Mensie v. Toyota Motor Credit Corporation

Filing 49

AGREED DOCUMENT PRODUCTION PROTOCOL. Signed by Judge D. P. Marshall Jr. on 9/25/2017. (jak)

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF ARKANSAS
WESTERN DIVISION
MARIAN J. MENSIE, on behalf of herself
and on behalf of all others similarly situated,

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Plaintiff,

v.
TOYOTA MOTOR CREDIT CORP.,
Defendant.

Case No. 4:17-cv-00085-DPM

AGREED DOCUMENT PRODUCTION PROTOCOL
I.

Definitions and Scope. The following protocol shall control the production of

discoverable documents and electronically stored information (collectively, "Documents"). As
used in this protocol, the term Document(s) shall have the same meaning as used in the Federal
Rules of Ci vii Procedure. The term "Receiving Party" shall mean the party receiving production
of Documents in response to any request for production of document(s) pursuant to Fed. R. Civ.
P. 34 or pursuant to initial production of documents identified in the party' s Rule 26(a)
disclosures. "Producing Party" shall mean the party producing Documents in response to any
request for production of documents pursuant to Rule 34 or pursuant to initial production of
documents identified in the party' s Rule 26(a) disclosures.
2.

General Format of Production.

Subject to the provisions of paragraph 3,

Documents that are produced in these proceedings, whether originally stored in paper or
electronic form, shall be produced in electronic image form in the manner as described below.
3.

Production Format.

Documents shall be produced according to the following

formats:

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(a)

Paper Documents. Documents that are maintained in paper format shall
be scanned as black and white images at 300 d.p.i., in a Group 4
compression single-page Tagged Image File Format ("TIFFs" or ".tiff
format") and reflect the full and complete information contained in the
original Document unless a document is redacted, in which case the
Producing Party shall withhold the redacted text for that Document.

(b)

Electronically Stored Information. Except as provided in Paragraph 3(d)
below, document images from electronic Documents shall be generated in
a Group 4 compression single-page "TIFF" image.

In the event a

Document is redacted, the Producing Party shall withhold the redacted text
for that Document.

The failure to withhold such text for a redacted

document by a Producing Party shall not be deemed a waiver of the
privilege associated with that Document.
(c)

Resolution of Production Issues. Documents that cannot be read because
of imaging or formatting problems shall be promptly identified by the
Receiving Party. The Producing Party and the Receiving Party shall meet
and confer to attempt to resolve problem(s), to the extent the problem(s)
are within the Parties' control.

(d)

Native Format Documents.

"Native Format Documents" (or "Native

Format") are defined as electronic Documents that have an associated file
structure defined by the creating application.

Notwithstanding the

foregoing provisions of this paragraph, the parties recognize that it may be
appropriate for certain Documents to be produced in Native Format.
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Additionally, the Producing Party reserves the right in the first instance to
produce certain files (e.g., spreadsheets) in native format. After receipt of
the production, if the Requesting Party believes in good faith that certain
documents should be produced in native format, it may request native
format production. In that event, the Receiving Party and the Producing
Party will meet and confer to discuss alternative production requirements,
concerns, formats, methods and/or cost sharing. All redacted documents
shall be produced in TIFF format and the Producing Party does not need to
produce in Native Format a document that was redacted and produced in
TIFF format.
(e)

Color.

Documents shall be produced in black and white in the first

instance.

If a produced Document contains color and that color is

necessary to decipher the meaning, context, or content of the document,
the Producing Party shall honor reasonable requests for either the
production of the original Document for inspection and copying or
production of a color image of the Document. The Producing Party will
pay the cost for the production of a reasonable number of color images to
be decided by the Parties after meeting and conferring regarding the same.
(f)

Load File Structure. The Producing Party shall produce a unitization file
("load file") for all produced Documents in accordance with the following
formatting:

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Images:

•

.opt file compatible with Concordance and Relativity

•

Single page per image

•

Single image per file

•

TIFF format.

•

Images shall be named as follows:
<Bates num>.<ext> Where <Bates num> is the BATES number of the page,
and <ext> is the format (.tif)

Index Files:

•

CSV file containing metadata fields agreed to produce.

•

.opt file compatible with Concordance and Relativity

•

.dat file containing metadata fields agreed to produce

•

.dii file compatible with Summation.

