videos In PowerPoint

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This week I was presented with an issue were my attorney wanted to compare versions of the same video. He wanted to see if there were any differences. You know, most of us do not have a Hollywood movie studio to use for these situations. I pondered on this task and considered using TrialDirector first. While you can play videos in different zones in TrialDirector’s Presentation mode, there is no way I could find to play them in synch at the same time. I also tried a couple of video editors (Corel VideoStudio Pro and Camtasia) which I normally use to make clips. Finally, I wondered about doing them in PowerPoint and discovered this was my answer for this project. Here’s how I did it:

Open PowerPoint
Click on New Slide > Two Content
In the left frame, insert your first video.
In the right frame, insert your second video.
Select each video and go to the Video Tools ribbon > Playback > change to start Automatically.
Click on Animations > click on Play > select “With Previous” for Start for each video
Test it by starting your slide show. (Slide Show > From current slide)

To my surprise it worked and we were able to compare videos to find the inconsistencies.

Relativity: How to create a saved search

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Let’s be honest – Relativity can be a bear sometimes. User friendly? Not so much. Useful to manage large amounts of data? Absolutely.

One of the things I have learned about Relativity that is helpful is how to create saved searches. Saved searches are very useful when you run a search and don’t want to have to run it again each time you need it. It is also helpful if you have other users also reviewing the database.

When you open your workspace to the database, click on the main documents folder:

Next, click on the magnifying glass at the bottom to create a new search:

Click on new search:

Name the search:

Go to Conditions and select the ISSUES field:

Next, for operator, use any of these:

Click on the ellipses button …

Select the issue such as “Hot Docs”

Click ADD button

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Your issue “Hot Docs” will move to Selected Items. Select it.

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Click on SET button

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If you need to share with other in your review group, change the owner at the top to Public

Click on Save and Search

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Relativity will now conduct your search and save it under the name you selected.

Since saved searches are executed in real-time, you save the search definition but not the results. Relativity executes the search each time you click on it in the Saved Searches browser and when you return to it after performing other tasks in the workspace. This ensures that only data meeting the search criteria is returned in the search results.

Tech Fixes In The Courtroom

One of my biggest fears is having something to go wrong in the courtroom. I have learned that it doesn’t matter how much you practice in the office or conference that something is bound to go wrong when you set up in the courtroom. Some times there is simply nothing you can do but here are a few fixes to keep in mind whih could help you in these situations:

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LAPTOP DISPLAY IS NOT SHOWING ON SCREEN

Once you have connected your laptop to the court’s presentation system, you see the display on your laptop but not on the courtroom screen(s).

Possible solutions:

Reboot the laptop.
Check the cable. On more than one occasion I have discovered that one of the pins were bent or missing in the VGA cable.
Adjust the resolution. Ask the Court IT staff what the resolution is on their projector/flat screen.
Toggle your display by pressing Windows Key + P. This will show you the settings to duplicate or extend your display.
Make sure the Court’s equipment is set on the correct input for your laptop.

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FEEDBACK WHEN CONNECTING AUDIO CABLE

“What’s that noise?”

Court Reporters are very sensitive to sounds and understandably so since they have to transcribe what they hear during court.

Possible solutions:

Change cables
Use 2-prong adapter on power cord

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POWERPOINT SLIDES WON’T FIT ON COURT DISPLAYS

Everything else is working fine but then someone tries to do a PowerPoint presentation for closing and they discover that the photos they put in their slides are not fitting on the screen.

Possible solutions:

Check the resolution. Make sure it matches the Court’s projector or flat screen.
Check the cable. Once again it could be a problem with a pin that is missing or bent on the VGA cable.
Make sure the user is in slide show mode

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CAN’T HEAR AUDIO BEING PLAYED ON LAPTOP

You have a recording to play and you can’t hear the audio. No need to panic, try these first:

Check the volume on your laptop.
Make sure the audio cable is plugged into the correct jack. In most cases it will be the headphone jack on your laptop.
Check the volume on the Court’s system

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LAPTOP DISPLAY ON COURT’S SCREEN CONSTANTLY GOES OUT

You’ve got your laptop connected to the Court’s projector or flat screen but you experience intermittent outages. Most laptops today are eliminating the VGA connection in favor of HDMI or Display Port (don’t get me started on the Display Port) but some laptops still have the VGA option but have eliminated the ability to screw in the cable.

