automated litigation support

Automated LitigationSupport

Automated Litigation Support Roadmap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1By Rick Sumrall

Automated Litigation Support Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5By Robert M. Moore

PowerPoint: Recipe for Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6By Ronald Lee Oliver

Sanction II.8–Weapon of Mass Presentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9By Milton Hooper

Sanction II.8–Presentation Mode or "Putting on the Show" . . . . . . . . . . . 20By Rick Paugh

What is CaseMap? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38By Charlene Tallman and Phil Samson

Scanning a Solid Base to Build a Strong Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45By Larry Gniewek

IPRO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51By Marcia Pelick and Montie Ruffner

Electronic Discovery & eScan-IT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60By Diana M. Wong

March 2006

Volume 54Number 2

United StatesDepartment of JusticeExecutive Office for

United States AttorneysWashington, DC

20535

Michael A. BattleDirector

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In This Issue

MARCH 2006 UNITED STATES ATTORNEYS ' BULLETIN 1

Automated Litigation SupportRoadmapRick SumrallLitigation Support Program ManagerExecutive Office for United States Attorneys Washington, DC

I. Introduction

Twenty-five years ago, very few people werefamiliar with the term "personal computer" andeven fewer had ever seen or used one. Today, it isimpossible not to be aware of personal computers.Automated Litigation Support (ALS) did not existten years ago and, during the decade since, U.S.Attorneys' offices have undergone an absoluteALS transition.

II. Historical roadmap

Summer 1994. Two systems managers begana pilot project for the Executive Office for UnitedStates Attorneys (EOUSA) to develop anautomated courtroom system, to include theability to annotate real-time video. The systemwas completed in 1995 and used successfully inmany trials to present evidence more clearly to thejurors.

1996. ATTView, an add-on to MicrosoftAccess, was licensed to allow databases to beimage-enabled. This allowed prosecutors to searchfor a document by date, Bates number, or otherfield, and view the scanned document. Thesoftware was difficult to use, but it met a need,and several offices used it.

1996. The Systems Manager in Nevada (RudyFerrara) developed the Transcript PresentationManager, which was a computer program thatprovided instantaneous redaction capabilities anddisplayed the transcript on a large screen while thetapes were played for the jury.

Summer 1996. Two issues of the U.S.Attorneys' Bulletin were published on ALS. Theseissues focused on trial techniques, which utilizedautomated litigation support software andhardware. These issues further validated the valueof ALS to prosecutors.

1996. The systems managers for several U.S.Attorneys offices used the previously developedautomated courtroom system to present evidencebefore Congress during the Waco hearings. Theyutilized the Transcript Presentation Manager topresent numerous transcripts, as well as the videoannotation feature of the courtroom system, tohelp the Department of Justice (Department)present expert testimony about the ForwardLooking Infrared (FLIR) video of the Waco fires.

1999. The ATTICUS portable courtroomsystem was developed for offices needingautomated courtroom support. The system wasabout four feet tall and weighed several hundredpounds, but contained everything needed to wire acourtroom for an electronic trial.

Summer 2000. EOUSA licensed the Sanctiontrial presentation software and had the samecompany develop the replacement for TranscriptPresentation Manager. Advanced TranscriptPresentation Manager removed the limitationscontained in the previous transcript program andadded the ability to display two simultaneouslanguages and video transcripts.

April 2001. EOUSA released a detaileddesign document on ALS. The document listedstandard hardware and software recommendationsfor ALS. Offices without ALS systems used thedescribed standards to set up ALS.

Summer 2001. CaseMap and TimeMap werelicensed by EOUSA as an integrated suite ofapplications for capturing key facts, dates, andevents, for investigations. This was the firstintegrated trial preparation software madeavailable to both civil and criminal AUSAs.

Summer 2001. The Terapin audio andMPEG-1 video CD recording appliance was used.This made it relatively easy for anyone to convertvideo tapes into digital format for use in theSanction trial presentation software.

Summer 2001. The Advanced InformationTechnology in Litigation and Investigationseminar was held at the National Advocacy Center(NAC). This was the first ALS class offering afull week of hands-on training for ALS

2 UNITED STATES ATTORNEYS ' BULLETIN MARCH 2006

applications. The class was in high demand as itincluded training on the following.

• Organizing and analyzing informationthrough data capture.

• Working with large format exhibits.

• Capturing audio and video.

• Capturing images.

• Courtroom preparation and presentations.

• Electronic courtroom presentations usingATTICUS.

• Advanced Transcript Presentation Manager(ATPM).

• CaseMap (organizes facts, people, issues, anddocuments).

• Corel QuattroPro.

• Corel Presentations.

• TimeMap (creates time lines and otherchronology graphs).

• PaintShop Pro (for photographic capture andadjustments).

• Sanction Trial Presentation software.

January 2002. The Automated LitigationSupport Symposium was held at the NAC withmembers from the technical, legal, support, andadministrative staffs of U.S. Attorneys' offices.Participants met for three days to determinerequirements and assist the EOUSA with theroadmap for the future of litigation support.

Spring 2002. A massive electronic discoveryreview was undertaken by the Eastern District ofVirginia to examine over 165,000 FBI 302documents related to the Moussaoui case. EOUSAset up the LibertyNet Web server, allowing over300 AUSAs from all ninety-four districts andother Department litigating components to begin around-the-clock review of the documents. TheDepartment successfully completed the review bythe court-imposed deadline.

Summer 2002. TextMap was added as anapplication for managing transcripts and linkingtranscript information directly to the CaseMapfact database.

Fall 2002. IPRO and Concordance wereselected as the applications that U.S. Attorneys'offices would use to manage their growing caseloads. These two software packages provided the

basis of U.S. Attorneys' offices document-management platform for litigation support.

Spring 2003. The Imaging and DocumentManagement Class, held at the InformationTechnology Education Center (ITEC) inColumbia, S.C., provided hands-on training in theuse of IPRO's Scan-IT software to scan andpublish documents, as well as the use of theConcordance application to build searchabledatabases. Students were able to scan somedocuments in-house for small to medium-sizedcases after attending this course.

Fall 2004. The first national ALS Conferencewas held at the NAC. Attendees spent four daysimmersed in training on the latest ALS softwareand hardware.

2005 and 2006. The JCON IIa rollout broughtnew servers and upgraded Windows in all offices.Users' PCs were upgraded to Windows/XP andthe latest ALS software applications. The newservers provided increased capacity andperformance, which was and is needed due to thegrowing demand for storage resources.

Winter 2005. The Direct Attached Storage(DAS) engineering was completed for a newstorage subsystem that would provide 1.6terabytes of disk storage for ALS and othercase-related files. This is the equivalent of fiftymillion scanned pages or 1.2 million floppy disks.A limited number of sites are scheduled for DASdeployment in 2006.

III. In this issue

Over the past decade, U.S. Attorneys' officeshave steadily moved from processing cases usingtraditional paper-based methods to utilizingelectronic evidence and document images. Thismove was necessitated by changes in the waybusinesses operate. Paper is no longer the onlytype of business documentation available forreview. The proliferation of electronic documents,e-mail, and new government reforms, such asSarbanes-Oxley, has resulted in companiesproviding large amounts of electronic discoverymaterials. According to the Socha-Goldman 2004Electronic Discovery Survey, electronic datadiscovery (EDD) growth is expected to exceed 60percent in 2005 and just less than 60 percent in2006. Available at http://www.sochaconsulting.com/Publications/LawTechnologyNews%20Article%208.04.pdf. Diana Wong's article on


Electronic Discovery and eScan-IT in this issuegives a glimpse into the future and how it will bepossible to manage large amounts of EDD in thefuture. eScan-IT is expected to be available duringthe summer of 2006.

There are several useful articles included thatalert the readership to what is happening today inthe ALS field. Rob Moore's article gives anoverview of the Cyber Crime team's trainingevolution and also the training that is planned for2006. Three articles are dedicated to thetechniques used to devise courtroom presentationsusing PowerPoint and Sanction. Two districtsteamed up to share CaseMap experiences and toshow how other districts can effectively use thesetwo software packages. Several articles deal withpreparing a case for scanning and makingimportant decisions, such as Bates numberingschemes and the documents to scan. The intent ofall the articles is to help make the best use of thetrial team's time and to increase efficiency.

EOUSA is researching electronic means thatwill allow collaboration among federal lawenforcement agencies on large document reviews.EOUSA's vision for the future is that documentswill be scanned once, stored, and made availableto everyone that needs access to them. Theoriginal document can be safeguarded untilintroduced at trial. �

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

�Rick Sumrall previously served as SystemsManager in the Middle District of Louisiana andin the Western District of North Carolina. Duringhis work in Louisiana, Rick had a fully functionalelectronic courtroom system up and running in1995. Prior to working with the United StatesAttorneys' offices, Rick was InformationTechnology Manager of a large law firm insouthern Louisiana. Rick currently serves as theLitigation Support Program Manager for EOUSA.a


Automated Litigation SupportTraining Robert M. MooreAssistant DirectorOffice of Legal Education

Over the past ten years, there has been asignificant shift from the traditional means ofcommunication to more visually compellingmultimedia. It is important that attorneys litigatingcases on behalf of the government have anunderstanding of the various electronic litigationtools available and incorporate them into theircases. Whether it is a grand jury hearing,deposition, or trial, research has shown thatevidence is more clearly understood whentechnology is utilized to clarify and enhance apresentation.

Effectively communicating a particularmessage involves advanced planning, decidingwhat points need to be made, and working withthe trial team to use the appropriate applications toclarify the key points in the best way and at theright moments.

In light of the increased use of multimedia,automated litigation training for attorneys andsupport staff personnel has dramatically increasedat the National Advocacy Center (NAC). Over thepast five years, beginning with FY 98 and endingwith FY 03, 965 participants have attended theInformation Technology in Litigation andInvestigations course. This course was primarilydesigned to expose participants to the technologythat was available. A limited amount of time wasallocated for hands-on training.

In FY 01, in an effort to standardize softwareapplications across districts, the Executive Officefor United States Attorneys (EOUSA) purchasedthe site license for Sanction®, AdvancedTranscript Presentation Manager®, CaseMap®,and TimeMap®. EOUSA sponsored eightAdvanced Information Technology in Litigationand Investigations seminars during FY 02 to trainpersonnel from each district to use these newtools. The seminars were specifically designed forLitigation Support Specialists and Managers fromUnited States Attorneys' offices who hadextensive experience with courtroom presentation

and litigation support applications. The coursesincluded hands-on training of Sanction, CorelPresentations, and Advanced TranscriptPresentation Manager.

In FY 02, EOUSA purchased the site licensefor IPRO and Concordance to fill the need for document imaging and management software.EOUSA sponsored eight Imaging and DocumentManagement seminars in FY 03 to trainadministrative personnel from each district whowere tasked to perform automated litigationsupport. The courses included hands-on trainingof IPRO, Concordance, and Integrating IPRO andConcordance with CaseMap and Sanction II.

The Information Technology in Litigation andInvestigations course was replaced with theAutomated Litigation Support (ALS) 101 and 201courses in FY 04. The ALS 101 course focused oncourtroom presentations using Sanction II andPowerPoint and the ALS 201 course concentratedon document imaging, document management,and case management using eScan-IT, IPRO,Concordance, CaseMap, and TimeMap. Both ofthese courses were primarily hands-on trainingwith a limited amount of classroom lecture.During FY 04 and FY 05, 446 participantsattended ALS 101 and 342 participants attendedALS 201. Beginning in FY 04, automatedlitigation training was included as a hands-onlecture in the Criminal and Civil Trial Advocacycourses. Students had access to laptop computersthat were loaded with their case files so they couldprepare electronic presentations during the mocktrial.

The Automated Litigation Support (ALS)team at the NAC also conducted two InstructorCertification courses on IPRO, CaseMap, andConcordance in FY 04. These certified instructorsare the faculty members for the automatedlitigation training that is conducted at the NAC.

The Courtroom Presentation and EvidenceManagement for Litigators course was added tothe calendar in FY 05. This course offers theunique opportunity for an AUSA and a supportstaff employee, from the same district, to traintogether as a team and develop the basic


familiarity with computer technology used at allstages of civil and criminal cases. Participantsbring documents, photographs, audio tapes, and/orvideo tapes from an active case to work on duringopen lab time. At the end of the course, the teamscreate a CD-ROM for their actual case, to takewith them so that they can continue the automatedprocess. We also conducted the first AutomatedLitigation Support Specialist seminar during FY05.

The automated litigation training process waschanged in FY 06 because of comments made oncourse evaluations. The ALS 101 and ALS 201courses have been replaced with the DocumentImaging course, the Document and CaseManagement course, and the CourtroomPresentations course.

The Document Imaging class focuses onimaging documents using eScan-IT andemploying IPRO to view documents and producediscovery CD-ROMs. The Document and CaseManagement class is the second series ofdocument management classes, and Concordanceand CaseMap software is taught. The CourtroomPresentation class is dedicated to teachingparticipants Sanction II and PowerPoint forcourtroom presentations. These curriculumchanges will allow us to spend more time on thelitigation software packages that EOUSA hasprovided to each district.

In the past, participants were allowed to takethe automated litigation training classes in anyorder they wished. The NAC is now requiringstudents to take the seminars in the scheduledorder. This will give the district personnel agreater understanding of the automated litigationprocess.

Over the past year, the ALS team has workedextensively with the teams that manage theCriminal and Civil Trial Advocacy courses for theNAC, to include more time for training on theautomated litigation tools that are available toAUSAs. In FY 06, the allotted time for automatedlitigation training has doubled in both of thesecourses.

