Six Articles on Electronic - Craig Ball

Craig Ball © 2007
2. Paper-like images of data in, e.g., Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) or in one of the
Tagged Image File Formats (.tif);
3. Data exported to "reasonably usable" electronic formats like Access databases or load files;
4. Native data; and
5. Hosted data.
Your format specification hinges on both the nature of the data and your in-house capabilities for
dealing with it.
In a perfect world, you'd want everything in native electronic format. But in the real world, you
may lack the systems, software or expertise to access native data and preserve its evidentiary
integrity. Plus, concerns about redaction, alteration and Bates numbering mean your opponents
may be unwilling to produce native data.
Hard Copies
Converting searchable electronic data to costly and cumbersome paper is usually a step
backwards, but paper still has its place.
In a case where the entire production consists of a few hundred e-mails and several thousand e-
documents, searching and volume aren't a problem and paper remains as good a medium as
any. But once the volume or complexity increases beyond that which you can easily manage by
memory, you're better off insisting on production in electronically searchable forms.
Image Production
Here, production consists of files that are digital "pictures" of the documents, e-mails and other
electronic records, typically in accessible file formats (PDF or .tif). As long as the information
lends itself to a printed format and is electronically searchable, image formats work reasonably
well; but for embedded information (such as the formulae in spreadsheets) or when the
evidence moves beyond the confines of printable information (e.g., voicemail, databases or
video), image production breaks down.
Requesting parties must ensure that electronically searchable data layers and relevant
metadata accompany the images. Beware those who try to pawn off "naked" .tif images (devoid
of searchable information and metadata) as responsive.
Exported Formats
Some electronic evidence adapts to multiple production formats, so sometimes you'll want
exported, delimited data in order to work with it in the compatible application of your choice.
For example, e-mail may be readable in any of several programs or in generic e-mail formats
(e.g., .eml, .msg). The contents of simple databases like contact lists can be exported to
generic formats (e.g., comma or tab-delimited output) and imported into compatible applications,
such as Microsoft Corp.'s Excel spreadsheets or Access databases.
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