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Sean O’Shea: Tips for Paralegals and Litigation Support Professionals – June 2021

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6/1/2021: Use 7-zip to extract zip files with file paths greater than 255 characters
While the extraction tool for Windows Explorer will not extract files with paths longer than this limit and will prompt you to skip over them, 7-zip does not have this limitation.

6/2/2021: 32,767: the real Windows file path limit
The actual NTFS file system used by Windows actually has a far longer file path limit of 32,767 characters, than the limit of 255 for the Windows Explorer software.

6/3/2021: Getting Office 365 Data into Relativity
Note that RelativityOne can import data directly from Office 365, keeping the data on Azure cloud servers during the import.

6/4/2021: 8.3 file names
Before Windows 95 was released, file names in Windows operating systems had to conform to the 8.3 file name format. File names could not be longer than eight characters, and the file extension could not be longer than 3 characters.

6/5/2021: Command prompt wildcards
Don’t miss that you can use asterisks as wildcards when entering commands in Windows command prompt.

6/6/2021: N.D. Cal. Resolves Dispute Between Facebook and Plaintiff on 502(d) Order
In responding to Facebook’s position that clawed back documents had to be immediately returned or destroyed, the Court did not accept the opposing party’s position that they could be sequestered, but did allow for notes and other work product about the documents to be retained pending a resolution of a dispute over the clawback request.

6/7/2021: Shortening Graph Lines for Zero Values
The settings for a line graph in Excel can be changed so there are gaps corresponding to the zero values in the source data range.

6/8/2021: Virgina Passes Data Privacy Legislation
Consumers will be able to apply to get access to their data, and also request that it be corrected. A consumer can choose to opt out of having his or her personal data used for processing. Consumer requests have to be responded to within 45 days. An additional 45 day extension may be given for complex requests.

6/9/2021: Expedite your overseas shipments
When sending a Fedex shipment overseas which consists of legal paperwork, be sure to select the option which indicates that the shipment contains documents. Doing this will help the package clear customs in the foreign country more quickly than it would otherwise.

6/10/2021: X.400 Email More Secure Than SMTP for EDI Messaging
X.400 uses peer authentication which confirms the identity of the recipient. This can prevent email spoofing and stop junk or phishing emails which impersonate trusted sender addresses.

6/11/2021: MS Project
Insert sub-tasks to keep track of the individual steps for multiple projects.

6/12/2021: New York Court Rejects Motion to Compel Body Camera Audit Trail Data
Recently, Justice Matthew D’Emic of the Supreme Court of New York for Kings County issued a decision, People v. Larkin, Index No. 774/2019, 2021 NYLJ LEXIS 525 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. May 25, 2021) denying the Defendant’s motion to compel the disclosure of audit trails for body camera video footage.” The audit trails sought by the defendant are created and maintained by Axon — a private company over which neither the NYPD nor the People have direction or control. Consequently, the audit trails cannot be deemed to fall within the purview of CPL §245.20 under the theory that they are but one link in the chain of custody record.” Id. at *8.

6/13/2021: Republishing Errored Files in Relativity
In Relativity Processing, an admin has the ability on the Files tab to see different views with a list of all documents for discovery; deleted files; and errored files before they are deduplicated and published to the workspace. Errored files, such as corrupt files or password protected files, can be republished, but without the extracted text or metadata.

6/14/2021: Post-Publication Deletion to Update Processing Results
The post-publication delete function in Relativity allows updates to processing results to be made accordingly after a document has been removed from the active workspace.  Post-publication deletions will take place automatically after a delete mass operation has been performed, if and only if the option to delete all associated files is chosen.

6/15/2021: Business Sensitive Information (BSI)
Some companies use the term, ‘business sensitive information’ for categories of documents and data which are not considered to be private, but for which certain protections may be required. Trade secrets, information which falls under non-disclosure agreements, and data subject to copyrights or patents may be considered ‘BSI’.

6/16/2021: How Much Is Charged for a Deposition and What Is Charged For?
Reporting services will typically charge in the range between $3 to $4 per page for a transcript, but the cost of a deposition is not simply based on this one factor.

6/17/2021: Michigan’s 2/3 Rule for Transcript Copies  
The State of Michigan enacted a law which prevents reporters from charging more than 2/3 the cost of an original transcript for any copy of the same transcript.

6/18/2021: 9th Circuit: No Dismissal Under Rule 37 When Accountant’s IT Fails to Preserve Emails
The Ninth Circuit found no intent to deprive the Defendant of relevant ESI where the Plaintiff’s accountant had data, “managed by the IT department at his independent accounting firm. At [the accountant’s] deposition, he explained that although he alerted his IT department of the preservation order in 2017, the instruction was not followed (for unknown reasons), and the documents therefore could not be recovered.”  Winecup Gamble v. Gordon Ranch LLP, No. 20-16411, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 18062, at *2 (9th Cir. June 17, 2021),

6/19/2021: Extracting values from a JSON data file
You can use a Java script to extract the values from the intricate fields listed in a JSON data file. Slack, and many other applications used for exchanging data, use JSON, which is JavaScript object notation. 

6/20/21: Hearing Transcript Per Page Rates Fixed By Statute
Many states have passed legislation which governs how much can be charged for the transcript of a hearing. Iowa charges $3.50 per page for the original and the first copy, and 50 cents per page for every additional copy.  Pennsylvania charges $1.25 per page for the original and 30 cents per page for each copy.

6/21/21: How the Eastern District of Washington Allows Deposition Costs To Be Taxed
Reimbursement will only be approved for depositions which are used at trial. A party can also seek reimbursement for a reporter’s travel expenses and attendance fee.

6/22/2021: Demonstratives can be taxed in E.D. Wash.
The Eastern District of Washington’s guide on the Taxation of Costs states that the provision of 28 U.S.C. 1920 addressing exemplification costs includes demonstratives used as trial exhibits. It allows for the prevailing party to be reimbursed for the cost of such exhibits provided that it gets the Court’s permission to tax this cost.

6/23/2021: Calendar Templates for Word and Excel
If you’re tasked with creating a calendar in Word to track case deadlines or deposition dates, be sure not to miss that Microsoft has templates available which can generate the range of months that you need. Anyone with an Office 365 account can download the calendar templates available here: https://templates.office.com/

6/24/2021: How to Remove an Undeletable Line Break At the End of Footnote
In the Draft view, remove entries in the ‘Footnotes Continuation Separator’ and the ‘Footnotes Continuation Notice’ panes in the footnotes section.

6/25/2021: Backup Tapes No Longer As Inaccessible
Backup tapes can now be searched without restoring the data or using the original software used to create the tapes.

6/26/2021: Single File Upload
Note that Relativity will not upload more than 100 files at a time using this method.

6/27/2021: Apple’s Tracking Transparency Feature
Notably the notice acknowledges that this feature does not prevent an app dev from using your personal data to send you targeted ads on the iPhone.  The restriction only applies to using the data to target you elsewhere.

6/28/2021: Regex to collect between two characters
A simple regular expression:

<.*?>

. . . will find any characters between the less than and greater than symbols or any other 2 characters placed before and after ’.*?’

6/29/2021: The Obsolescence of Seed Set TAR
Relativity’s TAR 1.0 process, sample-based learning, will be deprecated after September 2021.

6/30/2021: TIFF Image Conversion
Lossless compression algorithms LZW, and CCITT Group 4, can be used for compression of TIFF images – allowing for the full restoration of the original TIFF image.

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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.

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