High tech courtrooms are here and willmultiply in the future. Using technology willenhance jurors' interest and understanding, thussignificantly advancing the cause of justice.Careful training and practice are a must. Jurorsand judges expect the lawyer to be able to use thetechnology efficiently and effortlessly, just as theyexpect coherent and effective questioning andarguments. Remember, what jurors hear, theyforget. What they see, they remember. What theysee and hear, they understand.�

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

�Robert M. Moore is the Assistant Director ofthe Cyber Team for the Office of Legal Educationand is responsible for designing the automatedlitigation courses held at the NAC. Prior to joiningOLE, he served in the U.S. Army for twelve yearsin the legal career field.a

PowerPoint: Recipe for SuccessRonald Lee OliverLitigation Support SpecialistUnited States Attorney's OfficeSouthern District of California

I. Introduction

What would chocolate cake be without theicing? It would still be chocolate cake, anddepending upon the skill of the chef, somethingone could swallow without much difficulty. Putthe finishing touch of rich, dark, chocolate icing


on the cake, however, and it becomes amemorable, mouth-watering treat! The use ofPowerPoint in a trial is like the icing on a cake. Itcan be an indispensable ingredient used tostrengthen a trial attorney's opening and/or closingpresentation. The correct combination of graphicstyle and intellectual substance can engage anaudience (the jury) and help illustrate and clarifycomplex concepts, which reinforce the story of thecase. Using graphical elements and animationhelps make people, places, and things, moretangible and less abstract. On the other hand, aPowerPoint presentation may distract the jurywhen they should be listening to the attorney, or itcan be a dry dissertation with boring blocks oftext or "bullet points" used only as a crutch by apresenter who lacks oratory confidence. Tips fromthis article will help trial attorneys prepareengaging, informative, and professionalpresentations using PowerPoint.

II. The basics

Remember these basic rules when creatingyour PowerPoint presentations.

• Follow graphic design principles.

• Incorporate people, places, and things.

• Use animation judiciously.

• Use the flexibility of PowerPoint.

• Establish a visual and conceptual theme.

III. Follow graphic design principles

The attorney or support staff personnel taskedwith creating PowerPoint presentations shouldhave graphic design training or adhere to the basicgraphic design principles. If poorly done, thepresentation may make the attorney appearincompetent. A presentation created by aknowledgeable staff member will result in a moreorganized and effective visual aid.

There are several principles of good graphicdesign to follow when using PowerPoint toproduce trial presentations.

• Never use more than three fonts.

• Use complementary color schemes.

• Do not make the jury strain to see thepresentation.

• Do not crowd the screen.

• Use drop shadows to give depth to fonts andobjects.

The use of more than three typefaces gives asubtle feel of clutter and incoherence and must beavoided. Font selections for courtroompresentations should be fairly sedate. Times NewRoman, Courier, and Arial (or others of this type)are good choices. An exception to this rule iswhen a titling font or other eye-catching font isused to emphasize or "sell" a point in thepresentation. Even these should be professional inappearance.

Complementary colors and color harmony inthe presentation creates a professional look andfeel that commands respect. Colors can be used asrecurring visual cues in backgrounds, borders, andfills, to represent certain concepts, issues, orparties to the case. Color also provides variety andvisual interest. Color psychology, especially theuse of red, employed sparingly and carefully (toavoid objections), can flag objects and text withloaded emphasis.

All objects and text within a presentationshould be large enough to see and read easily.View the presentation from the jurors' vantagepoint to test its clarity. Increase the font size sothat it is comfortable and easy to read, especiallyif the presentation will be displayed on televisionmonitors. This may require simplifying the designor using more than one slide per concept. Thismethod is better than making the monitor appearcluttered and difficult to read.

A crowded screen is displeasing and willalienate, rather than capture, the audience'sattention. Simple, well-designed graphics andanimation do not have to be excessive to conveythe concept. An uncluttered slide with legibletype, color harmony, use of color cues, andbalanced compositional space, will help a jurorunderstand complex concepts. Effective use ofdrop shadows, for both text and objects in slides,gives depth and brings them "off the page."

IV. Incorporate people, places, andthings

Include photographs or renderings of people,places, and things in the presentation to captureand hold the jury's attention. Faces andphotographs of people and places are much moreinteresting and tangible than names and textdescriptions. They also provide a framework for


memory of the key elements in the presentation.Do not try to slip the most unfavorable andunflattering photo of an opposing party ordefendant into a presentation. Opposing counselwill raise a sustainable objection on the groundsthat it is prejudicial. Photographs obtained fromstate drivers' license databases are adequate. Onthe other hand, a nice sympathetic photo of yourclient or party to the matter at hand (especially incivil cases) is perfectly acceptable and can fostersympathetic feelings in the viewer. Photographs,illustrations, and clip art representations of cars,weapons, or other devices involved, as direct orcircumstantial evidence in the case, can help thejurors remember and focus on those elements.

V. Use animation judiciously

Animation is a distraction unless it serves apurpose. Overuse of animation can be apresentation killer. Flying bullet points aredistracting and make it easy for the presenter toget out of sync. The best practice is to place all thebullet points for a slide on slide-entry. This allowsthe speaker to control the pace and keep on topicuntil ready to advance to the next slide. Theindiscriminate use of animating arrows andobjects is bad practice. The animation maycapture the jury's attention, but detract from thepoint the attorney is attempting to make.

Full screen graphics containing motiongraphics or animations should be independent,complete graphics and convey a concept at theconclusion of the animation, just as if the graphicwas printed and displayed. This is especiallyhelpful when printing the entire show forpresentation to opposing counsel for stipulatoryreview. At times, due to the time-based nature ofanimation and PowerPoint's animation andlayering capability, animations must be builtacross multiple slides and elements will be"hidden" from the printer. With the new "motionpaths" feature of PowerPoint, this is less of aproblem than before. To avoid this, the user canscreen capture portions of the animation, whichwhen printed, will reveal these elements for thereview process. Multiple slides based on the sameanimation sequence (for example, showing theflow of money from person-to-bank-to-person),can become boring and repetitious. The first slidein a sequence should have each element of theanimation advance at a slower rate and "on click,"while later slides using the same animationconcepts should advance automatically and

quickly to avoid boring the jury with establishedpatterns. Animations that move too slowly canhinder the pace of the presentation. Keep themlively and do not make the speaker or audiencewait.

VI. Use the flexibility of PowerPoint

PowerPoint is much more than a slide show. Itcan be a multimedia experience. Many types ofmedia and file formats can be embedded into thePowerPoint presentation or hyperlinked fromwithin PowerPoint.

• Video and audio can be played from withinPowerPoint and, when the file is completed,the presenter can carry on with the rest of thepresentation by advancing to the next slide.

• Excel spreadsheets can be embedded inPowerPoint and charts made from the data canbe formatted and manipulated insidePowerPoint.

• Flash animations can be run from within aslide in PowerPoint.

• Artwork from Adobe Illustrator files can beconverted into Microsoft drawing objects andmanipulated using PowerPoint's drawing toolset. The drawing tool set can also be used tocreate some fairly sophisticated illustrationsusing the transparency settings and bygrouping and ungrouping objects for use withanimation settings.

• The "Motion Paths" feature of PowerPointmakes it easier to create more complex andcustomized animations.

• Image files such as .tiff, .jpg, .bmp., and even.pdf, can be inserted or embedded using the"Insert Object" file menu item in PowerPoint.

The flexibility of PowerPoint is one of itsstrong points. It can be so much more than justscreen after screen of bullet points.

VII. Establish a visual and conceptualtheme

Bullet points are useful and condenseconcepts and thoughts into memorablesound-bites. However, they are boring if usedexclusively or too often. Each element of graphicdesign mentioned in this article should be used intandem to make the presentation as complete and


well supported as possible. A recap of the fourelements of creating a meaningful presentationfollows.

• Employ good graphic design, includingthoughtful and consistent typeface selections,use of complementary colors, color themes,and color cues.

• Make tangible references to the players andelements of the case, consisting ofphotographs and illustrations which lendvisual interest, increase understanding, andhold attention.

• Support the presentation with interesting andfunctional animation that serves the purposeof increasing comprehension or illustratingcomplex concepts.

• Use the flexibility and power of multimediaembedded within your presentation.

Check the setup of the slide show to ensurethat the four elements for creating a professionalpresentation were employed. Finally, beforesaving the file, set the slide transitions (the waythe slides change from one to the next). Considera group of slides that pertain to a particular topic,within the presentation, as sentences in aparagraph and set the same transition for all. Setthe next group of slides with a consistent, butdifferent, transition. This process indicates to theaudience that a new topic or concept is presented.The choice of transition and the speed at whichthe slide show progresses may have apsychological connotation which can be used toadvantage.

The "edge" achieved in a well-organized caseconsists of, among other things, good oratory,evidence organization, and trial strategy. Mixingthese ingredients in good measure and followingthe recipe given, the PowerPoint presentation willhold the jurors' attention and focus them on thesalient points. It might even be the "icing on thecake" that makes this version of the case the onethe jury remembers.�

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

�Ronald Lee Oliver is a litigation supportspecialist for the U.S. Attorney's Office in theSouthern District of California at San Diego.Before coming to the Department of Justice, Ronprovided litigation support in the private sector,where he assisted in the creation of multimediatrial presentations, video, graphics, animations,and databases. Ron has provided consultation andsupport, including PowerPoint trial presentations,for high-profile cases resulting in awards andsettlements in the hundreds of millions of dollars.As a volunteer, Ron also teaches courses inlitigation technology and presentations at theNational Advocacy Center in Columbia, SouthCarolina.a

Sanction II.8–Weapon of MassPresentationMilton HooperAutomated Litigation Support SpecialistUnited States Attorney's OfficeMiddle District of Georgia

I. Introduction

In an old, rustic, and historic courtroom inColumbus, Georgia, a pro se defendant is standing

in front of the jury questioning one of thegovernment's witnesses. He pauses for a momentand comments on the name of the trialpresentation software the government is using inprosecuting his case. "I don't think I like the nameof that Sanction software," he said. "Sanctionmeans to punish someone." Incidentally, thedefendant had much more to worry about than thename of the software being used in his


prosecution. United States v. Eddie Milton Garey5:03-CR-83-CDL (M.D. Ga. Dec. 7, 2004).

Regardless of the defendant's misconceptionabout the use of Sanction, the purpose of Sanctiontrial presentation software is not designed topunish, but rather to present a case seamlessly andeffectively to the jury. Sanction is available toUnited States Attorneys' offices (USAOs)nationwide for the presentation of documents,photos, audio, and video evidence. Over the years,there have been many software applications usedfor courtroom presentation, but none with theflexibility and the ability to handle many types ofmedia within one program. When Sanction wasintroduced, the USAOs finally had a caseorganization and presentation tool to use inlitigation. Courtroom presentation had officiallyevolved from the easel writing pad and foamboards to the electronic display of evidence.

II. Life in the digital world

We live in a media-driven world. CompactDiscs (CDs), Digital Video Discs (DVDs),MPEG-1 Audio Layer-3 (MP3) players, and theInternet, are now common forms of media in oursociety and they have made previous versionsvirtually obsolete. The digital world has alsofiltered into the legal office and law enforcementcommunity. Investigative agencies are constantlyincreasing their use of digital media, such as CDsfor audio recordings, DVDs for videos, and JointPhotographic Experts Group (JPEG) files forphotographs. In the "old" days, courtroompresentation of audio and video material requireda cassette tape player and a videocassette recorder.Photographs had to be developed at a photo lab.The media evolution made it necessary for theUSAOs to acquire software to organize andmanage the many forms of evidence in use.Sanction is installed on all USAO networkcomputers, and it gives more flexibility andorganization to this type of evidence.

Every document in a case can be stored andorganized in Sanction. Each can be prepared to beimmediately accessible with a few mouse clicks orby entering the exhibit number. Sanction alsoworks with every major litigation supportsoftware tool and document viewing program sothat one can view all file types.

III. Why do we need Sanction?

Many AUSAs and support staff are familiarwith using PowerPoint presentations for openingstatements and closing arguments. However,PowerPoint has limited flexibility and cannotmaintain the pace that a courtroom settingdemands. AUSAs know that is impossible to stickto a set script in court presentations. The flow ofthe trial and presentation of the evidence isaffected by witness testimony, judicial rulings,and other legal situations. Making an impressionon a jury and impeaching witnesses are areas thatrequire a reliable presentation tool to maintain theflow of the presentation.

Sanction is not just some neat little toy thatonly the high-tech, savvy attorneys use. Rather, itis a tool that, when used properly, can effectivelypresent a case to the jury. There is always someconcern that using technology such as Sanctionwill make the government look too slick or fuelthe argument from defense counsel of the "vastresources of the federal government." In reality,the jury expects the government to be preparedand smooth in presenting the case to them. Theyalready know that the government has resources.AUSAs should not "dummy" down theirpresentations. Instead of giving the impressionthat the government has vast resources, the use ofSanction makes the USAO look like the organizedand professional law firm that it is.

USAOs are capable of prosecuting cases incourt without Sanction, but there are cases thatcan be significantly enhanced in their presentationby using Sanction. Consider these examples:

• Bank fraud cases–These cases involve manybank documents such as checks, bankstatements, and reports, among others. Thesedocuments need to be shown and explained tothe jury. The AUSA may want to direct thejurors' attention to a specific place on some ofthe documents.

• Conspiracy drug cases–Usually there areundercover audio recordings of drugtransactions and possibly video recordings.The AUSA can play the audio/video tapes incourt by synchronizing the text with therecordings and display it on the computerscreen. Sanction will highlight each line as itis being spoken. The jury can see all theinformation on the screen, rather thansearching through a notebook.


• Terrorism cases–These cases may involvephotos, documents, and surveillance videos,and other types of media. Sanction may beused to play videos, as well as display photosand documents, including bank transactions.

• Bank robbery cases–In these type cases, theAUSA may wish to present a floor plan layoutof the bank, a surveillance tape from the bank,and photograph stills made from the video.

