Tag Archives: eDiscovery

2020 in the Rearview

Posted on by
Reply
Photo by Bich Tran on Pexels.com

COVID, wildfires, court operations, and closures dominated headlines and our lives. So did the tech world, the hard work of staying productive, and not letting the stress of it all get to us.

Hopefully you found some useful posts in 2020. If you’ve been battling procrastination, there is help. If you need to jump start your marketing, I did a four part series in July. If collecting fees has been … challenging … I have a few suggestions. Here’s a recap of substantive topics covered in the past twelve months. And here’s to 2021!

COVID

COVID Generally

COVID and Marketing

Reopening Your Firm

WFH (Working from Home)

Technology

Motivation and Productivity

Oregon Wildfires

Courts

Well Being

eDiscovery

Ethics

Fees and Finances

Malpractice

Client Service

Staff

All Rights Reserved 2020 Beverly Michaelis

The Case for Native, I Swear

Posted on by
1

From the expert on eDiscovery:

Regular readers may tire of my extolling the virtues of native forms of production; but battleships turn slowly, and this one must yet be turned. …

The Case for Native, I Swear

Capture Text Messages for Use in Court

Posted on by

A reader recently asked for an app to capture text messages – a very understandable request. Here are some DIY options to consider.

Screenshot Method

Most everyone is familiar with this irritating and incomplete approach, which involves taking partial images of texts that end up overlapping. Screenshots are a pain, often lack date and time stamps, don’t capture contact information or other metadata, and must be combined somehow to form a PDF. Not a great way to go. Next, please.

Decipher TextMessage and Tansee for iOS

The Decipher TextMessage app uses five simple steps to capture text messages for export to PDF. Unlike the screenshot method, it automatically grabs date and time stamps, attachments, and accurate contact information for senders and recipients. It can also recover deleted conversations.

Decipher TextMessage is $29.99 and uses the iTunes interface. If you’re dubious about spending thirty bucks sight unseen, take advantage of the free trial, but this app has a lot going for it. Read more about Decipher TextMessage here.

Tansee iPhone Transfer SMS is another great DIY solution at the same price point for a three-year license. It uses its own proprietary software installed on your desktop rather than iTunes.

The clean printout rendered by (Tansee) allows for a seamless production. (Users can) Bates-stamp each PDF page and produce the thread in one comprehensive file, rather than in disjointed screenshot images pieced together in an unorganized manner. Use of this software allows for a more efficient in-house review process, as well as a more transparent production set to opposing counsel.

A disadvantage of this software is that it does not retain the actual native file, merely an organized photocopy with some of the relevant metadata attached to each message.

Cell Phone Extraction for the Small Firm.

SMS Backup+ for Android

SMS Backup+ is a free app in the Google Play Store that allows users to store texts in a gmail account. Conversations can be printed to PDF using a web browser. Sounds simple enough, but since this is a backup program it can only capture what is presently stored on a phone. There is no mechanism to restore deleted conversations. Another downside: reviewers say the app is buggy. However, as one noted: “I tried other SMS Backup apps, but they are not the same or as good! This app is significantly better (in my opinion).”

Other Options

For other print-to-PDF choices consider:

iOS

Print Utility Lite, Xerox Print Portal, To Print, Mobikin or iPhone Backup Extractor.

Android

Mobile PrintShare, Printhand Mobile, or Mobikin.

Evidentiary Concerns

The evidentiary concerns surrounding use of text messages are substantial. As mentioned, accurate date and time stamps and true identities of senders and recipients are critical. Capturing location data, attachments, and special characters can be troublesome. See How to Print Text Messages for Use as Evidence.

As this post points out, before extracting evidence from smart devices consider employing expert forensic help – not just to get it right, but to secure an independent witness if authenticity isn’t stipulated.

All rights reserved 2019 Beverly Michaelis

21 Key Takeaways of Electronic Storage

Posted on by
1

When it comes to eDiscovery, the guru is Craig Ball.

Craig recently posted about the upcoming 2019 Georgetown eDiscovery Training Academy, a week-long, immersive boot camp in electronically stored information (ESI).

The technology of e-discovery is its centerpiece, and I’ve lately added a 21-point synopsis of the storage concepts, technical takeaways and vocabulary covered.

