Below is a categorized list of frequently asked questions answered by the iBridge team. Click any question to reveal its answer.
Don’t see a question you need answered? Contact us at info@ibridgellc.com.
Collections
What is a data collection versus a forensic data collection?
The major difference between these two types of data collection is that forensic data collection provides the ability to provide legally defensible proof that the collection methods did not alter or needlessly modify the metadata being gathered. In addition, forensic data collection ensures that all of the data within the scope of the collection request was actually collected. Depending on the data source, a forensic data collection will involve the use of specialized tools, including both hardware and software. A forensic data collection will also include the collection of data from unallocated parts of the source storage device, which can yield recoverable data previously deleted.
What is electronic data preservation?
Electronic data preservation requires that data is not deleted or removed from any of the sources identified that may be required to be preserved (saved) for an investigation or litigation. Failing to preserve electronic data, especially after a legal hold is in place, can result in court sanctions and fines. Electronic data preservation in a forensic data collection is the process of creating the original copy of a piece of data and, either through the use of technology or handling procedures, ensuring that the data is maintained in a pristine, unaltered state.
Why should I use a third-party certified forensic professional to collect my data?
You should use a certified forensic professional to collect your data to ensure defensibility of your data in court. This will help avoid spoliation accusations, which could lengthen the time and expense of a legal investigation of proceeding. A certified forensic professional has been trained and certified in the use of specialized hardware and software. To obtain this level of training and certification is typically not financially feasible for an in-house IT legal department to maintain or deploy. Using an impartial third-party will reduce your potential liability and minimize any conflict of interest issues that could arise. A certified forensic professional can also provide their expertise to assist in identifying other potentially overlooked data sources and identifying ways to collect that information. A certified forensic professional will also maintain and verify the integrity of the data collected and can testify if required.
What is spoliation?
Spoliation, in a legal context, is any act that renders potential evidence invalid, either intentionally or through negligence. In the case of a document, for example, destroying, altering or hiding it would all be considered spoliation if the document were relevant to current investigations or litigation. Spoliation of your data can result in legal sanctions and fines.
Coding and Indexing
What is the difference between coding and indexing?
Coding is the process of reviewing documents and summarizing key elements into a structured database format, like document date and type, Bates number, document description, to whom it is addressed, from whom, etc. Indexing is intended to track electronic documents. An index may be as simple as keeping track of unique document identifiers. However, indexing can be more complex as it provides classification through the documents’ metadata or even through word indexes extracted from the documents’ contents. Indexing exists mainly to support retrieval.
What is iBridge's daily coding/indexing/data entry bench capacity?
Our bench capacity on any given day for unscheduled LDD (Logical Document Determination/Unitization) projects varies from 10K to 50K images per day, and our standard bibliographic coding varies from 7K documents to 30K documents per day. Both domestic (onshore) and offshore coding solutions are available. We have yet to encounter a project that is too large or too small.
What is objective/biblographic coding?
This refers to the process of manually reviewing a document and completing database fields with easily ascertainable information about the document. Unlike subjective coding, which requires knowledge about the case and is usually done by trained legal professionals, such as paralegals and attorneys, objective coding does not require that the coder exercise discretion or have a familiarity with a particular case to correctly code the document. Common objective coding fields include Bates, author, recipient, CC, date, title, type, source, characteristics, and keywords. For more information about key words, check out our glossary.
What is subjective coding?
Coding documents based on subjective interpretation, rather than the verbatim capture of words or terms. The subjects may be represented in shorthand “code” form to facilitate searching, sorting and reporting. This may be gleaned from templates, or more usually from a subjective reading by someone familiar with the topic.
What is in-text coding?
The coding of multiple references of a name or organization within the text of a document population. In-text coding can be used to extrapolate this data for rapid sourcing of every reference. Names of individuals and organizations along with other key words or phrases within the body of each document are captured based preapproved guidelines.
In what languages does iBridge code?
We are language agnostic, and have recently completed coding projects in some of the following languages: (list) English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Hindi, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic. Other languages may be available—please contact us for further information.
Litigation Consulting
Why should I use iBridge's litigation support consulting?
Simple: our quality of service combined with experience. Our consultants have more than just backgrounds in litigation: they are experts in the technologies and processes required for data processing and information management.
Electronic Data Processing
What should I do with my Excel spreadsheets in a TIFF production?
You can keep your Excels in Native format. We will assign each file a DOCID or Bates number. The Excel files will be in a separate folder, named according to their production on review number. The number will maintain the relationship with e-mails or other related documents, and the original metadata will be extracted. Concerned someone will change the file if you produce it natively? Not to worry—you have the original MD5HASH (digital fingerprint) and can prove if changes are made.
What is the difference between a native and a TIFF/image production?
Native file processing keeps files in their native format, and extracts items and attachments from container files (such as ZIP files and PSTs). Each item is assigned a DOCID or Bates number and attachments are tracked through ranges so families are kept together. TIFF processing converts each page of an electronic file to a digital image (usually in TIFF and JPEG format). Each page has an individual Bates number, usually branded on the bottom right-hand corner of the page.
Can iBridge process E-Discovery outside the United States?
Yes. We can process data so it never enters the United States at any point. Check out the FCPA for reasons why you would want to.
General Litigation Support
What types of projects have you worked with recently?
Recent projects include, but are not limited to, the following: Labor and Employment; Patent Infringement; Securities/White Collar Crime; Internal Investigations; M&A; Media and Telecom; Oil and Gas; Media and Communications; and Commercial Litigation.