There are no limits to the use of Sanction ingovernment cases. The software can be used in asimple or a complex case. In the beginning, manyAUSAs prefer to use Sanction in a simple case tobecome familiar with implementing thetechnology in their courtroom practice. Coursesoffered at the National Advocacy Center (NAC)are an excellent way to become familiar withSanction. The only way to get comfortable withusing Sanction is to use it.

IV. Sanction basics for the technicallychallenged

Technically challenged AUSAs do not need tofear using Sanction. AUSA Alan Dasher fromAlbany, Georgia, used Sanction for the first timein a trial of a public official in June 2005. "Iwould agree that I am as technically-challenged asthey come. However, with the assistance of ahelpful information technology specialist, anyAUSA, no matter how computer phobic, cansuccessfully use the Sanction program in thecourtroom," said Dasher. "The key is involvingthe specialist as early as possible in the trialpreparation process." Dasher, who integrated theuse of video and audio synchronized transcripts inhis initial use of Sanction, also encourages otherAUSAs to take advantage of training offered atthe NAC. "There are plenty of prosecutors whopanic at the idea of touching anything morecomplicated than a flip-chart during a trial. I amone of them. Those of us who fall into thatcategory should probably be encouraged to stepoutside our comfort zones to attend seminars ofthis nature." Interview with Alan Dasher, AUSA,in Albany, Ga. (June 2005).

Although AUSAs may initially need someassistance from their Information Technology (IT)staff or Automated Litigation Support Specialist(ALS) representative, the operation of Sanctioncan be as smooth as typing an exhibit number andpressing the enter key. Sanction can even be

programmed for use with a bar code reader. Thefirst step in using Sanction is to determine whatevidence exists and digitize it, which means toconvert it to a format that can be used in thecomputer. Paper documents and photographs willbe scanned and converted to .tif (TaggedInformation Format File) and .jpg (Joint PhotoExpert Group) format, respectively.

To convert an audiotape, connect a tapeplayer to a computer equipped with audiocapturing software such as Sound Forge or AudioMagix. The audio will be converted to a .wav file.Videotapes are converted by connecting a VCR toa computer with video capture software (Pinnacleor Dazzle, for example) and saved in an .mpgformat. Essentially this is dubbing the audioand/or video into the computer. Maintain theoriginals, but place a digital copy of the exhibitsinto Sanction for effective presentation of theexhibits.

V. Organizing the case with Sanction

In addition to using Sanction as a presentationtool in the courtroom, the case folder can beorganized electronically. Open the Sanctionsoftware and create the case file by typing the casecaption. Notice that the screen is separated intothree panes. Sanction is ready for the exhibits tobe inserted. See Figure 1.

The tree view, seen in the left pane, is verysimilar to looking at files on the computer usingWindows Explorer or My Computer. This view isthe main organizational structure of Sanction. It isalso important to understand that the items placedin Sanction will be shortcuts to the files. Forinstance, if a document is dragged and droppedinto Sanction, the document will actually be savedin the original location. To avoid this confusion,try to get into the practice of saving the exhibits inthe case folders created. All .tiffs, .jpegs, .wavs,and so forth, should be saved into in the casefolder.

From the Tree View, an AUSA can additems, organize presentations, print, and view anentire case with just one click. The List View,seen in the center pane, is a detailed listing of theitems in the Tree View. Each page of a multipagedocument can be seen in the List View. List Viewmakes it possible to see more details of the itemsadded to the case folder. The Viewing Windowgives a preview of selections in the List View.When the AUSA selects a document, image,


video, transcript, or other exhibit in the list view,it will automatically display in the ViewingWindow. See Figure 2.

The case folder has several categories createdto store the digitized items into the computer.Scanned documents are placed in the documentsfolder. Photos are stored in the images folder.Videos will store both audio and video files. Thetranscripts folder will hold the transcripts createdin Transcript Manager. The other exhibits foldermay contain bullet lists, time lines, text clips,screen captures, and other application file types.Adobe Acrobat files, Microsoft Word, Exceldocuments, and HTML pages may be added.

To add descriptive information, notes, andexhibit numbers to the material in the case folder,select the desired item in Tree View, right click onthe individual page in List View, and choose EditSelected Item. The following screen shot gives avisual depiction of this process. See Figure 3.

Changes to these fields may be made at anytime. This procedure allows entering the exhibitnumber in presentation mode to display thematerial in the courtroom. For a more structuredand organized presentation, drag the items to thepresentation folder. Choose the method that worksbest. The practices of entering the exhibit numberor using bar code readers are the most widely usedmethods.

VI. Searching transcripts

The Transcript Search feature in Sanctionprovides a quick and easy way to find variousinformation in transcripts. One or multipletranscripts may be searched for specific words orphrases. When the testimony is located, alitigation team member can create text clips,media clips, or bookmarks, with a right-click ofthe mouse. Printing selected transcript pages isalso possible.

To search a transcript(s), select thetranscript(s) from the list by clicking the checkbox by the transcript name. Enter the search termin the Search Text box. Click the Search button torun the search. When the hits are found, click theselected hit in the Search Hit window. Thetranscript will automatically jump to the indicatedpage and line in the Transcript window. SeeFigure 4.

Several options are available once thetranscript is found.

• Bookmark–Places an electronic bookmarkthat can either be stored for later use or sharedwith the rest of the trial team.

• Create Media Clip–If the transcript has beensynchronized, the highlighted portions of thetranscript can be added as a new clip.

• Create Text Clip–Creates an image file ofthe selected text for presentation especiallywhen there is no video for a deposition.

• Show Previous/Next Page–Shows theprevious or next page in the display window.

• Append to Text File–Creates a running fileof selected text for review at a later time.

• Show Media Clip InPresentation–Immediately plays thehighlighted section from the transcript inPresentation Mode. (Be careful using thisoption. If a transcript is not synchronizedproperly it might inadvertently showunwanted portions of the media file.)

• Show Text Clip In Presentation –Immediately displays thehighlighted text from a transcript inPresentation Mode.

• Send to CaseMap–CaseMap is anotherlitigation support tool on the networkcomputer. The highlighted text can be sentfrom a transcript into a CaseMap database.

Obviously, there are many ways to organizetranscripts in Sanction. Instead of searchingthrough a trial notebook or boxes of documents,Sanction can locate pertinent text from a transcriptand display it quickly.

VII. New and improved Sanction

The newest release of Sanction builds moreflexibility in the database capabilities. SanctionII.8 features a customizable coding database thatallows users to customize fields or templates forstoring, organizing, and retrieving data forpresentation. Also included with the newestrelease is the ability to import and view TimeMapfiles, bookmark transcripts, and one searchfunction for the entire Sanction database. Theexhibit numbering feature now supports usingalpha characters as exhibits numbers.


The new coding capability with user-definedfields and custom-form views makes the latestrelease of Sanction a more flexible tool for use incase organization. The new aspects of thesoftware allow AUSAs to use Sanction as adocument database, as well as a courtroompresentation tool. The AUSA can define and enterthe fields of information that are needed from thedocument collection. For instance, if the AUSAwants to be able to search by date, name, ordocument type, the database can be built to enterthis information. Document-level coding may beperformed so that the AUSA can browse pages ofa document while updating only the first page.There is also a new find/query tool, which allowsfor searches across tables.

Verdict Systems has significantly improvedthe ability to code documents in Sanction, whichgives the trial team increased ability to use it forfurther organization of the case. The codingfeature allows entry of data into fullycustomizable fields for searching and queries.Fields can be added, deleted, or modified, fromthe default settings. Coding templates may becreated for use within the current case or multiplecases.

Coding is specific information pertaining toeach document in the database. For instance, tosearch for specific documents based upon adocument type or date, it is necessary to create afield which shows that information for thedocument. Thus, if a letter shows March 1, 2005as the date, a field with that date can be created,making it possible to search that document later.Otherwise, it will be necessary to manually pagethrough the images to find that particulardocument. There is a lot of up-front work toprepare each document, but once it is done, this awonderful feature of the software. The exampleattached shows what a typical coding templatemight contain. See Figure 5.

To search the database, click the Searchbutton on the toolbar and enter the criteria for thesearch. The example shown depicts a search forall the letters dated 3/1/2005. To set up thissearch, check the Documents box and enter"Where is the document type (i.e. doc_type)?"The Condition shows the parameters of the search.In this example, the Condition will be "equals"because it needs to match. The criteria is the typeof document, which is a letter. The use of theBoolean operator "AND" indicates that there is anadditional search connected with this query. In

this connector, enter the document date (doc_date)in the Where box. The condition will be "equals"and the criteria will be "3/1/2005" which is thedate specified to appear in the results. To simplifythe process explained here, the database is told tosearch for all document types coded as a letter andto display only those letters with the date of3/1/2005. Once the query is set up, press the RunQuery button. The results will appear in the lowerleft corner. To display the letter, double-click on itand it will appear on the right side replacing thefind/query boxes. See Figure 6.

Another convenient feature is the capability tosave the queries that are run frequently. To save aquery, click the Save button and enter a name forthe query. Keep in mind that the query, not thesearch results, will be saved.

This process may seem complicated, butmastering the art of setting up the information inthe find/query boxes makes the process run muchmore smoothly. The important thing to rememberis that once the information is coded correctly, itwill not have to be coded again. If it is coded, theAUSA will find it. The documents are notmisfiled and time is not wasted retrieving theinformation.

Coding the Sanction case database may seemlike a lot of work, but consider the fact that anissue about a document that was not included asan exhibit may come up in the courtroom. A quicksearch of the database will find the document andallow the AUSA to add it to the exhibit list.

VIII. Closing argument

Sanction can be a powerful tool in organizingand presenting cases. To maximize its potential,AUSAs should use and implement it as part oftheir exhibit preparation and presentation.

Sanction is only as useful as the evidence thatis placed into it. Once the evidence is in the casefolder, the AUSA has a powerful tool on his sideto organize and present the case.

"I was very impressed with the Sanctionprogram and would recommend its use to otherprosecutors," said AUSA Dasher. "I do believethat Sanction insures that you are squeezing everylast drop of probative value from a particularpiece of evidence." Interview with Alan Dasher,Assistant United States Attorney, in Columbus,Ga. (June 2005).�


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

�Milton Hooper is the Automated LitigationSupport Specialist for the U.S. Attorney's Office,Middle District of Georgia. He has been with theDepartment of Justice for fourteen years and acontributing writer for Law Office Computingmagazine. Milton served in the U.S. Air Forcewhere he worked with the Air Force Office ofSpecial Investigations. a

Figure 1

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Figure 6

Hits

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Sanction II.8–Presentation Mode or"Putting on the Show"Rick PaughAutomated Litigation Support SpecialistUnited States Attorney's OfficeSouthern District of Indiana

I. Introduction

Presentation Mode is exactly what its nameimplies, a vehicle to present your digital case incourt. It is arguably the "payoff" for all the timespent in preparing for a digital trial.

The Presentation button starts PresentationMode from the Main Screen (it may also bestarted by selecting Presentation from the Menubar). Presentation Mode opens to a black screenwith a toolbar at the bottom. The toolbar has beenmade as unobtrusive as possible so as not todetract from the displayed exhibit. In the event thejudge dislikes the toolbar, its default may be set sothat it appears only when the mouse pointer ismoved over it. The toolbar is not needed to run apresentation, however, presentations will flowmore smoothly if it is used. See Figures 1 and 2.

II. Screen panels

Presentation Mode has five panels availablefor displaying exhibits. These are selected byclicking on the small panels in the center of thetoolbar. The selected panel will turn green to givea visual clue for that selected panel. See Figure 3.

The left (square) panel selects Full Screen,placing the exhibit in the center of the screen. Thetwo figures below are representative examples ofa document and a photo displayed in Full Screen.See Figures 4, 5, and 6.

Full Screen gives the largest screen area and isprobably the best view for any single exhibit.

The left and right panels must be takentogether because they create two display areas onthe screen to allow two exhibits to be displayedsimultaneously. This side-by-side display allows awitness to compare or contrast two instances ofthe same document. It is also useful to display twoconsecutive pages of a multipage document to

maintain a linear flow from point-to-point (as in acontract). Another common use of the left/rightdisplay is for opening and closing arguments. Thecounts of an indictment may be displayed in theleft panel while arguments are rotated through theright panel. The left/right panel is best suited toportrait orientation. See Figures 7, 8, and 9.

The last two display options are Top andBottom, and must be discussed together. Thetop/bottom configuration splits the presentationscreen into top and bottom panes. The top/bottomview is better suited to landscape orientedexhibits.

One of the best uses of the top/bottom displayis the presentation of bank checks. During a trial,the presentation of checks usually involves bothsides of the checks. The figure below displays thetwo sides of a check simultaneously so that jurorscan see all of the information at a glance.

This two-pane landscape view would also behelpful to display two sections of a financialspreadsheet (or two versions of the samespreadsheet section). See Figures 10, 11, and 12.

Customizing the view (panels) for eachexhibit helps to keep all the players on the samepage. Consider the following advantages.

• Support staff do not need to prepare witnessfolders (time saver).

• It is unnecessary for jurors to search throughbinders for correct documents (time saver).

• Likewise, it is unnecessary for opposingcounsel to search through binders fordocuments. (time saver).

• The AUSA does not need to find documentsin witness folders (time saver).

Once the trial team becomes proficient withsetup and presentation, it will save the AUSA, thelitigation staff, and the court valuable time andmoney.


III. Presentation folders andpresentation items

The first portion of this article discussed howexhibits can be displayed to the court. Thefollowing sections will discuss how exhibits aredigitized. Presentation folders may, for example,be set up by witness (i.e. Smith_John). Eachpresentation folder contains the exhibits to whichthat witness is expected to testify.

The drop down box at the far left of thetoolbar shows the list of presentation folders.(Note that the default presentation cannot bedeleted.) Selecting a presentation activates thenext drop down box, Presentation Items. SeeFigure 13.