Check to see that the VGA is securely connected to your laptop. I recently attached velcro to both the cable and under the laptop to ensure the VGA would stay connected.
If the above doesn’t work, check the other end of the connection as well as the path the cable is taking to/from the laptop. Believe it or not, sometimes someone on the legal team will put a box or something on the cable that could interfere.

There are other unique things that come up but these are some of the common issues I have experienced. I don’t have to tell you how nerve wrecking it can be to experience problems in the courtroom. It’s always good practice to get into the courtroom the day before your trial to set up everything and test it. There have been many times that I had in my mind how something was going to work but when I actually got into the courtroom to test it out I discovered issues that I had time to resolve before trial. One thing you can never assume is the availability of electrical outlets. Yes even in 2018 some courtrooms are limited on availability to plug in our electronic devices. Once I had to go to Lowe’s and purchase some extension cords and plugged under the judge’s bench so that we could have power to our devices.

Always test your equipment but always be ready in case something goes wrong. The best way to be ready is to have spare cables, connectors and equipment in case you need to switch out on the fly.

Working With Watermarks In PDF Files

Using watermarks in PDF files is a way to secure or identify specific set of documents. In many instances, it ensures that the wrong documents will not end up in the wrong hands. A watermark is text or an image that appears either in front of or behind existing document content, like a stamp. For example, you could apply a “Confidential” watermark to pages with sensitive information. You can add multiple watermarks to one or more PDFs, but you must add each watermark separately. You can specify the page or range of pages on which each watermark appears.

I had an issue come up recently where our legal staff needed some guidance on how to work with watermarks in PDF files they were turning over in discovery. They wanted a watermark that would not be recognized text or become a hit when searched. They wanted the defendant’s name to be on the watermark but they did not want it to always show up as a hit when searched.

The first thing is to make the watermark an image file instead of a text file.

First, to create the image file:

Go to Microsoft PowerPoint
Type the name of the defendant (or whatever text you want to use on the watermark)
Save the PowerPoint slide as a JPEG file

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Once the image file has been created, to use it as the watermark:

Open the PDF file in Adobe Acrobat
Select EDIT PDF option
Click on Watermark
Select ADD
For the SOURCE, click on the FILE option
Click on BROWSE and locate the image file you created
For Location: Click on option to Appear Behind Page so the watermark will not be on top of the text.
Click OK button
Save the file

The next obstacle thrown at me was the question of NOT showing the watermark on the screen but only when it was printed out.

Easy fix.

Go back to the watermark section under EDIT PDF
Select UPDATE
Now click on the Appearance Options link
Check the option to Show when printing
Un-check the option to Show when displaying on screen
Click OK button
Click OK button again
Save the file

Once you have created a watermark, you aren’t stuck with it. You can go in and edit it or change it. There are also many ways you can work with watermarks. For more information on how to work with watermarks in PDF files, a simple Google search will put you in touch with the information.

Litigation Support Resolutions For 2018

newyear Here we are…the holidays are over and my office is slowly rolling into the new year. I have caught myself saying that it is a different year but the same circus. Yes, I have done this a long time. I won’t say I’m the best at my job but I know what I’m doing on most days. So as people make their New Year’s Resolutions of losing weight or to stop smoking, here are some of my resolutions for litigation support this year:

Be more flexible. I don’t know why it often hits me wrong when emergencies happen or someone needs something at the last minute. It will happen. You know that saying “Failure to plan on your part does not make it an emergency on my part”? Yeah, that doesn’t apply in this job. It doesn’t matter how many policies are in place or what you do, things will happen and the stressful parts of the job will happen. A judge won’t be happy with the technology or a paralegal will forget how to rotate an image in TrialDirector during court. Although I need to expect the unexpected I just need to handle it better.
Conduct more training. Instead of limping through the year and putting out fires when people have issues with litigation technology, I need arrange more training to help the staff increase their knowledge. Training people will only make my job easier. Some people like to protect their knowledge like we are a magician or something. Although we ARE magicians, there is nothing wrong with sharing what we know. We can’t do it all although we try to do it all.
Upgrade old technology. Sometimes we just settle in our comfort zone with our technology. Doing things because we’ve always done them isn’t a good motto to have in this job. We must constantly seek out new and improved ways to get things done. The old technology is – well – old. It needs to be replaced. Believe me, people will fight change but sometimes you have to give them a gentle nudge. We have two pieces of equipment in our office, one is a newer model than the other; however, people use the older one because “it’s the machine everyone uses.” Nope. We’ve got to move past that mentality.
Use the word “NO” more often. I’m sure we are all guilty of this. We don’t like to say “no” to the people we support. I have learned to say it more over the past several years but I look back and see that I still need to do better about it. That doesn’t mean I won’t help people out but if people want quality work, we have to say “no” to other things especially if it isn’t our job. Now, I know we hate to say “it’s not my job” but I think it’s time we make people do their jobs instead of enabling people to assume we are going to do it if the slackers won’t. Saying “no” to things isn’t being mean, it’s being smarter in managing our workload.
Be open to new opportunities. If you have done this job for as long as I have, you have to realize that you won’t be doing it forever. It’s probably good to start preparing for your exit to another career or whatever you are going to do after this chapter of your life is over. How will our current skills transition to something else? Do we need to take classes? It’s a good time to look at the new opportunities ahead and prepare for them. If you are just starting out in this job, you should set your goals and work your way to achieving them. It may not be this year but you need to put yourself in position for when that opportunity comes.