Text Files:

•

4.

Single Page OCR or extracted text files will be produced as .txt files with the
file name mirroring the name of the .TIFF image.

Production Media. A Producing Party shall produce Documents on a CD-ROM,

DVD, external hard drive, via a File Transfer Protocol ("FTP") or FileShare, or such other
readily accessible computer or electronic media as the Producing Party and the Receiving Party
may hereafter agree upon (the "Production Media"). If the Production Media is produced in
physical form, the information that shall be identified on the face of the Production Media shall
include: ( l) the production date, and (2) the confidentiality notation required by the Protective
Order to be entered in this case, if the media contains Confidential Information, as defined in that
Protective Order.

The face of the Production Media shall also contain the Bates Number

range(s) of the Documents on the Production Media, and where not practicable to do so, may be
provided in an accompanying letter. If the Production Media is produced via FTP or FileShare,
the date the email with the FTP or FileShare link is transmitted to the Receiving Party shall be

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considered the production date, and the media produced shall be Bates Numbered and stamped
with the confidentiality notation required by the Protective Order entered in this case, if the
media contains Confidential Information.

If the Producing Party encrypts or "locks" the

production, the Producing Party shall include with the production an explanation of how to
decrypt the files.
5.

Document Unitization. When scanning paper documents into Document Images

as described in paragraph 3(a), the producing party should maintain logical unitization. For
electronic documents, the relationship of documents in a document collection (e.g., cover letter
and enclosures, e-mail and attachments, or other documents where a parent-child relationship
exists between the documents) shall be maintained through the conversion process from native
format to TIFF, provided however, that the Parties shall only be required to present one level of
parent-child relationship. Document Images generated from attachments to e-mails stored in
Native Format shall be produced contemporaneously and sequentially immediately after the
parent e-mail.
6.

Paper Documents Containing Fixed Notes. Paper Documents that contain fixed

notes shall be scanned with the notes affixed, if it can be done in a manner so as not to obstruct
other content of the document. If the content of the Document is obscured by the affixed notes,
the Document and note shall be scanned separately.
7.

Duplicates. Except as provided for above, a Producing Party need not produce

the same electronically stored information in more than one form. The Producing Party may deduplicate its production across the entire production, or by custodian, at its sole discretion.
Furthermore, the parties are not required to produce multiple instances of an electronic message
sent to multiple recipients, provided that all of the recipients (including "blind carbon copy"
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recipients) can be identified from Document(s) or their related metadata to be produced pursuant
to this Protocol. Where a subsequent electronic mail message contains all of the portions of an
earlier message produced pursuant to this Protocol, it is not necessary for a Producing Party to
produce the earlier message in addition to the subsequent inclusive message. If the subsequent
inclusive message does not include an attachment to an earlier message, the attachment must also
be produced pursuant to this Protocol, in addition to the subsequent inclusive message.
8.

Bates Numbering. Each Producing Party shall Bates number its production(s) as

follows:
(a)

Document Images.

Each page of a produced Document shall have a

legible, unique page identifier ("Bates Number") electronically "burned"
onto the image at a location that does not unreasonably obliterate, conceal,
or interfere with any information from the source document. No other
legend or stamp will be placed on the Document Image other than a
confidentiality legend (where applicable), redactions, the Bates Number
identified above, and any other internal tracking number that the
Producing Party may choose to use. The confidentiality legend shall be
"burned" onto each document's image at a location that does not
unreasonably obliterate or obscure any information from the source
document.
9.

File Naming Conventions.
(a)

Document Images. Each Document Image shall be named with the unique
Bates Number for each page of document, as set forth in Paragraph 8
above.

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(b)

Native Format Documents. Native Format Documents shall be named by
the beginning bates number of the document, the confidentiality
designation of the file and file extension that corresponds to the original
native format. Native Format Documents shall be treated as Confidential
pursuant to the Protective Order that will be entered in this case.

10.

Meta-Data from Native Electronic Documents.

The Producing Party shall

produce the information described below with each production and in the format described in
Paragraph 3 above. For images generated from native electronic documents, a Producing Party
shall produce with each production the following meta-data fields, where available:
a.
b.

Document title (subject line for e-mails);

c.

Author;

d.

From (Sender/Author);

e.