This drop down shows all the exhibits enteredinto the presentation in the order in which theywere added. This may be changed in List View.Click on an item to show that exhibit on thepresentation screen.

Ideally, the items in the presentation foldershould be organized in the order in which theywill be presented. If that is the case, select the firstitem and it will appear on the screen (assuming afull screen view). See Figure 14.

Having selected the first item, documentVS0005 is displayed on the screen. Assuming thatall the exhibits are in the order in which theAUSA expects to call them, this gives him theability to step through the exhibits.

To the right of the Presentation Item dropdown are two arrows pointing left and right.These arrows are used to navigate to the PreviousItem and Next Item. The use of either arrow stepsthe AUSA sequentially through the PresentationItems in the current order. The last item in the listwill remain on the screen.

Assume that the Smith_John presentationmentioned above has progressed smoothly fromexhibit VS0005 through exhibit VS0031. TheAUSA is about to finish with his witness when herealizes that he can tie everything together byreferring back to exhibit VS0009. Theprevious/next buttons become rather cumbersomein this example. Using the previous button, in thiscase, would be rather like handing the witness theprevious five exhibits one at a time. One solutionis to click the Presentation Item drop down andclick on the desired exhibit. This is a workablesolution if the list of exhibits is fairly short. A

better solution is to employ a "blind search." Theblind search allows the AUSA to pull up anyexhibit by typing the exhibit identifier andpressing the enter key in the search field. This willdisplay any exhibit entered in the Sanction case,even if it is in a presentation folder.

IV. Other exhibit display options

Notice the use of the term "exhibit identifier"in the previous example. Exhibits may beidentified in Sanction by ID (for example,imported Bates number), Exhibit Number, TrialExhibit Number, or Description. PresentationMode may be set to search on any of these fields.Ensure the exhibits are entered consistently and inthe order the AUSA wishes to refer to themduring trial. If Sanction is set to search for TrialExhibit Number and the AUSA inserts the Batesnumber, the search will fail. It is generally notrecommended to search on the Description field.The searches take longer and the results can beambiguous.

Sanction also supplies a means to jump to anypage in a multipage exhibit. This feature can beparticularly helpful when there is one exhibitnumber for a large document (contracts,mortgages, and financial statements, for example).If a particular page in a (displayed) document isneeded, simply type a period (.) and the pagenumber. Inserting ".12" will find and display pagetwelve of the current document. Keep in mind that"page number" refers to the sequential page in theexhibit, not necessarily the actual document pagenumber.

An increasingly popular way to displayexhibits is by bar code. An identifier (ID, TrialExhibit, or any of the above mentioned items) ischosen to retrieve the image in PresentationMode. A bar code is then generated for eachexhibit. For example, the ID number of CS0001generates the following bar code. The AUSA willhave a printout of the bar codes for eachpresentation. The bar code for each exhibit is readwith a bar code reader and the exhibit appears inPresentation Mode. See Figure 15.

Many AUSAs prefer the bar code selectionbecause it minimizes their interaction with thecomputer. The AUSA can present exhibits by barcode, and can generate Presentation Mode Barcodes for the commonly used presentation toolssuch as those below. See Figure 16.


It is possible to conduct an entire trial andonly touch the computer to turn it on and off.Note: Turn the beeper on the bar code reader off.

V. Commonly used tools

Sanction contains several useful tools formanipulating exhibits in the Presentation Mode.The Tool buttons are located on the right side ofthe toolbar and may be added or removeddepending on the AUSA's requirements. Thirtyfive buttons are available, however, it is notadvisable to crowd the toolbar with nonessentialbuttons. The most commonly used tools areshown here. See Figure 17.

From left to right the tools are:

• Zoom (default).

• Magnify.

• Highlight.

• Arrow.

• Freehand line.

• Straight line.

• Hollow rectangle.

• Auto Delete.

• Clear Panel.

• Full Screen.

Zoom, Magnify, and Highlight are the mostcommonly used tools for working with exhibits.

A. Zoom

Zoom is useful to make a portion of adocument easier to read or to focus the witness ona specific portion. Click and drag a box around anarea to enlarge it. The second paragraph of thedocument shown has been selected and appearsbelow. See Figures 18 and 19.

The main document disappears and theselected portion appears on the screen. This is auseful option to employ to when the AUSA wantsto avoid confusion between the original and thearea in question.

B. Magnify

Magnify operates in a similar fashion toenlarge a selected portion of the screen, however,the original exhibit remains in the background.The figure below is an example of Magnify.

Magnify differs from Zoom in two otherimportant ways. First, the selection may be placedanywhere on the screen by clicking and draggingit to the desired position. Second, eight magnifiedareas may be selected and displayed on the screensimultaneously. See Figure 20.

In both Zoom and Magnify, double-click toremove the selection from the screen. The selectedareas of Zoom and Magnify share the ability toscroll. Click inside the selected area then use thecursor arrows on the keyboard to scroll up anddown.

C. Highlight

Highlight is another one of the mostcommonly used tools. Highlight is used tohighlight portions of an exhibit in PresentationMode. Click and drag an area on the exhibit and itwill highlight in the selected color. Six colors areavailable to highlight, however, the colors blackand white will actually mask (cover) the selectedarea and are more suited to redacting on-the-fly.

Highlight can be very effective when used inconjunction with Zoom and Magnify. A goodtechnique is to introduce the exhibit, highlight thedesired area, then Zoom or Magnify that samearea.

This technique focuses on the exact portion ofthe exhibit that needs attention and keeps thathighlight in the enlarged area. This helps maintaina context for the enlarged area of the exhibit. SeeFigures 21 and 22.

Screen Capture is another function ofSanction II.8. Screen Capture is often used inconjunction with Magnify (and to a lesser extentwith Zoom) to record the screen image for therecord. When the image is on the screen, depressthe F7 key to capture it. The whole screen(including annotations) will be saved to the OtherExhibits/Captures category. This function may beuseful in appeals by showing the appellate courtexactly what was displayed in the original trial.

A time saving use of Screen Capture is tohighlight and magnify portions of an exhibit


beforehand, then capture them for use at trial. Thisallows the AUSA to be very precise in what hewants to present to the court.

D. Other annotations

The figure below shows how Arrows, Lines,and Rectangles may be used on an exhibit inPresentation Mode. The litigation team will needto experiment with these tools to find the optimumuse for presentations. See Figure 23.

The Hollow Rectangle tool is useful formarking large areas of the exhibit. Highlightingtends to become obtrusive as you approach 60%to 70% coverage of the exhibit. The HollowRectangle is more useful than Highlight whenselecting areas of a photograph.

The Straight Line tool is useful whereunderlining may be more appropriate thanhighlighting.

The Auto Delete button allows selectivedeletion of annotations on exhibits. Click the AutoDelete button, then move the cursor to theannotation then click again. The keyboardcombination of Ctrl + Delete will clear allannotations on the selected pane. See Figure 24.

The final two buttons on the toolbar are Clearand Full Screen. The Clear button removes anyimage from the currently active panel. The FullScreen button changes any active panel to FullScreen. See Figure 25.

VI. Media

Up to this point, static exhibits such asdocuments and photographs have been discussed.One of Sanction's most powerful features though,is the ability to present dynamic evidence. Notonly may audio and video files be played inPresentation Mode, but text transcripts may besynchronized to display along with the audio orvideo (much like closed captioning).

The synchronized text feature of Sanctionhelps to eliminate pesky problems such asvideo/audio players and transcript binders.

The figure below is an example of textsynchronized with video. As the video plays, thetext scrolls and highlights the current line (orlines). See Figure 26.

This keeps the jury focused on the video andthe correct portion of the transcript at the sametime. This technique works just as well with audioonly (wiretap). As the audio plays, everyone isfocused on the highlighted transcript. (The AUSAhas the ability to place photos of the participantsabove the transcript in audio synchronization, tohelp the jury put faces with voices.)

VII. Some operational tips

Throughout this article, it has beenemphasized that the AUSAs have these wonderfulcapabilities and can present a highly effectivecase. In reality, the AUSA is not alone.

Most AUSAs will benefit by having amember of the litigation team run the Sanctionpresentation in court. This frees the AUSA toconcentrate on his case, not on running thecomputer. The member of your team who istasked with Sanction presentations should beinvolved at the earliest possible time in the trialpreparation. The more knowledgeable that personis about the case and the Sanction setup, the easierit will be for them to "keep up" in court. Legalassistants, paralegals, and case agents runSanction successfully every day.

That is not to say that the AUSA cannot runSanction alone. Many attorneys with relativelysimple cases go it alone. An AUSA can conduct abank robbery trial (a few photographs and avideo) very well by himself. The IT staff canprovide a wireless mouse/presentation control forthe computer, which will allow the AUSA to runthe presentation from anywhere in the courtroom.

VIII. Sanction in a no-tech courtroom

All of this sounds great, but how is it possiblein a courtroom that is not set up for thetechnology? How can the AUSA use Sanction inthis setting?

The items listed below are needed for thebasic presentation.

• Projector.

• Laptop.

• Projection screen.

• RGB cable.

• Surge protector.


• Gaffer's tape.

• External speaker cable (if audio is used).

Make sure that the projection screen ispositioned so that the jurors can clearly read whatis projected on the screen. A laptop will beconnected to the projector and the laptop will beon the AUSA's table. The AUSA may choose tooperate Sanction or may feel more comfortable ifsomeone else takes care of this. The mostimportant thing to do in preparing to use Sanctionin the courtroom is to practice. This cannot beemphasized enough. The presentation may lookgreat in the office on a computer monitor, but itcan be different when using a projector. Go intothe courtroom before the trial and set up theequipment as it will be during the trial. This willallow adjustment of the viewing angles, monitorresolution, and other arrangement that may not beanticipated in the office.

IX. Conclusion

Sanction II.8 contains many tools for theorganization and presentation of your cases.Presentation folders allows organization ofexhibits in a logical manner for efficient retrievalat trial. Five different display options allow theAUSA to tailor the display to the type of exhibit.

Sanction permits the AUSA to show exhibitswith speed and efficiency. Paper documents arenot needed. Witness examinations will go moresmoothly, evidence will be shown moreeffectively, and the trial will probably be shorterfor the effort.

Try Sanction on a small case. Put in a fewdocuments. Try each view. Make someannotations. Try it out in the privacy of the office.Practice, practice, practice. See the difference.�

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

�Rick Paugh is the Automated LitigationSupport Specialist for the U.S. Attorney's Office,Southern District of Indiana. He has been with theDepartment of Justice for three years and hastaught several PowerPoint and Sanction II classesat the National Advocacy Center. Rick is retiredfrom the U.S. Air Force where he held a MasterInstructor rating and earned an Instructor ofTechnology degree from the Community Collegeof the Air Force.a


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Figure 25


What Is CaseMap?Charlene TallmanLitigation Support SpecialistUnited States Attorney's OfficeDistrict of Vermont

Phil SamsonAutomated Litigation Support SpecialistUnited States Attorney's OfficeDistrict of Massachusetts

I. Introduction

CaseMap is a relational database which isspecifically designed for legal and trial-relatedapplications. It has been optimized to makeorganizing and evaluating facts, people, research,and issues easy. All aspects of a case may besorted and/or searched, and the relationshipsbetween these items are preserved. For example,Microsoft Access or LIONS are other relationaldatabases, used in U.S. Attorneys' offices,containing data tables (such as an Excelspreadsheet or WordPerfect table) which can besearched, sorted, or linked together.

Unlike Microsoft Access or LIONS, however,CaseMap's user interface is designed to beintuitive and ready to use by the legal professionalwithout extensive training. It is formatted withpreset tables that are organized around the typicalstructure of a case. In most situations, there islittle if any need to call upon Systems to set up acase, customize the fields for data entry, designreports, or run queries. Rather, the trial team(composed of AUSAs, investigators, paralegals,secretaries, and interns) can perform all of thesefunctions. Users are generally comfortable withCaseMap within twenty minutes. They canperform basic data entry, view and sort previouslyentered data, and print basic reports.

With a fundamental understanding ofCaseMap, a user can employ it as a knowledgerepository for all aspects of a case. It can be usedto create dynamic chronologies, witness lists, anddocument indexes (exhibit lists). Many of thedocuments that are traditionally stored as separateWordPerfect files can be combined in Casemapand are collectively much more powerful anduseful.

II. Why use CaseMap? Why not keepusing WordPerfect?

• CaseMap easily sorts all events in a case bydate (or various other criteria) with just a rightclick. Such sorting can be done acrossmultiple data fields.

• CaseMap easily filters many individualevents or documents to narrow the desiredview to a specific time period, author, orissue.

• CaseMap easily prints reports and WYSIWYG–What you see is what you get.Printed reports appear to be the results fromrun queries, filters, or sorts. They can beprinted or saved as Adobe Acrobat files to beshared with other members of the trial team.

• External data can be imported and linked.Other database programs, such asConcordance or IPRO, can be used to sendlinked, referenced quotes from vieweddocuments or images.

• CaseMap exports to TimeMap, which is asister program to CaseMap, and easily createschronological visuals in a case. Using theSend To function, data from CaseMap can besent to TimeMap to generate easy-to-readtime lines.

• CaseMap links allow the user toautomatically link events, supportingdocuments, research, and supportingwitnesses, to the indicted counts.

• CaseMap can be used to create exhibit listswhich can be exported in WordPerfect format.

• CaseMap supports concurrent users on thesame database and automatically saves allchanges, whereas a WordPerfect documentcan only be opened by one user at a time.Additionally, CaseMap has a replicationfunction which allows one user to work on thedatabase off-site while other users continue towork on the networked copy. When thereplica database is returned to the office, itcan be synchronized with the master copy,incorporating all changes, so that the workdone off-site is merged with the masterdatabase.