So here we go charging into another year. We are facing new data to process, trials to prepare for and other challenges in litigation technology. I will say that this is a unique career field and it can take you wherever you want to go but you also need to make time to have a life. A former colleague of mine once said that you weren’t doing your job if you weren’t working at least 50 hours a week. Sad to say that he passed away several years ago. Now what? Not to be negative but the reality is that when we are gone, they will just hire someone to replace us. This job shouldn’t be your life. It’s rewarding and sometimes exciting but it’s not the main thing. Make 2018 a good one!

Litigation Support Specialists (probably) Save The World

I have spent a majority of my career in the litigation technology career field. There have been a lot of changes since I started in this very unique area of technology. There are so many aspects to this job. One day it is trial presentation technology. Another day it is correcting problems with load files and getting them to work in a document management system. It is a constantly changing world for us.

One of the things I have learned about this line of work is that there will always be people who will have more knowledge than me. In the beginning, I have to be honest and say that I wanted to be a “star” among my colleagues. I became the go-to person that others could call on. I volunteered to teach classes and spent time on committees and planning conferences. There was an early pioneer of the field who once said if you weren’t working 55-60 hours a week then you weren’t doing your job. I tried that and found that all I got was more work. It was a trap door of “what have you done for me lately” life of going from one thing to another.

My personal life at the time only added to that need for stardom. The breaking point came when I was in a committee meeting and another member on the committee totally destroyed any ideas I brought to the table. That person was a new rising star in litigation support and it was clear my own star was burning out. I have to evaluate my life and see what was really important to me.

In recent years I have learned to only do what I can do and leave work at work. That 55-60 hour work week is dumb. Get a life outside the office. In fact, the pioneer who said that passed away a few years ago. I often wonder if that mentality was the cause. I hate to break this to you but if you work those hours, when you die they will just hire someone else. That’s just how it is. There will always be someone else they can step in that can do the job better than you.

You and I might be called on to save a trial but it isn’t saving the world. We are good at what we do but we also need to share the knowledge. This isn’t magic where we can’t share our secrets. It’s actually to our benefit to share what we know. While there will always be those who know more, it benefits the whole litigation support community when we exchange our knowledge. I have had people to ask me how did I learn some things and I tell them it has usually been due to my experience. Getting in a jam and having to figure out a solution or being yelled at by a judge in the courtroom. In our field, there is no degree from a college or technical school. We have learned by doing and networking with others in our community.

In my opinion, there is no room for arrogance. Unfortunately, I see this trend increasing within our own ranks. We all need help with something so it’s good not to burn those bridges. I have called people only because I valued their knowledge only to be looked down upon because I either didn’t know the information or I wasn’t in their secret group. There is no need for this kind of behavior. I have learned invaluable advice from my colleagues in this field over the years. I wouldn’t have gotten this far without that help.

Here’s some advice I would offer from my own perspective:

Those who want to be stars will eventually flame out
Someone will always know more than you
Do what you can do and do it well
Share the knowledge
Get a life outside of the office

We are all good at what we do or we wouldn’t be doing it. We all are strong in some areas and weak in others. Our job is to assist the legal staff with using technology. We aren’t competing against each other. If a colleague calls upon you for advice, don’t be condescending but feel good that they have confidence in you. Contribute to the community and your fellow litigation support colleagues. Help others in their quests to save their world.