Begin Attachment(s);

f.

End Attachment(s);

g.

Attachment Ids (that is the bates number of the first page each
attachment);

h.

Document date (date sent for e-mails; latest chronologically date
saved for electronic documents);

l.

Date created (date the document was created);

J.

Recipients (all "to"s) for e-mail;

k.

Copyees (all "cc"s) for e-mail;

1.

Blind copyees (all "bcc"s) for e-mail;

m.

Starting Bates (beginning Bates number);

n.

Ending Bates (ending Bates number); and

0.

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Custodian;

MD5 or SHAl Hash for Native Format Documents;

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11.

Data for Paper Documents. The Producing Party shall produce the information

described below with each production and in the format described in Paragraph 3 above. For
images generated from paper documents, a Producing Party shall produce with each production
the following fields, where available:
a.
b.

Ending Bates (ending Bates number); and

c.

12.

Starting Bates (beginning Bates number);

Custodian (if applicable).

Databases. To the extent discovery requires production of discoverable electronic

information contained in a database, in lieu of producing the database, the Producing Party shall
produce exemplar reports from the database in image format as described in Paragraph 3;
provided that the Receiving Party identifies specific fields of information to the Producing Party.
Upon review of the reports, the Receiving Party may make reasonable requests for additional
information to explain the database scheme, codes, abbreviations, available fields and different
report formats or to request specific data from identified fields.
13.

System Files.

Common system and program files need not be processed,

reviewed or produced.
14.

Privilege Logs. The Producing Parties will produce privilege logs in Excel format

or a similar electronic format that allows text searching and organization of data. A Producing
Party will produce a privilege log within 60 days after each discrete document production from
which those privileged documents have been withheld. The Producing Party and the Receiving
Party may modify the deadlines for production of privilege logs by agreement.

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15.

Production of Documents.
(a)

A written response to a request for the production of documents shall be
due on the date required by Fed. R. Civ. P. 34 (b)(2)(a) unless the parties
modify that date by mutual agreement, and any documents the responding
party has not objected to producing in its written response shall be
produced on a rolling basis thereafter, subject to an agreement by the
parties as to the final production date;

(b)

Nothing in this protocol shall be construed to affect or supersede the
provisions of Fed. R. Civ. P. 34 (b)(2)(E)(i).

16.

Discovery and Admissibility.

Nothing herein shall be construed to affect the

discoverability or admissibility of any document or data. All objections to the discoverability or
admissibility of any document or data are preserved and may be asserted at any time.
SO ORDERED this JS-Ht-. day of ~)\l\k

, 2017

I
UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

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AGREED AS TO FORM AND CONTENT:
Dated: September 25, 2017
PLAINTIFFS:

DEFENDANTS:

By Isl Michael B. Phillips
Michael B. Phillips
Brandon K. Moffitt
Trevor Brent Townsend
Moffitt & Phillips, PLLC
204 Executive Court, Suite 100
Little Rock, AR 7225
501.255.7406
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]

By Isl Anna S. McLean
Anna S. McLean (pro hac vice)
Joy 0. Siu (pro hac vice)
Sheppard, Mullin, Richter &
HamptonLLP
Four Embarcadero Center
17th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94111
415.774.3154
[e-mail]
[e-mail]

By Isl Joseph A. Kronawitter
Robert A. Hom
Joseph A. Kronawitter
Hom Aylward & Bandy, LLC
2600 Grand Boulevard, Suite 1100
Kansas City, MO 64108
816.421.0700
[e-mail]
[e-mail]

By Isl Michael D. Barnes
Michael D. Barnes (88071)
Wright, Lindsey & Jennings LLP
200 West Capitol Avenue
Suite 2300
Little Rock, Arkansas 72201-3699
501.371.0808
[e-mail]

By Isl Brian Timothy Meyers
Brian Timothy Meyers
Brian C. McCart
Law Offices of Brian Timothy
Meyers
1125 Grand Blvd., Suite 1610
Kansas City, MO 64106
816.842.0006
[e-mail]
[e-mail]

By ls/ Robert L. Jones, III
Robert L. Jones , III
Vicki Bronson
Conner & Winters, LLP
4375 North Vantage Drive
Suite 405
Fayetteville, AR 72703
479-582-5711
[e-mail]
[e-mail]

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