III. Deciding whether to use CaseMap,Concordance, or IPRO

IPRO is a graphical image database that isdesigned to replace the original, physicaldocuments produced during the discovery processand/or during an investigation (for example, as aresult of a seizure) with scanned images. Itobviates the need to continually look throughboxes of paper. CaseMap has the ability tofunction as an index of these documents (withlinks to the scanned images), but it will notreplace the documents themselves. Accordingly,CaseMap and IPRO can work together verynicely.

Concordance is a full-text, searchabledatabase designed to index large numbers ofdocuments, allowing users to search through thetext contained in those documents. It links toIPRO in order to display the associated scannedimage of the page being searched in Concordance.Concordance is virtually limitless in the numberof documents it can index and search whereasCaseMap is limited to 20,000 documents.Therefore, Concordance is well suited for casesthat are document intensive. CaseMap, on theother hand, is ideal for smaller cases in whichthere are fewer documents.

IV. What are the nuts and bolts ofCaseMap?

CaseMap consists of multiple tables(spreadsheets).

The fact table is the master chronology ofcase facts. The table outlines the time sequence ofthe events in the case. The information containedin the fact spreadsheet need not be limited to facts,but can reference people, documents, allegations,rumors, and other things. See Figure 1.

The object table is broken down into thefollowing multiple, smaller tables. See Figure 2.

• The people table is used to manage namesand information about all the participants inthe trial. As users enter a person's name,character descriptions can be added and thenassigned to groups (for example, defendant,fact witness, law enforcement, and others).These groupings can be sorted and filtered inorder to view only what may be deemedrelevant to the task at hand.

• The documents table is the index of alldocuments in the case. A documentdescription and a link to a scanned image ofthe document can be included.

• The other evidence table is used to log andtrack any physical evidence, such as audiotapes, drugs, and guns.

The issues table contains an outline of thelegal issues in the case. The issue linker allowsusers to easily review the facts and objects in thecase and link them to the relevant issues. SeeFigure 3.

V. Linking it all together

CaseMap links all the data from these tablestogether using shortnames. This feature is basedon the idea that each object in the database shouldalways be mentioned using the same name andthat the name should be unique.

The user is required to enter a shortname fordata entered into CaseMap. This shortname willautomatically serve as the key to all futurereferences to this item of data. Additionally, usinga single shortname is essential for the effectiveoperation of CaseMap. A user can enter multipleshortnames, however, this would defeat thepurpose of having one, single reference for eachspecific data entry.

For example, a person named William Smithcould be referred to as Bill Smith, William Smith,Mr. Smith, Billy, Willy, or Smitty. The userwould have to search all the tables for each andevery variation of the name in order to be certainthat all occurrences concerning this person werecaptured. If a shortname (for example, WSMITH)is entered into the CaseMap database, allreferences to William Smith will be located in allthe database tables.

VI. How is CaseMap being used? Astudy of two districts

A. District of Vermont

Vermont is a small district and for most cases,the majority of the features that make CaseMap sopowerful are not being fully used. The software,however, is used extensively to compile documentindexes. The litigation team uses the followingsteps to create a document index.


• New documents are scanned by legalassistants and uploaded into IPRO forviewing. This is usually done in conjunctionwith a tight discovery deadline, so no codingis done.

• The Bates begin and Bates end numbers ofeach document are imported into thedocument field.

• Agents, support staff, and AUSAs flesh out adocument index using the Bates numbers.

• Privileged documents are marked with acheckbox.

• Discovery CD's are produced in IPRO using alist generated from CaseMap of nonprivilegeddocuments. If multiple batches of discoverywill be produced, then discovery dates orrecipients are entered into CaseMap.

• Administrative records and exhibit lists aregenerated using CaseMap. If particularformatting is required, the list is exported intoWordPerfect for the final touches.

B. District of Massachusetts

Massachusetts is a large district and has manyactive investigations and cases that are classifiedas document intensive. Accordingly, this districtemploys Concordance and IPRO as the primaryorganizational tools for such cases andinvestigations. The litigation teams do, however,use CaseMap to review the documents uncoveredin the Concordance/IPRO searches. Primarily,CaseMap is used as a repository for trial exhibitsand miscellaneous notations (for example,privileged or redacted). Furthermore, it isextensively used to create and export, or print, theexhibit list as a trial date becomes imminent.

VII. Popular CaseMap features

• Instant Document Access enables users towork with IPRO and CaseMapsimultaneously. They can work on theirdocuments and fact chronologies and instantlyaccess the original scanned document inIPRO. Agent reports created using Word,digital pictures, WordPerfect documents, andany other electronic documents thataccumulate in a case, can be linked intoCaseMap for instant access.

• The Issue Linker is enabled by selectingView >Issue Linker. If a user chooses toemploy this feature, an outline of the legalissues appears on the right side of the screen.As facts, evidence, and documents arereviewed, the user can check boxes to linkthem to the issue to which they relate. Later,the user can go to the issue linker table andview and/or print lists for any desired issue.

• Customizability allows CaseMap to becustom-tailored to any case with ease. Newfields can be created to log unique data, whichmay be entered without specializedknowledge about database design.

• Ease of Use is another outstanding feature.CaseMap is ideally designed to be used andmaintained by lawyers, legal assistants,agents, and paralegals. Its tables and tools areintuitive to legal professionals and can belearned in a very short period of time.

VIII. Getting help from CaseMap

Typically, users can teach themselves to useCaseMap by employing the help menu. However,if additional help is needed with the basicoperation of the program, a tutorial is included inthe software. To access the tutorial, click Start >Programs >CaseMap 5 >Help >CaseMap 101Tutorial. The tutorial will guide the user step-by-step through the basics of CaseMap in four easylessons.

IX. What new features are in CaseMap5?

• Rich Text Format allows formattedinformation to be entered into a CaseMaptable, (for example, text attributes such asbold, italic, colored, and multiple fonts areaccepted). This is an important feature if theuser copies text from a document and pastes itinto the CaseMap database.

• ReportBooks creates specialized,preformatted reports that can be set up inadvance. Even though the data in a CaseMapdatabase may be dynamic and is continuallybeing entered or updated, the report formatremains consistent and will reflect changes inthe database each time it is run.

• Title Pages for Reports creates customizedtitle pages for all reports.


• PDF Bulk Importer allows a user to link anumber of PDFs simultaneously, rather thanindividually, if IPRO is not being used toview scanned documents. Additionally, it isprogrammed to recognize new documentsadded to the directory which contain PDFfiles and to update the links for thesedocuments, which avoids duplicate entriesand links.

• Bulk Issue Linker enables the user to linkmultiple data items to a single issue with afew mouse clicks, rather than marking eachone individually.

• Send to WordPerfect in Table View sendsdata directly to WordPerfect (avoiding theneed to export the data and import it intoWordPerfect).

• Customizable Link Windows is available inCaseMap5 and allows the user to customizeand sort shortname lists. The softwareautomatically creates a list of each time theshortnames are used in specific fields. Inversion 4, a user could create a list of each ofthose references, but could not customize orsort. Version 5 now allows a user tocustomize such lists and sort them as desired.

These new features can be real time savers!�

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

�Charlene Tallman is the Litigation SupportSpecialist for the U.S. Attorney's Office, Districtof Vermont. She has been with the USAO for sixyears.a

�Phil Samson is one of two AutomatedLitigation Support Specialists for the U.S.Attorney's Office, District of Massachusetts. Hehas been with the USAO for five years and is alicenced attorney in Illinois, the 7th Circuit Courtof Appeals, and the Northern District of Illinois.a


Figure 1


Figure 2


Figure 3


Scanning a Solid Base to Build aStrong CaseLarry GniewekInformation Technology SpecialistUnited States Attorney's OfficeNorthern District of New York

Overview

What is the value in using IPRO Scan-IT toconvert hard copy evidence to an electronicversion? Scan-IT allows a solid case foundation tobe built quickly, providing value-added attributes,such as high speed scanning with the addition ofBates numbering ID, underlying coding, andsearchable text versions of evidence. Scan-IT is animportant tool, as the electronic images will be theeasiest to transport, research, markup, andreference. In addition, it allows the coordination ofactivities by all team members that have access tothe same evidence, either by a shared set ofcomputer-stored files or on copies that can betaken out of the office, worked on, and returnedalong with any work accomplished off-line. Thisaids in case investigation, organization, and alsoallows easy migration of all work accomplished bythe trial team directly into trial presentationsoftware. An added benefit is that if the case needsto be transferred to another attorney, this formatallows the new attorney to get up to speed quickly,as all information built into the case stays with theelectronic version.

The scanning of case documents, images, andphotographs, in preparation for a future trial canbe likened to building a foundation for a home. Iftime is taken to build a solid base with qualitymaterials and with the professionalism of acraftsman, the house will stand rock solid and thechances that cracks will surface later in the processare minimized. The worst case scenario is thatpoor quality work is performed when workersprepare the foundation. Without a good structuresupporting the load, no matter how well the rest ofthe home is constructed, the house will inevitablyshow cracks and faults or even tumble into a pileof disparate pieces. At that point, the owner'schoices are to start over or pick up the pieces andtry to salvage whatever is useable from thedisaster. However, time undoubtedly will be in

short supply. The same holds true for preparing asolid foundation for cases.

The danger inherent with scanning is that it isperceived to be a low key series of operations thatmany may tend to pass over quickly or ignorecompletely. Scanning comes well before thehighly visible portion of trial construction beginsand is most often out of sight and out of mind.Short suspense tasks or other case workloads inthe forefront may lead to inattention of thescanning process and, as a result, it is notemployed as part of strategic case managementfrom the start. Taking a start-to-finish tour of thescanning process will provide a betterunderstanding of the ideal electronic caseprogression and the important part that qualityscanning provides. The post-scanning analysistools can be employed to build rock-solid casefoundations by the trial team as they assist theAUSA in the construction process of the case.

I. Stage 1: Initial case meeting

The attorney stands to gain criticalinformation that will determine the overallapproach to the case and subsequent workload byinvolving the Information Technology (IT) stafffrom the beginning. By becoming familiar withthe IT requirements, the attorney will understandthe real-world factors that can impose limitationson efforts and affect case preparations. The firstand easiest step in the process is to invite the ITstaff to initial meetings to discuss therequirements of the case. An open dialog willserve to let everyone know the attorney's overallgame plan. Consequently, the IT staff can impartthe technological obstacles that may spring up ata later time and cause unnecessary distractions tothe effort. For instance, determining the Batesnumbering schema can appear to be an innocuoustask. If it is not applied in a meaningful way,however, and results in duplicate or uncleardocument numbering, case data can be confusing,or even worse, nowhere to be found whenneeded.

During the initial case review, issues toconsider from an electronic case standpointshould include the following items.


What are the time frames involved with theeffort? There may be voluminous evidencerelevant to the case, but if there is not enough timeto scan it and make sense of it, it will amount tonothing more than wasted effort. Makingimpossible demands does not change the fact thatsome tasks are time and labor intensive andunderstanding those limitations can determinewhere to concentrate the team's efforts for the bestreturn. For instance, if other Automated LitigationSupport (ALS) tools such as synchronizedplayback of audio/video transcripts are to beutilized, the attorney needs to be aware that theconversion of analog tapes to digital form cannotbe "fast forwarded." The process occurs in realtime. One hour of tape requires at least one hourfor conversion to digital form. The subsequentmerging of the transcript and the time stamping forsynchronized playback may consume all the ITstaff's time. This leaves little or no time to scandocuments or adequately prepare them for use.

What are the human factors? The attorneymay have a relatively small amount of evidence toscan, but there may be other trial preparations orIT related efforts or problems that consume the ITstaff's time. If the office is short-staffed in the ITdiscipline, life occurrences such as vacations,illnesses, or family emergencies, can take the staffaway from devoting time and talent to the effort.

What are the technology factors? The ITstaff knows the hardware that is available and thecapabilities of the software tools. Limiters can bethe lack of hardware, such as high-speed scannerswith automatic document feeders (ADF) to speedthe scanning process, or ones that can scan bothsides without requiring human intervention to flipthe document. Another example is a case thatrequires a large amount of evidence to bedigitized. If there is no space available on thenetwork servers, additional time and money mayhave to be expended to make the evidenceavailable through the office network.Alternatively, it may be necessary to work on astand-alone system and manually move the files,which is a time-consuming operation. The qualityof a scan can add to scanning time as higherquality images scan at a slower pace. Quality canalso affect later operations such as OpticalCharacter Recognition (OCR) and the overall filespace required to store case data.

What is the evidence, in what condition is it,and how much of it is there? The preparation andscanning of documents can be complicated by

inconsistencies in paper size, such as checksversus letters, and condition of the documents,whether it is single, two-sided, or a combinationof both. The more variations in the physicalnature, the more time and effort required toprocess it. Physical grouping can play a factor inthe scanning process, as documents may bebound by paper clips, rubber bands, staples,binder clips, or in folders.

How is the evidence to be physically andlogically organized? It requires time toadequately prepare documents bound in variousmeans, and it needs to be determined if thosebindings contribute to the substance of theevidence and if they must be retained in theevidence's electronic form. Logical paperdividers, called "prep sheets," are used to tell thescanner what the physical boundaries are and thelogical association of the material being scanned.This requires manual insertion of various sheetsthat also tell how to return the physicaldocuments to the original groupings or bindings.Decisions need to be made concerning theevidence, which will affect its organization. Forexample, a document may have a cover sheet thatcan be viewed as an unrelated document or onethat deserves its own unique ID because of itsrelevance. Once separated, it may be difficult torecall the association to the attached document. Ifthe underlying document is later referencedthrough the initial one, recalling that underlyingdocument can be made unnecessarily difficult. Afolder may have notations that make the folderchange in status from a "binder" to a piece ofevidence that provides valuable information byitself.

