Tips for Paralegals and Litigation Support Professionals

Sean O’Shea: Tips for Paralegals and Litigation Support Professionals – July 2020

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7/1/2020: Regex to Remove Relativity Numbering on Downloaded PDFs
([0-9]{1}_|[0-9]{2}_|[0-9]{3}_)(.*)

7/2/2020: UPDATE – How to Automate the Insertion of Hyperlinks in MS Word
This macro can be edited so that the full length of tags with varying numbers of words, symbols and spaces are linked to.

7/3/2020: EOS, EOP, EOG search operators
These operators allow a document database user to run a search that will find where multiple strings appear within a set number of sentences, paragraphs, or pages of one another.   So, for example a search structured this way:

New York W/3/EOP mortgage

. . . will find documents where ‘New York’ appears within three paragraphs of ‘mortgage’.  

7/4/2020: Copy the full file path in Window Explorer
Don’t miss that if you want to copy the full file path for any file that you have selected in Windows Explorer, you can do so by selecting the file and holding down SHIFT.  

7/5/2020: Colorado Change to Comment 8 on Rule 1.1
To maintain the requisite knowledge and skill, a lawyer should keep abreast of changes in the law and its practice, and changes in communications and other relevant technologies, engage in continuing study and education, and comply with all continuing legal education requirements to which the lawyer is subject.

7/6/2020: How good are associates with MS Word?
A survey indicates that most law students don’t know how to perform common tasks in MS Word.

7/7/2020: Get file type counts with PowerShell
get-childitem C:\FooFolder\excels\ -Include *.xls -Recurse

7/8/2020: 2d Cir.: Production Cannot be Compelled Under 28 U.S.C. §1782 for Private International Arbitrations
28 U.S.C. § 1782(a) allows federal courts to compel the production of materials “for use in a proceeding in a foreign or international tribunal”.

7/9/2020: Implementing a Litigation Hold in Office 365
Microsoft 365’s Core eDiscovery tool allows litigation holds to be placed on Outlook mailboxes; SharePoint; OneDrive; and Teams accounts.   You can avoid adding the URL of each OneDrive site, and adding mailboxes one by one, by making use of a PowerShell script.

7/10/2020: Data Stored on Photocopiers
Many Xerox copiers overwrite images automatically by default.  Xerox’s overwriting process conforms to the National Institute of Standard and Technology’s Special Publication 800-88, Guidelines for Media Sanitization. 

7/11/2020: Special Master: TAR May Be Ordered if Production Deficient
“Defendants are cautioned that the Special Master will not look favorably on any future arguments related to the burden of discovery requests, specifically cost and proportionality, when the Defendants have chose to utilize the custodian-and-search term approach despite wide acceptance that TAR is cheaper, more efficient and superior to keyword searching.”  In re Mercedes-Benz Emission Litig., No. 2:16-cv-00881-KM-ESK, at *3 (D.N.J. Jan. 9, 2020)

7/12/2020: python script to replace X number of string occurrences
x = x.replace(“Volume”,”PRODUCTION”,3)

7/13/2020: jEdit
If you are looking for an alternative to the free text editor NotePad++, try jEdit.

7/14/2020: MS Word visual basic code to highlight text not in selected font
When the macro is run it will prompt you to enter the name of the font you do not want highlighted.

7/15/2020: Regex to search for lines which only contain text
^[a-zA-Z]+$

7/16/2020: Rapid PDF Count
A field indicates whether or not there are searchable words on every page of a PDF file.

7/17/2020: Getting Around the VLOOKUP 255 character limit
A searched for value of greater than 255 characters gets a result with this custom function, unlike VLOOKUP.

7/18/2020: Forensic Review of Gmail Message to Find What Time It Was Sent
Email messages contain time codes that list the number of 100 nanosecond intervals since the start of Windows epoch time – January 1, 1601.

7/19/2020: Reviewing documents with conceptual indexes in Relativity
Conceptual indexes can be used for clustering, categorization, finding similar documents, keyword expansion, and concept searching.

7/20/2020: No Permission for Analytics Index Without Search Index Permissions
Keep in mind that in order for view / edit / add / delete permissions to an analytics index in a Relativity workspace to be effective, having those permissions alone is not enough.   A user must also have permissions for the search index in order to use analytics index permissions.

7/21/2020: vba code to run a macro on multiple Word Files
The code must to edited to list a folder with source files.

7/22/2020: Schrems II – US Data Protection Inadequate Under the GDPR
The Court of Justice of the European Union held that, “the limitations on the protection of personal data arising from the domestic law of the United States on the access and use by US public authorities . . . are not circumscribed in a way that satisfies requirements that are essentially equivalent to those required under EU law, by the principle of proportionality, in so far as the surveillance programmes based on those provisions are not limited to what is strictly necessary.”

7/23/2020: History of the Congressional Record
Between 1837 and 1873 the debates and proceedings of Congress were published in the Congressional Globe.

7/24/2020: XCOPY to copy and rename files
With the XCOPY command the /Y switch will overwrite any existing files.  

7/25/2020: S.D. Ohio: Lawyers Must Understand Cloud Computing
The Defendants were sanctioned for failing to identify and preserve data saved with salesforce.com.

7/26/2020: Garner’s Guide to Making Briefs More Persuasive: Authority Split on How to Handle Your Numbers
When editing a brief you should confirm that the numbers one to ten are spelled out, and numerals are used for all higher numbers.

7/27/2020: Microsoft Finds Working From Home Makes Employees Busier
A key finding is that people have actually been working four more hours per week than before pandemic. 

7/28/2020: Sorting and Filtering Can Break Links
Although the blue, underlined text appears in the cell, nothing happens when you click the link.

7/29/2020: Preservation Subpoenas
A mere written demand to preserve ESI does not create a binding legal duty on a third party to not destroy the data.

7/30/2020: Relativity’s Not So Locked Lockbox?
Relativity includes a customer lockbox feature which prevents its support and operations teams from viewing customer data. 

7/31/2020: Edit Videos in PowerPoint
A video will not be saved at its new length, until the presentation is compressed.

Sean O'Shea on Email
Sean O'Shea
Litigation Paralegal
Sean O’Shea began working as a litigation support analyst at Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison LLP in 1998, near the dawn of the electronic discovery era. From assisting clients with the implementation of information governance policies, to conducting electronic presentations for attorneys at trials, he has been involved in all aspects of litigation support work. Sean is a Relativity Certified Administrator and an ACEDS Certified E-Discovery Specialist. He’s currently employed as a litigation paralegal in New York City, and continues to advise attorneys on legal technology. Look for a new tip on each night on www.litigationsupporttipofthenight.com.

*The views expressed in this blog are those of the owner and do not reflect the views or opinions of the owner’s employer. All content provided on this blog is for informational purposes only. The owner of this blog makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of any information on this site or found by following any link on this site. The owner will not be liable for any errors or omissions in this information nor for the availability of this information. The owner will not be liable for any losses, injuries, or damages from the display or use of this information. This policy is subject to change at any time. The owner is not an attorney, and nothing posted on this site should be construed as legal advice. Litigation Support Tip of the Night does not provide confirmation that any e-discovery technique or conduct is compliant with legal, regulatory, contractual or ethical requirements.

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