What certifications and training do your project managers have?
Our project managers hold certifications in iCONECT, Relativity, IPRO, Concordance, Summation, TrialDirector, Sanction and other litigation support/document management softwares.
What is cloud computing?
Cloud computing is a general term for anything that involves delivering computing services (ex: hosting, data storage) over the Internet. These services are broadly divided into three categories: Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IAAS), Platform-as-a-Service (PAAS) and Software-as-a-Service (SAAS). The name cloud computing was inspired by the cloud symbol that’s often used to represent the Internet in flowcharts and diagrams. Cloud computing can be either private or public with the only real difference being the method of delivery, being sold on demand or used on demand by the private company
What is Early Case Assessment (ECA) or Early Data Assessment (EDA)?
Early case assessment refers to estimating risk (cost of time and money) to prosecute or defend a legal case. Global organizations deal with legal discovery and disclosure requests for electronically stored information “ESI” and paper documents on a regular basis. Most cases settle prior to a formal trial. Legal costs and exposure in a lawsuit can be very expensive. Utilizing a tool/process to assess the risk and amount of data involved in the case can provide valuable insight and guidance to make informed decisions on case strategy.
Paper Capture / Scanning / Imaging
What is document imaging?
Document imaging is the conversion of paper-based documents to electronic images. Document imaging is used to replace paper-intensive operations so that documents can be shared by multiple users on a network. Document images are generally stored as PDFs, TIFFs and JPGs.
What is Bates Numbering?
Also known as Bates stamping, Bates branding, or Bates coding, Bates numbering is a system of sequentially numbering document pages in paper or electronic form to uniquely identify each scanned or processed page. It is used in the legal, healthcare, and business industries in order to identify numbers on images and documents as they are scanned and/or processed, and is most commonly used to organize labeled and identified legal documents. In the legal field, for example, a Bates stamp is often alphanumeric where the first three letters of a litigation party is followed by a number.
What are document scanning services?
This is the process of creating electronic files based on an original paper copy. Software is used to create a representative bitmapped image of the original document page. Popular scanning formats include PDF and TIFF. OCR may also be used in connection with document scanning to make the resulting electronic files searchable. Electronic “loadfiles” may be employed to load the scanned documents into document management software, such as Concordance, Summation, iCONECT and others.
What is the difference between a TIFF and a PDF document?
TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) and PDF (Portable Document Format) are two of the most important and popular formats for document imaging. These formats are used to store multiple pages in one file while allowing for documents with different sizes and compression. PDF files, a file type developed by Adobe Systems, is the de facto standard for the exchange of electronic documents. It preserves the fonts, images, graphics, and layout of any source document regardless of how the original document was created. PDF documents can also recognize text to enable a Searchable PDF, where information can be indexed and accessed via search engines. A TIFF is an electronic copy of a paper document in the form of a raster image, and as such contains no embedded text, fonts, images or graphics. TIFFs are also compatible with a wide range of hardware and software platforms, and future development is not tied to any single company. This file type does not retain metadata from a source electronic document.
ESI / EDD / EED / Electronic Discovery
What are document repositories?
A document repository is a tool specifically designed for document management. It may be web-based and bundled with a viewer, or other tool, to allow viewing of image-based files. It may also be a web-based application allowing search and download capability. Document repositories are specifically designed for litigation document management following scanning and processing of documents.
Managed Document Review
When should I consider managed review?
When a production request is submitted to your group and you realize the number of documents requiring review exceeds the current capacity of your own team and/or you are faced with a hard deadline, iBridge can manage and scale to deliver your project in-time, guaranteeing quality. You can choose to review domestically, offshore, or a hybrid model, but all customer deliverables are QC’d by US-trained attorneys in the United States. This allows documents to be reviewed 24-hours a day, seven days a week at affordable rates, ensuring quality and maintaining defensibility of the process.
Are attorneys from India qualified to review my documents?
Please refer to or request recent AB rulings on this matter. This issue has been debated and put to rest on a case-by-case basis. Cases of transactional nature can be easily reviewed by Indian attorneys, though intellectual property cases may require the data and the review team to reside within the United States. Indian attorneys employed by iBridge perform review under the control of the outside counsel regularly.
I have legal counsel visiting from out of town for a trial, but our firm has no room. Is there a secure, quiet offsite location I can utilize?
Yes! The iBridge facilities provide solutions for the many problems facing firms hosting outside counsel. With our secure Class-A facility and state-of-the-art technology, you can place outside counsel at our facility; iBridge can host the team, the data, and/or provide full review capabilities. The trial team will have private offices, full presentation ready conference rooms, and storage available for data as they prepare for trial. Our facilities allow you to maximize the use of your resources and increase productivity. With convenient access to downtown Portland, Washington County and other local courthouses, iBridge is an easy solution for housing outside parties.
Hosting
Which online hosting tool should I use?
Hosting tools vary in features and functionality. Every purpose for hosting data has its own unique demands that must be evaluated. Depending on the purpose, you pick the hosting tool. Evaluation requires a complete understanding of what the desired outcome is of hosting data. In the legal realm, data is hosted for review or for trial. There are a variety of tools and all have different strengths and weaknesses. If documents need to be hosted to share, the choice in evaluation tools must accommodate documents being checked in/out or changed or edited in any fashion, but most importantly to preserve annotations or comments.
Connect
We are a DBE and MBE certified company.