What Bates numbering schema will beapplied and what is its importance? If anidentification system does not clearly provide aunique identifier that remains consistentthroughout the case for each document, it can belikened to dumping all the physical documentsinto a large box and mixing them. By determiningand applying a Bates numbering system, the trialteam can quickly navigate and investigate theevidence as they understand the namingconventions used and how it is organizedelectronically. The Bates numbering ensures thatthe evidence can be found, viewed, or printed,with unique identifiers. The end result is that anypiece of evidence can be recalled on a computerby its Bates number and quickly displayed, alongwith its preceding or following pages.


Is Optical Character Recognition to beused? Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is theconversion of the scanned documents from animage file that can only be viewed, to asearchable, editable text document that will beinvisibly connected to the document's image. Byproviding the ability to search documents by keywords or groups of words, case intricacies thatmay otherwise go unnoticed can be discovered bysearching OCR'ed documents. The quality of thedocuments and the resolution of the scan willaffect the accuracy of the image-to-textconversion.

What data coding and other documentinformation will be useful later and should beadded after scanning the evidence? The abilityto add coded information to the documents toorganize them better and provide importantinformation relative to the case is available. Bycoding it with the document, the data does notneed to be rediscovered each time it is needed byteam members. Searchable fields can beincorporated that provide document dates,condition, type, or any other case-relatedinformation that is needed. The IT staff can makethese easy to apply and assure that all teammembers populate these fields consistently. Forinstance, a subject can be identified by name,initials, nicknames, or aliases. A location may bereferred to in documents by various names as well,but if coded properly, all instances of bothexamples can be recalled. Proper coding can tie allinstances together with consistent identifiers toavoid confusion and make research moreproductive.

What are the quality control issues? Qualitycontrol responsibilities may need to be consideredif non-skilled personnel are used for the scanningoperation. The case material may contain errors inorganization or completeness that subsequentlyaffect all following efforts. For instance, ifdocuments are scanned upside down and notcorrectly oriented, the OCR is useless as allcharacters are unrecognizable. If the documentfeeder is misfed and it goes undetected, keydocuments or segments may be omitted from theelectronic version.

The attorney and trial team can gain levels ofefficiency and coordination not otherwise possible,if these issues are considered early in the trialpreparation. The entire trial team can betterunderstand the requirements and the tools that areavailable to make efforts more productive, if they

consult with the IT staff at the beginning ofpreparation. Early involvement will also helpclarify how scanning and other ALS tools fit intothe investigative stage and preparation for trial.

II. Stage 2: Document preparation forscanning

The hard copy evidence needs to be turnedinto image files, which are nothing more than aseries of pictures of the documents. This is themost tedious and time-consuming part of theoperation, however, the benefits will be reapedtenfold in later efforts that use the electronicversions. Ideally, a high-speed scanner with anADF attachment is used. The scanner may beblack and white, or a more expensive colorcapable one. The important thing is that a stack ofdocuments can be placed in the feeder and notloaded manually, one at a time. Documents canbe checks, letter-sized, legal, or any other sizeimaginable, and can be stapled, folded, dog-eared, single-sided, double-sided, fuzzy, andcrooked. They can also be in boxes, folders,rubber banded, or paper-clipped.

Preparation for scanning will include theremoval of all physical binders while retainingthe documents' organization, as that may be asimportant as the evidence itself. Printed "prepsheets" (sometimes referred to as slip sheets) areused to separate evidence into logical groupingsthat the scanner can understand, such as boxes,folders, "parent" documents, and "children,"which are attachments to the parents. The prepsheets are often color coded so that they areeasily found and removed, if necessary. Notationsare made on the prep sheets as necessary to helpthe staff reassemble the physical bindings afterthe scanning is completed. Scan-IT reads the prepsheet and applies the appropriate boundaries andcan be programmed to omit the prep sheet as partof the scanned document, and skip it as an imageto be scanned. III. Stage 3: Scanning softwarepreparation

The IPRO software allows the user to operatethe scanner from the connected personalcomputer (PC). It is also used to set up the projectand edit the settings to the options needed.Additional information can be added to the caseat a later date, if it is organized by projects.


Groups of documents are scanned together and arecalled "batches." Batches are limited to thenumber of documents that will fit into a standardbanker's box, which is approximately 2,500 piecesof paper. This allows multiple operators to workon the same case and avoid overlappingnumbering errors, or continuity problems whichcan occur if the batches are scanned duringmultiple work shifts. Each operator's work isidentifiable and if the quality of the scan becomesan issue, efforts to correct problems can be morefocused.

Scan-IT options include automatic generationof image keys, which is the Bates numberingschema chosen in the planning stages. A prefix isadded to help uniquely identify each page and thenumbering is automatically incremented as theimages are scanned. This becomes the means toidentify each page. The images can be "linked" toa viewer, which allows the trial team to view,search, annotate, and tag documents as needed.

The power of electronic case management willbecome more evident in this next step. By usingScan-IT to create a "project," information abouteach document can be added by "coding" thatinformation for future use. Common coding fieldsare the date of the document, type (fax, letter,check, invoice, receipt), document condition(poor, contains handwritten notations, original, orcopy), source or author of the document, or anyother characteristics the trial team deemsimportant. Coding is discussed in Stage 6.

IV. Stage 4: Scanning

Once the documents are prepped and theproject is set up in the Scan-IT software, thedocuments are loaded in the ADF and the scanningis initiated. If multiple scanners are available,dividing the scanning workload will speed theprocess and the staff will not be overwhelmed.

Scanners can be used in "flatbed" mode,however, this method requires manual placementof each document into the scanner and can bequite time consuming. This should only be usedfor irregular-sized documents that will not feedproperly through the ADF. Most ADF scannerscan scan checks or standard-sized photographs.The IT staff can experiment with irregular-sizeddocuments if the team members are unsure of thecapability.

The quality of the scan is important. Threehundred Dots Per Inch (DPI) is the setting used tocapture a clearer image. Please remember that thelarger the DPI, the larger the electronic version ofthe file becomes. There are other scanningoptions that can be applied to the documents.

• Despeckle (cleans small random dots frompoor quality images).

• Deskew (automatically straightens crookedimages).

• Remove Border (ignores bands of blackcommon on photocopied documents).

• Rotate Image (corrects orientation ofdocument when wider landscape printouts areto be scanned).

The documents are scanned in .tif format,which stands for Tagged Information File. Theoperator can either prep more documents orreassemble previously scanned documents whilescanning is in process. This should be done nearthe scanner so that problems with the scanningare noticed and corrected immediately. Scan-ITallows the operator to correct problems bydeleting a portion of the batch, rescanning pages,or inserting or appending pages to the batch asneeded. The Bates numbering will be temporarilyout of sequence, if inserted or deleted pages arerequired. Scan-IT allows for quick correction ofthe entire batch with a renumbering option orallows a prefix, such as the case name, to beapplied to the schema after the scan is complete.

During the scanning process, the documentboundaries defined by the prep sheets are appliedand visible as icons, next to the image's Batesnumber. A box, document, or paper clip, definethe container, "parent" and "child" documents.These boundaries are easily changed or removedif the associations are not defined correctly.

V. Stage 5: Optical CharacterRecognition

It is important to understand that theelectronic documents are image files, in essencejust a "picture" of the document. Opticalcharacter recognition can now be applied to thedocuments. Computer software "reads" the imageand makes an editable plain text file (.txtextension). This text file is electronicallyconnected to the image file. The OCR words canbe searched and the original image can be


displayed. The text can also be cut and pasted intoword processing software or used by othersoftware, as needed. However, OCR technology isnot perfect. It is usually 95% correct. The accuracydepends on the condition of the scanned documentand the clarity of the text used in the image. If theoriginal image is a poor-quality copy or extremelysmall text, complicated by markings, handwriting,or fancy fonts, this will hinder the accuracy of theOCR conversion.

The OCR operation is simple to initiate. It isselected and run against the batch or smallersubsets of documents. OCR conversion only takesa few minutes to complete. An addition to thecreation of the text version of the document is theability to create "load" files for other applications.More powerful case management tools, such asConcordance, are available in later stages. If othercase management software is to be used to analyzethe case data, the created load files allow all theimages and OCR text to be exported withinseconds. VI. Stage 6: Coding

Coding allows the scanned documents to havedetailed information accompany the electronicversion by adding the desired information todescriptive fields that are set up as part of theproject. The coding can force fields to becompleted in a consistent manner, such as the dateformat. It is easier to find all documents orinformation needed from a particular date if onlyone date format, such as MM/DD/YYYY, is used.Also, "pick lists" can be set up so that theinformation used by all individuals coding remainsconsistent. For example, if the originatingorganization of a document is captured, it could bemanually coded several ways, making the codingless useful in locating the documents. Ifdocuments from the Department of Justice were inthe batch, the organization could be referred to asthe Department, DOJ, Dept. of Justice, JusticeDepartment, USDOJ, and so forth. The pick listforces the coders to select the agreed upon nameand does not allow any variants to be entered. Inaddition, fields can be made mandatory. Scan-ITchecks for missing fields and reports errors at thevalidation and export part of the process. Theoperator notes the errors and quickly returns tothose documents and completes the requiredfields.

Useful fields that can be added to aid theinvestigations conducted by the attorney and trialteam include the following.

• Source–The organization or location wherethe document was created.

• Document Type–The person coding can beforced to select a document type which willaid in future searches. Common typesinclude: letter, check, invoice, fax,handwritten note, folder, cover sheet, agenda,report, or whatever the document types inevidence dictate. Types can vary betweencases, and may include medical records, legalproceedings, or financial documents.

• Document Title–Consider manual entry ofthis field to record document-specificinformation.

• Document Date–Coders can add the numbersand Scan-IT will add the slashes as required,once the format of the date is decided. Forinstance, an entry of 012000 is converted to01/20/2000.

• Condition–The condition of the original,whether it is a copy or poor quality, forexample, is described.

• Characteristics–The documents may containhandwritten notes, signatures, or otherimportant features.

• Author–This will specify the originator of thedocuments.

• Recipient–This will identify the receivers ofdocuments.

Excessive coding fields slow down thecoding operation. Decide upon the most usefulinformation to be coded, which will allow theteam to code quickly. Pick lists will speed thecoding process, rather than manually entering thedata. Manual fields should be restricted in lengthto prevent excess information coding.

VII. Stage 7: Validation and export

This stage is the final error check of codedinformation by Scan-IT and automaticallygenerates the files that are used by otheroperations to "see" all the images and theaccompanying, underlying coded information.Validation consists of selecting the mandatorycoded fields and the Scan-IT program will checkto make sure they are complete. Validation can be


done anytime during the batch creation process. Itshould be noted that validation does not check forfactual errors. The process does not care if a fieldcontains an incorrect date, or was given the wrongdocument type or description. The process shouldbe part of a final quality control check and aresponsible team member should spot checkscanned documents for correctness. Errors ofomission or conflicting numbers are reported onthe screen after validation and allow the operatorto correct them and rerun the process until allerrors are eliminated. Validation does check tomake sure that the overall project does not haveany conflicting Bates numbers when the batchbeing validated is merged with the rest of thescanned documents.

The export portion generates the image files inthe format required, such as single page .tif and.jpg files. Export also creates the files that containall the coded information and links between thedocuments and the data. Load files are alsocreated, as needed, to load the images and datainto other applications such as the IPRO Viewer,Concordance, and Sanction trial presentationsoftware. The IT staff can determine the load filesrequired, based on the programs that will be usedby the trial team.

VIII. Stage 8: Using the IPRO viewer

IPRO View is a separate utility that gives theAUSA and trial team members the results from allthe effort added throughout the scanning andcoding process. The documents can be quicklyaccessed via a powerful viewing program that hasadditional features designed specifically forreviewing and building a case. Features includethe ability to view, zoom, scroll or navigate, markup with various annotations and notes, provide"tags" to further identify key documents, and toquery the coding and OCR text to hit allsignificant documents regardless of the searchcriteria. Printing allows documents to be printedwith or without team members' markups. IPROView allows multiple team members to view andmarkup documents simultaneously, if the programis loaded on the network. In addition, discoverycan be produced for opposing counsel withoutannotations except those that may be desired, suchas redactions. Numerous review tools are alsoavailable to the team.

• Navigation through the documents can beaided by allowing the reviewer to move page-

by-page or select another boundary level-likedocument. A tree view is available to makejumping around possible via a hierarchicalstructure instead of viewing in a linearfashion. Graphic icons on toolbars can beused to migrate through the documents (forexample, next box, next folder, nextdocument, next attachment). The user canalso see the viewed document location inrelation to the rest of the document, (page 1of 5) or the entire batch (Box 2 of 7,Document 99 of 1000, page 1 of 5).

• Specific images can be enlarged as necessaryfor viewing and the zoom window can bemade a separate floating window, if thereviewer desires, once the images are located.Images can be rotated as needed during theviewing process.

• The boundaries assigned during the scanningprocess may be incorrect. The reviewers havethe capability to change those designations asneeded. Note that advanced reviewingfeatures can be turned on or off, dependingon the preference of the case leader.

• Annotations include the ability to redactportions of images. They are made byclicking and dragging the mouse on thedocuments image. Text labels can be addedto the redaction for further identification.Multiple colors are available for theannotations, and are used for highlighting thefreehand mark-ups that can be added.

• Sticky Notes give the trial team the ability toadd annotation boxes filled with text. Thenotes are indicated by a small icon on thedocument and can be opened by clicking onthe icon. This provides a handy way toconvey messages about the documents orrelevant information without marking up theimage.

• Clips can be attached to documents that,when selected, launch other applications todisplay related materials, such as a recordedcall, or perhaps a picture or video clip. Whenlaunched, the clip is displayed withoutshutting down the viewing program andallows the reviewer to return to thedocuments quickly.