Here is Craig’s synopsis verbatim:

  1. Common law imposes a duty to preserve potentially-relevant information in anticipation of litigation
  2. Most information is electronically-stored information (ESI)
  3. Understanding ESI entails knowledge of information storage media, encodings and formats
  4. There are many types of e-storage media of differing capacities, form factors and formats:a) analog (phonograph record) or digital (hard drive, thumb drive, optical media)b) mechanical (electromagnetic hard drive, tape, etc.) or solid-state (thumb drive, SIM card, etc.)
  5. Computers don’t store “text,” “documents,” “pictures,” “sounds.” They only store bits (ones or zeroes)a) ASCII or Unicode for alphanumeric characters;b) JPG for photos, DOCX for Word files, MP3 for sound files, etc.
  6. Digital information is encoded as numbers by applying various encoding schemes:
  7. We express these numbers in a base or radix (base 2 binary, 10 decimal, 16 hexadecimal, 60 sexagesimal). E-mail messages encode attachments in base 64.
  8. The bigger the base, the smaller the space required to notate and convey the information
  9. Digitally encoded information is stored (written):a) physically as bytes (8-bit blocks) in sectors and partitionsb) logically as clusters, files, folders and volumes
  10. Files use binary header signatures to identify file formats (type and structure) of data
  11. Operating systems use file systems to group information as files and manage filenames and metadata
  12. File systems employ filename extensions (e.g., .txt, .jpg, .exe) to flag formats
  13. All ESI includes a component of metadata (data about data) even if no more than needed to locate it
  14. A file’s metadata may be greater in volume or utility than the contents of the file it describes
  15. File tables hold system metadata about the file (e.g., name, locations on disk, MAC dates): it’s CONTEXT
  16. Files hold application metadata (e.g., EXIF geolocation data in photos, comments in docs): it’s CONTENT
  17. File systems allocate clusters for file storage; deleting files releases cluster allocations for reuse
  18. If unallocated clusters aren’t reused, deleted files may be recovered (“carved”) via computer forensics
  19. Forensic (“bitstream”) imaging is a method to preserve both allocated and unallocated clusters
  20. Because data are numbers, data can be digitally “fingerprinted” using one-way hash algorithms (MD5, SHA1)
  21. Hashing facilitates identification, deduplication and de-NISTing of ESI in e-discovery

If you don’t follow Ball in Your Court, you should.

All Rights Reserved 2019 – Beverly Michaelis

Don’t Copy and Paste

Posted on by
1

Ah yes. Headlines like Federal prosecutor’s cut-and-paste mistake discloses case against Wikileaks founder are good reminders, aren’t they?

I have nothing against cut and paste or copy and paste within a document. But using this tool to create a new document is a very bad idea.

Copy and Paste Can Get You in Trouble

Breach of confidentiality

This is the main takeaway from the Assange document:

“Dwyer twice put Assange’s name, along with a vague description of the case against him, in a document filed in what officials said was a completely unrelated child solicitation case.”  Source: Chicago Tribune.

The prosecutor’s mistake exposed information the feds intended to remain confidential – at least for the time being. In the context of private practice, a breach of confidentiality can range from a miffed, but relatively unharmed client to someone who is severely injured by the revelation and angry enough to file a bar complaint or legal malpractice claim.

MEtadata

Please remember that when you cut and paste or copy and paste, this action may be retained in a document’s metadata. Unless the document is scrubbed, anyone who receives an electronic copy of the document may be able to expose the action and underlying information. Therefore, even if the prosecutor edited out Assange’s name, the metadata may have revealed the borrowed language.

If You Insist on Using Copy and Paste

I would prefer that you don’t, but if you do, the lessons here are pretty obvious:

  • Run a global search to find and replace pronouns and names
  • Carefully proofread borrowed text!
  • Run a spell-check. Unless you’ve modified your dictionary, most spell-checks are going to question surnames like “Assange.”
  • Scrub your document for metadata

Best Practices – Use Forms, Templates or Clauses

The most accurate and embarrassment-free documents are built using clean forms, templates, or clauses. If you’re a file, save as or copy and paste person, start building a forms library today.

Take it Up a Notch with The Form Tool

Or if you prefer cheap and easy, try The Form Tool. In the realm of software, these are virtues. The basic version of The Form Tool is free, the pro version is $89 for a lifetime license.

Five Years and Still Going Strong

I first saw The Form Tool demonstrated five years ago. Some bar associations offer it as a member benefit.

If you want to start creating forms in Word in about 10 minutes, try it out. Still a doubter? Order the free streaming video of this CLE from the Professional Liability Fund Automating Forms/Improving Writing (September 26, 2018), which includes a demonstration of WordRake (proofreading software for Word; see the PLF discount available here). Also see Using TheFormTool in Your Law Practice (February 22, 2013).

All Rights Reserved Beverly Michaelis 2018