• More basic embedded text can be added aswell (added text that displays on thedocument when viewed). Note: All


annotations and markups can be removedwhile leaving redactions in place.

• Documents can be tagged with a series of tagsthat are created specifically for each case. Thereviewer uses tags to identify documents toquery and locate documents as needed.Examples of tags are confidential, hotdocument, signed, or whatever else the trialteam deems important.

• Querying uses the data created in all theprevious steps to allow the reviewer to lookfor specific, pertinent information. Queries canbe used to find simple things such as stickynotes, or more complex subsets like all hotdocuments that contain specific words orphrases. One is only limited by imaginationwhen searching the documents for importantinformation or relationships contained within.Keyword searches allow the reviewer to findwords, parts of words, or phrases, that containthe search criteria. The resulting listing linksto the documents and highlights the keywordsto make locating them a snap. Queries can besaved so that the information can be recalledquickly by re-executing the query. Queryresults can also be quickly printed so that theinformation is in hand.

• Subsets of the project can be made and copiedto CDs. This allows the team members and/oropposing counsel to have a set to work with,and can include the viewer, if needed. Note:Do not give the opposing counsel the trialteams' annotations.

IX. Summary

The scanning process makes it possible tomove from a paper-intensive world to anelectronic one. The electronic version of evidenceis coupled with the analytical review andcollaboration tools to provide an efficient methodfor the case to evolve. Efforts are no longerdisparate, rather, they are shared and build on theefforts of all members involved. The strongfoundation produced during the scanning phase isa critical factor in determining the strength of thecase.�

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

�Larry Gniewek is the Information TechnologySpecialist in the United States Attorney's Officefor the Northern District of New York. For threeyears, he has been tasked with SystemsManagement as well as providing direct ALSSupport in trials. Prior to that, he was a ComputerSpecialist/Project Manager for an AdvancedTechnology Directorate in a U.S. Army cannonfactory. He routinely provides ALS training anddemonstrations to law enforcement organizationson request.a

IPROMarcia PelickLitigation Support SpecialistUnited States Attorney's OfficeMiddle District of Tennessee

Montie RuffnerLitigation Support SpecialistUnited States Attorney's OfficeDistrict of Nebraska

I. Introduction

The original documents pertaining to a trialmust be on hand for use as evidence. However,the transportation, organization, and searching forexhibits, has become dramatically easier. Today,the trial team may bring a laptop that contains allscanned documents needed during the trial. Thesedocuments can be searched, tagged by predefinedlevels of relevance, and cross-referenced to themany boxes of evidence brought to court. Thisprocess is carried out in advance of the trial. Thetechnology available in every United States


Attorneys' office (USAO) makes trial preparationmuch easier.

If the case is going to trial, a short meetingwith the office trial staff lays the foundation forall actions that follow. In the meeting, the decisionis made concerning the information that will becaptured from each document (coding), who willhave access to these documents, and so forth. Asthe documents are received, they are scanned andelectronically stored on the office computersystem (whether a stand-alone computer orlocated on the server). Everyone involved with thetrial has immediate access to all documentsinvolved in the case, if the files are stored on theserver. Discovery documents can be copied to aCD which includes the IPRO viewer file, allowingthe defense to view the documents and print, asneeded. The advantage is that each document ishandled once for scanning, returned to itscontainer, and stored in a safe place for use duringthe trial.

The Department of Justice (Department) hasprovided each USAO with software to image,manage, sort, search, and organize trial exhibits.The following features are included in IPRO Suiteand used for document imaging and management.

• Image Analysis.

• Image Management.

• Scanning and Capturing.

• V-Code and Launcher.

II. Scanning and coding

The process of scanning and coding involvesa significant amount of energy and resources, butthe long-term payoff is worth it. The initial step inthe process is scanning. Every single document isprepared for scanning. Staples and sticky notes,among other things, are removed and documentseparation sheets (prep sheets) are inserted.Batches of documents are then scanned intoelectronic copies. Coding, which is the mostsignificant step of the process, is undertaken afterthe scanning process is completed. The trial teamwill capture the important issues of eachdocument, such as the date, author, recipient, typeof document, condition, and so forth. IPRO allowsthe capture of up to ten fields of informationregarding each document. This is the most laborintensive aspect of the project, but well worth thetime and expense. Once this process is completed,

the images and coded information are stored onthe local server (local computer) for shared uselater. This allows multiple users to access theproject for scanning, image management, andanalysis. Multiworkstation batch scanning is alsoavailable when storing the files on a server. Thisallows more than one person to scan, view, anduse the features available in IPRO View.

The documents can be made into OpticalCharacter Recognition (OCR) files after they arescanned and coded. OCR attempts to read thecharacters on the image of each document so thatthe computer can perform searches to findpertinent information in the documents.Documents can be added or deleted at any pointduring this process. See Figure 1.

III. IPRO View

IPRO View is a part of the IPRO Suite thatallows the litigation staff to view each electronicdocument. Remember that the document viewed isan electronic copy. The viewer allows fullflexibility. The operator has the ability to zoom inand out, rotate the image, and fit the image in thewindow vertically or horizontally. IPRO Viewallows navigation to a specific image, quickscrolls through all or any portion of thedocuments, and jumps to the next and previoussource, box, folder, or document, at the meretouch of a button. See Figure 2.

An overview of some of the annotations/usesof IPRO follow.

• Print. Any or all documents in the case can beprinted and a variety of options can beselected to include on the document. Thereare many print options. Any annotation,redaction, tag highlight, and others, may beselected to print if a hard copy of a documentis needed. See Figure 3.

• Paste a zoned area to the clipboard. Thisallows the selection of an area of thedocument to be placed on the clipboard forlater use, such as pasting into anotherdocument or PowerPoint slide.

• Apply embedded text to an image. Select anarea of the document using the embedded texttool, type a message in the box, and the textwill appear on the image in the area selected.Embedded text can also be deleted.


• Attach a sticky note. This is similar to writinga note on Post-It paper and placing it on thedocument. The only difference is these willnot fall off.

• Place a clip on the image. This creates anexecutable command that permits thelaunching of a program such as MicrosoftWord or Excel (the program must be installedon the computer in use), and opens a file orWeb page. The clip icon does not appear onthe printed image, but the data can be printedfrom the clip through the print options dialogbox. The clip will print on a separate pagefollowing the image.

• Redact. This blocks out portions of the image.

• Highlight. This function is used to highlightspecific portions of an image. There can bemore than one highlight to an image.

• Markup an area. This works the same ashighlight, but is shown as arrows, circles,freehand drawing, and/or other symbols.

• TAGs. Creating Tags is a method used toeasily identify all of the hot documents or alldocuments that have redactions. Create theneeded tags and when the associateddocument is viewed, click on the tag and itwill be marked with the tag(s) selected.

It is now possible to create a list of allredacted documents by searching on the"redacted" tag. A smaller document "hit list" iscreated indicating all of those documents thatcontain redactions. This list of documents may besaved or printed.

Searches on image text that has been OCR'edmay be conducted. Other searches may beperformed on sticky notes and embedded textusing the Boolean operators "AND" or "OR." Theoperator can also use wildcard characters such as* and ? to perform searches. Wildcards are used tomatch words that contain specific characters alongwith other characters.

This viewer is also linked with Dataflight'sConcordance and is used to view the image of anyselected document from Concordance.

IV. V Code

V Code is an IPRO application that permitscoding of documents after the process of scanningand coding, using the IPRO Scan-IT program.

Although the documents have a totally differentlook and feel, the primary purpose is to captureimportant details or attributes of a document. Aspreviously discussed, coding is primarily a meansto capture explicit details about a document suchas document date, author, recipient, documenttype or condition, and so forth. Typically, codingis accomplished during the scanning phase of theprocess (Scan-IT). The completion of the codingand/or changes will be accomplished after theexport of the project to the IPRO Suite. See Figure4.

IPRO Tech allows secure document codingover the Internet or a local area network (LAN)and allows users to view and code images over theIntranet or Internet. Specific instructions areavailable in the IPRO Tech V-Code/V-CodeRemote Admin Guide. The operator can alsocreate "hot" keys for fields, hide fields, and assignbatches, to a specific team.

V. IPRO Publish

A copy of the entire collection of documentscan be created and placed on a CD or DVD with astand-alone viewer using IPRO Publish. The CDor DVD can be used by everyone involved in thecase. The users can insert the CD or DVD intotheir computer and the view will start. Thedocuments can be reviewed, tags created, andother applicable annotations made. Uponcompletion, the user will export the annotations.This small file can be mailed or e-mailed to theattorney. This "load file" will be applied to themaster project and every change, annotation, ortag made by any user will become a part of themaster project. This process can be repeated asnecessary. See Figure 5.

VI. IPRO Build

IPRO Build is similar to IPRO Publish. IPROBuild allows the user to take the next step in theproduction of images within the collection. Forexample, once all of the images are coded,annotated with comments, redacted, and thosedocuments tagged as privileged are removed, anew collection can be created. The new collectioncan be renumbered to remove gaps in the Batesnumber system, and to "burn" in redactions andannotations. IPRO Build also creates across-reference list each time the collection ischanged so that the AUSA will know what has


changed from the original collection to each IPROBuild subset.

Report generation is another feature availablewith IPRO Tech Suite software. The user canproduce manifest, volume, and volume manifestreports with this software. With these reports, it ispossible to produce a list of documents bydocument or boundary, list each volume and itslocation in IPRO, and list Bate ranges by volume.

VII. Help

Technical questions regarding IPRO TechSuite can be answered by your systems manageror Information Technology department. Help isalso available within the IPRO Tech program onthe main menu. See IPRO Tech, Inc.'s home pageon the internet at http://www.iprocorp.com/IPRO_main.htm.

VIII. Conclusion

The IPRO Tech Suite offers wizards forsetting up image capture, OCR, build, publish,print, V-Code (secure), and reports. Ease in thecourtroom is well worth the time and effort putinto the use of IPRO Tech. The IPRO Tech Suiteallows the AUSA to take an entire case to court ona laptop.�

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

�Marcia Pelick is the Litigation SupportSpecialist in the United States Attorney's Officefor the Middle District of Tennessee.

�Montie Ruffner is the Litigation SupportSpecialist in the United States Attorney's Officefor the District of Nebraska. During his tenure inthe Air Force, he was the Senior InformationManager for J6 (Command, Control,Communications, and Computers Directorate) ofthe United States Strategic Command. He wasresponsible for the planning, management, andpolicies of all administrative activities within theDirectorate. During the last five years of his AirForce career, he worked extensively to retrainassigned administrative personnel in themanagement of the last ninety feet of the networkwithin the Command.a


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Electronic Discovery & eScan-ITDiana M. WongInformation Technology SpecialistUnited States Attorney's OfficeNorthern District of California

I. Introduction

Compact discs, DVDs, external hard drives,pocket thumb drives, compact flash cards, andeven the good old floppy disks, are turned over asevidence. What is an attorney to do with all thesedifferent types of media? The contents of themedia have to be reviewed and somehow turnedover for discovery. Instinct may first urge one tohave the agents print out everything and handBate each page. There is an easier and better wayto handle electronic discovery.

With their proliferation, computers havebecome vital tools for criminals. The offendermay use them to keep photos of gang parties, tallydrug income accounts, create fraudulentgovernment documents, download pirated media,hack into business computers for corporateespionage and data destruction, e-mail childpornography, or keep a contact list. A criminal'scomputer may contain a treasure trove ofevidence. That treasure trove may consist ofthousands of computer files which could representhundreds of thousands of printed pages.

Currently, a large percentage of the personnelin United States Attorneys' offices (USAOs) areelementary/basic computer users. In other words,if files are not WordPerfect or Word compatible,users have no idea how to open or use them. Evenif they are savvy users, the offices are limited tothe approved software for computers. "Quicken,""AutoCAD," "Adobe Photoshop," and "LotusNotes," are samples of popular software programsnot authorized. Because criminals may useprograms unauthorized for USAOs' computers,opening and viewing all the files provided aselectronic discovery may be a challenge.

The Executive Office for United StatesAttorneys (EOUSA) is looking into acquiringsoftware to process electronic discovery. Thisallows processing of the various file formatswithout purchasing all the various software thecriminal may use. eScan-IT by IPRO is one of

many programs available that will take electronicdata files and turn them into images.

Below are terms that will give the USAOs'personnel at least a basic understanding of theconcepts used in this article.

Glossary

Scanning is the process employed to convert apaper document into a digital image. The image isusually stored on the computer as a tiff, jpeg, orPDF file.

A Viewer is a software program, such as IPROViewer or Adobe Reader, which allows the user toview the scanned images quickly and easily.

Optical character recognition (OCR) text is theresult of the computer's attempt to identify thetyped characters on a scanned image. Theaccuracy is dependent on the clarity of the typedcharacters on the paper documents. The OCR textcan be used for word searches once it is loadedinto a viewer.

Electronic discovery is the discovery ofelectronically stored information. Electronic filescan be stored on computers, external hard drives,thumb drives, floppy disks, CDs, DVDs, digitalcamera cards, and so forth.

Native format is the software application inwhich the material was authored. Often, but notalways, the file extension will give an indicationof which software application was used. The fileextension ".xls" is associated with MicrosoftExcel, ".wpd" with WordPerfect, ".mdb" withMicrosoft Access, ".nsf" with Lotus Notes, and".htm" with a web browser.

Extracted text is captured during the process ofcreating images from the native files. The qualityof the text extracted cannot be degraded by smalltype sizes or scripted/serif fonts. The programdoes not try to recognize each character becausethe software has the characters in the electronicfiles. Extracted text can be searched once it isloaded into a viewer.

Deduplication is the process of identifying twofiles as being the same file. For example, an e-mailwith an attachment might have been sent twice, or


sent to different people. Selecting the dedupingoption prevents multiple copies of the sameattachment from being converted to images.

Metadata is "data about data." The metadata iscollected by the native program. For example,Microsoft Word tracks the author, date lastmodified, and the amount of time spent editing asseparate fields of metadata. The operator chooseswhich types of metadata eScan-IT is to captureautomatically during processing. The metadatacan be exported for inclusion later as fields in adatabase for the documents.

Coding (also known as Indexing) is the processof manually entering data to identify theindividual documents in the image collection.Coded data is created by a person reviewing eachdocument. Common data fields are documentdate, document type (check, FD-302, transcript,photo, memo, letter, and so forth), title, author,recipient, police report number, and source. Thecoded data can be exported for inclusion later asfields in a database for the documents.

II. The program

IPRO naturally evolved eScan-IT from theirhighly successful and easy to use traditionalscanning software, Scan-IT. eScan-IT contains allof Scan-IT's features and more. This powerfulapplication supports electronic discovery formultiple e-mail formats and hundreds of file typesfrom Adobe to Zip.

The electronic discovery features for eScan-ITversion 2.6 follow.

• Step-by-step instructions walk users throughthe process, making it a painless experienceeach step of the way.

• A presearch filter allows searching of specificfile types, which saves time and money.

• Support for over 350 file types is available,including database, spreadsheets, e-mail,graphics, and electronic document files.

• Detailed reports listing name, size, pages, andnumber of potential duplicates may be viewedbefore processing.

• Images may be viewed prior to processing,saving time and money by removing unwanteddocument images.

• Full-text metadata may be extracted andviewed from virtually any file format beforeprocessing.

• It can export to IPRO, DocuLex, Summation,Concordance, and other prominent litigationproducts.

• Unknown file types can be listed and saved forindependent processing.

• Document boundaries (box, folder, document,and child) and attachment ranges can bemaintained and recorded.

• The Bates number can be endorsed on theimage.

• Images can be renumbered before export.

• It can dedupe on a project or batch level.

• Customizable indexing/coding fields areavailable.

• It has the capability to do high-speed imageprinting.

• It has the capability to remove blank pages.

See Figure 1– Example of eScan-IT's main screen.

III. The process

As with any other project, to have a successfuland productive discovery experience, attorneysand agents need to communicate with theirautomated litigation support (ALS) personnel.Discussions should take place to identify quantityand quality of discovery, capabilities, manpower,roles, expectations, and realistic deadlines.

The actual procedure to process electronicdiscovery is fairly straight forward. Five basicsteps are involved.

• Choose the desired processing settings.

• Create an electronic discovery batch andchoose the data files/directories forprocessing.

• Process the files and convert them to images.

• Quality check the images and code thedocuments.

• Export the finished images and data.


The last two steps are the same as thosecarried out for a traditional paper scanning job. Inthis article the focus will be on the first threesteps.

IV. The settings

The first step can be fairly intimidating formost people because there are so many optionsavailable. There are general settings that areapplicable to both paper scanning and electronicdiscovery. Settings under "Discovery Options" arespecifically for electronic discovery processing.

Attorneys should be aware of the differentsettings available in eScan-IT as ALS personnelmay or may not be intimately involved in thecases. In the Northern District of California, theALS unit functions similar to a typing pool–jobscome in and jobs go out. There are too many casesto process to become intimately involved in eachone. The staff attempts to ask the AUSA all thenecessary questions in order to get a complete setof specifications for a job. Attorneys who havebeen through the scanning process with previouscases are usually better at communicating whattheir cases entail and require.

V. Common options

In figure 2, the main concepts to be aware ofare Bates numbering, removal of blank pages, andinstructions on how the document breaks areidentified. What Bates numbering scheme is to beused? Should blank pages be kept and Bated? Isbeing able to find where individual documentsand folders begin and end important to theattorney and agents? These questions apply toboth paper discovery and electronic discovery.

See Figure 2–eScan-IT's general options for aproject.

The screen in figure 3 allows data fields to bedefined for the coding/indexing of the images.IPRO has provided a convenient and simple dataentry screen. Once the batch is exported, the dataentered can be used to populate other databasessuch as Concordance, Summation, Casemap, andExcel.

See Figure 3–Defining data fields allow simplecoding, indexing, of the images later.

VI. Discovery options–general

There are four key options in figure 4 toconsider.

• Extract raw text while processing. Thisproduces the extracted text which allows wordsearches to be undertaken in the image viewer.

• Extract e-mail attachments. This processes theattachments found in e-mail files for inclusionin the image collection.

• Insert place holder for unknown file formats.This creates an image listing the file (seefigure 5) that eScan-IT cannot process,possibly because the format is notimmediately identifiable, the file is blank, orthe file is corrupt.

• Process in color. This allows any files withcolor to be saved as colored images.

See Figure 4– General options screen forelectronic discovery.

See Figure 5–Sample of the image created when"insert a place holder for unknown file formats"option is set.

VII. Discovery options–metadata

The types of metadata that can be capturedduring processing are shown in figures 6, 7, and 8.The metadata is organized as fields in the indexingof the documents, and thus is exportable to otherdatabases. Once the settings are selected, eScan-ITcreates the metadata fields automatically.Metadata fields are not manually defined in thecoding field definition screen, shown in figure 3.

See Figure 6–Metadata general options screen.

See Figure 7–Metadata options specifically for e-mail.

For example, capturing the metadata for e-mail files (files are ".pst" for Outlook and ".nsf"for Lotus Notes) is very useful. eScan-IT placesthe header information of an e-mail (to, from,subject, date, and cc) in separate fields. The e-mails exported from eScan-IT and imported into adatabase, such as Concordance, can be searchedusing specific names and subjects and inclusivedates. This process is much more efficient thanflipping through thousands of e-mails.

See Figure 8–Metadata options specifically forMicrosoft Word and Microsoft Excel documents.


The ALS staff in the Northern District ofCalifornia recently received a CD from the localDEA office that contained over 29,000 calls. Eachcall was in its own subdirectory and the uniqueidentifying information for each call wasincorporated in the file name and file path. If thesynopses were printed without reviewing the disk,it would have resulted in thousands of blankpages, as well as thousands of pages of callsynopses without identifiers. The conversion ofthe electronic files to images and the capture ofthe metadata (in this case the name and locationfields), enabled the attorney to search the data forthe calls needed and view the file as a Batedimage. Figure 9 is an example of the metadatafrom a Microsoft Word document.

See Figure 9– Screen showing an image createdfrom a Microsoft Word document and metadatathat was extracted from it.

VIII. Discovery options–MicrosoftOffice applications

Settings also apply to how the program willhandle the formatting of Microsoft Officeelectronic files. The screens in figure 10 allowcustomization of Microsoft Excel, Word, andPowerpoint files.

See Figure 10–Shows the three screens used tocustomize the options for Microsoft Excel, Word,and Powerpoint document formatting.

What is so significant about formatting? Whatis printed is what is in the file, right? Wrong. It isimpossible to know if all the data contained in anelectronic file will be printed out if the electronicfiles are sent straight to a printer. A person couldcontrol what is seen by hiding portions, such asExcel spreadsheet columns, or print the pages inblack and white, when parts of the file werehighlighted with color.

The "track changes" option can be set in aWord document. eScan-IT can produce a versionthat shows all revisions and/or the final version.This could help the litigation team to see whoknew what and when. For example, it would beapparent that names, dates, and other things wereadded after the offender discovered aninvestigation was underway.

What about Powerpoint? Speakers usePowerpoint presentations to display mainspeaking points and then expand on the topic

verbally, such as providing examples, definitions,and anecdotes. If the slides are printed without thespeaker's notes, information in the notes will belost.

IX. Discovery options–filters

Filters are used to limit the files to beprocessed. The operator may want to limit the filesprocessed because of time constraints,organizational considerations, or at the direction ofthe attorney.

If the suspect keeps his spreadsheets of drugdealings and his family photos on the samecomputer, it is possible to deselect the setting for"Kodak Photo CD" to filter out the photos. If allthe transcripts on the CD received are duplicatesof ones previously scanned but the e-mail files arenew, filter out the word processor files and convertthe e-mail files.

See Figure 11– Filtering specific file types forprocessing is as simple as a checklist.

See Figure 12– Filtering e-mails is made easy bycreating a criteria sieve to run the e-mails through.

Sometimes it is easier to process thousands ofimages if they are grouped together by type. Forinstance, run the discovery process only on wordprocessing files first so they are all in onecontinuous Bates range. Process the spreadsheetsas another Bates range, e-mails as another, andphotos as yet another.

X. The batch and file selection

After all the settings are chosen, it is time tostart the electronic discovery batch–step 2 of theprocess. Though eScan-IT does both electronicdiscovery and traditional paper scanning, a batchcan only contain one type. Directories and/orspecific files to be processed are selected in thescreen in figure 13. Also during this process, thefiles may be previewed and filtered to furtherrefine the list of files to include.

See Figure 13–Select the directories and files fromthe checklist you want converted to images.

After creating the batch and selecting thefiles/directories to be processed, eScan-IT willanalyze the files and generate a report listing itsfindings. The main report identifies the file types,the number of files of each type, and the total filesize per type. A list of unknown file types is given


as a line item. The duplicate report lists all thefiles that were identified as duplicates.

See Figure 14–Sample report that is generatedwhen the program analyzes the directories/filesthat were selected for processing.

XI. The processing

Step 3 of the process converts the pages into.tiff (black and white) and/or .jpeg (color) imagefiles. In addition, it will capture the metadata andthe extracted text.

The extracted text from the file is stored twoways. The first is a simple ASCII text (.txt) file. Itcontains the text with all the formatting featuresremoved. The second is an IPRO ".cxt" file.Though it is also ASCII, it contains the complexpositional details which make the highlighting inIPRO Viewer's text search possible.

See Figure 14– Conversion of files to imagescompleted.

XII. Quality control and coding

It is always a good idea to do a quality checkon the images and data. After reviewing theunknown format files, it may be necessary toreprocess some of them and delete others. Whilechecking the images, one may realize all thePowerPoint slides will be generated as black andwhite images because the "DiscoveryOptions–Office Applications–Powerpoint–ImageGeneration" option was not set to "color." If theredoes not seem to be any Metadata showing up,more than likely the Metadata option may nothave been selected and, therefore, none wascaptured.

Once the files have been converted intoimages, they can be handled just like scannedpaper images. Images can be renumbered. Gaps inthe Bates numbers from deleting pages can becorrected. Alphabetic prefices like "US" or thedefendant's initials can be added to the Bates.Document breaks can be modified. OCR can beaccomplished on pages that did not have extractedtext, such as files that were already images.

Coding can now be done. It is essential todetermine who will be responsible for entering thedata. In the Northern District of California, ALSpersonnel do not code documents. The attorneys,agents, and paralegals are encouraged to handle

the data entry since they are familiar with the case,the documents, and items of interest. A staffmember unfamiliar with the case may start fromthe beginning and spend weeks coding 5,000phone logs, only to find out that the FBI alreadyknew that 4,789 were not pertinent and did notneed coding. Similarly, if reports from operation"Song Byrd Sings" are of interest, and personneldo not know about the operation, the coding maynot identify the documents as such.Communication is vital if searches are to beeffective.

XIII. The export

eScan-IT allows export of the images into .tiff,.jpeg, and/or Adobe .pdf formats. The data, bothdata entered via coding and the generatedmetadata, can be exported in any number offormats. It is possible to select which coded dataand which metadata fields will be exported.

Once exported, the images can be loaded inIPRO for viewing. The data can be loaded into anynumber of programs, such as Concordance,Summation, CaseMap, Microsoft Access,Sanction, or Excel.

When considering turning over the processeddiscovery electronically to the defense, ensure it isin a format that he or she can use. If the AUSAdoes not know, have the opposing counsel contactthe ALS staff to arrange for a format. The mostcommonly requested formats from opposingcounsel in the Northern District of California areto provide the images either in an IPRO Viewer oras .pdf files on CDs.

XIV. The technical difficulties

During testing of eScan-IT on bits of N.D.Cal. discovery, it was found that large files couldnot be processed. The testing was done on astandard USAO issued Compaq EVO PC. TheIPRO technician suggested that the PC did nothave sufficient RAM to process the files.

IPRO recommends the following as theminimum required system for eScan-IT.

• Window XP Operating System.

• 1.5 GHz processor, such as an Intel Pentium 4or AMD XP 1800.

• 1 GB RAM.


• 150 MB hard disk space (required forinstallation, see note below).

• Office 2003, including Outlook.

• Novell GroupWise 6.5 (6.5 evaluation copy isfree from Novell's Web site).

• Lotus Notes Client 6.0 (6.0 evaluation copy isfree from IBM Web site).

• Current anti-virus software (for processing ofcompressed files).

The amount of hard disk space neededdepends on the options selected and the amount ofdata to be processed. IPRO recommends that atleast two to three times the amount of data to beprocessed be available on the hard drive, (ifprocessing 10 GB of data, at least 30 GB shouldbe available on the hard drive).

USAO Compaq EVO standard systemconfiguration consists of the following.

• Window XP Operating System (if the officehas gone through "The Migration").

• 2.26 GHz processor, an Intel Pentium 4.

• 248 MB RAM.

• 150 MB hard disk space available forinstallation on C drive, and up to 50 GBavailable for processing/storage on the Ddrive.

• Office 2003, including Outlook.

• Current antivirus software.

Without sufficient memory (RAM) and diskspace, eScan-IT is very limited on the file sizes itcan process. The simple solution would be for thedistricts to purchase additional memory for thecomputers that would be running eScan-IT.�

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

�Diana M. Wong is an Information TechnologySpecialist in the United States Attorney's Officefor the Northern District of California. She hasbeen with the office since November 2000 in theAutomated Litigation Support Unit. Prior tojoining the USAO, Diana was a computer scientistfor thirteen years for the Navy.a


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Notes

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