Collins et al v. City of Milwaukee et al
Filing
17
ORDER signed by Judge J.P. Stadtmueller on 5/9/2017 GRANTING 15 Defendants' Unopposed Motion for Order Regarding Production of Documents and Electronic Data and SPECIFYING conditions governing the production of such items in this matter unless otherwise ordered by the Court. (Attachments: # 1 Appendix 1: Metadata and Coding Fields) (cc: all counsel) (jm)
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
EASTERN DISTRICT OF WISCONSIN
CHARLES COLLINS, TRACY ADAMS, on
behalf of her minor child, D.A., CALEB
ROBERTS, STEPHEN JANSEN, GREGORY
CHMABERS, and ALICIA SILVESTRE,
Plaintiffs,
v.
THE CITY OF MILWAUKEE, THE
MILWAUKEE FIRE AND POLICE
COMMISSION, and CHIEF EDWARD
FLYNN,
Defendants.
Case No. 17‐CV‐234‐JPS
ORDER
On May 5, 2017, Defendants filed an unopposed motion for the
entry of an order regarding the production of documents and electronic
data. (Docket #15). The proposed order sets forth the parties’ agreed‐upon
terms for the production of such materials. In light of the parties’
agreement, and in order to expedite the production of discovery materials
in this case, the Court will grant the motion.
Accordingly,
IT IS ORDERED that Defendants’ unopposed motion for the entry
of an order regarding the production of documents and electronic data
(Docket #15) be and the same is hereby GRANTED;
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the following procedures and
formats, including those contained in Appendix 1 of this Order, shall
govern the production of documents and electronic data in this matter
unless otherwise ordered by the Court:
1.
General Format of Production. The parties agree to produce
documents either (i) as electronic images with associated text files and
metadata or (ii) in native format, as further described herein.
2.
ESI Production. The parties agree to produce Electronically
Stored Information (“ESI”) with the exception of inaccessible storage
media as described below. ESI will be searched on a custodian and search
term basis, with appropriate Boolean and proximity operators, as well as
date/time limitations, as described in Paragraph 13. With respect to
production of ESI, the parties agree upon the following:
a.
E‐mail will be produced as image files with related
searchable text and metadata (to the extent it exists).
b.
Other
electronic
documents
including
word‐
processing documents, spreadsheets, presentations and all other
electronic documents not specifically discussed elsewhere will be
produced as image files with related searchable text and metadata
(to the extent it exists) except for:
1.
Excel files will be produced in native format
with related searchable text and metadata (to the extent it
exists). Where a party redacts a portion of an Excel
spreadsheet, the parties will meet and confer regarding
production of the document in Tagged Image File Format
(“TIFFs” or “.tiff format”);
2.
The parties will discuss any specialized
databases that are responsive to the parties’ requests and
reach agreement on production before any such production;
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3.
The parties will discuss reasonable requests for
production in native format on a document‐by‐document or
category‐by‐category basis; and
4.
The parties shall meet and confer on a
production protocol for native files.
3.
Hard Copy (or Paper) Documents. The parties agree to
produce hard‐copy documents as image files with related OCR text to the
extent such documents are converted into electronic format. At this time
each party contemplates converting all hard‐copy documents into
electronic images for production purposes and agrees to address any
exceptions with the other parties. The parties shall meet and confer to
discuss documents that present imaging or formatting problems. To the
extent exceptions to the foregoing are required, the parties will meet and
confer to discuss alternative production requirements, concerns, or
formats.
4.
Form and Manner of Production. All production document
images will be provided as single‐page Tagged Image File Format
(“TIFFs” or “.tiff format”) compatible with commercially available
document management software, such as Relativity or Concordance. All
images generated from hard copy documents shall be scanned as black
and white images at 300 d.p.i. resolution and shall be saved and produced
in a Group 4 compression single‐page “TIFF” format and reflect, without
visual degradation, the full and complete information contained on the
original document. All images generated from native electronic
documents with the exception of source code, dynamic web pages, and
web content, shall be saved electronically (or “printed”) in a Group 4
compression single‐page “TIFF” image that reflects the full and complete
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information contained on the original document. The parties shall
produce a “load file” that is compatible with a commercially available
document management software, such as Relativity or Concordance, to
accompany the images, which load file shall include information about
where each document begins and ends to facilitate the use of the
produced images through a document management or litigation support
database system. The parties shall meet and confer to the extent
reasonably necessary to facilitate the import and use of the produced
materials with commercially available document management or
litigation support software.
5.
Document Unitization. To the extent possible and on a
going‐forward basis, the parties will endeavor to apply unitization
practices consistent with the following description. Each page of a hard
copy document shall be scanned into an image and if a document is more
than one page, the unitization of the document and any attachments shall
be maintained as it existed in the original when creating the image file. For
documents that contain fixed notes, the pages will be scanned both with
and without the notes and those pages will be treated as part of the same
document. The relationship of documents in a document collection (e.g.,
cover letter and enclosures, email and attachments, binder containing
multiple documents, or other documents where a parent‐child
relationship exists between the documents) shall be maintained through
the scanning or conversion process. If more than one level of parent‐child
relationship exists, documents will be kept in order, but all will be treated
as children of the initial parent document. Such information shall be
produced in the load file, as hereafter defined, in a manner to enable the
parent‐child relationship among documents in a document collection to be
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reconstituted by the receiving party in commercially available document
management software, such as Relativity or Concordance.
6.
Color. Unless a specific request is made, documents shall be
produced in gray scale.
7.
Duplicates. Where a single document has more than one
identical copy of a document (i.e., the documents are visually the same
and contain the same electronic text), the parties need only produce a
single copy of that document.
8.
Bates Numbering. The parties agree to produce imaged
documents with a legible, unique page identifier (“Bates Number”)
electronically “burned” onto the image at a location that does not
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) and
redactions (consistent with the Protective Order in this matter, or any
other protective orders agreed to in the future), and the Bates Number
identified above. The confidential legend shall be “burned” onto the
document’s image at a location that does not obliterate or obscure any
information from the source document. With respect to the identification
of files produced in their native format, the parties shall confer on an
appropriate method for applying a unique identifier to each file produced.
9.
File Naming Conventions. Each page image file shall be
named with the unique Bates Number of the page of document, followed
by the extension “.TIF”. In the event the Bates Number contains a symbol
and/or character that cannot be included in a file name, the symbol and/or
character will be omitted from the file name.
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10.
Production Media. The parties agree to produce documents
on CD‐ROM, DVD, external hard drive, or such other readily accessible
computer or electronic media as the parties may hereafter agree upon (the
“Production Media”). The type of materials on the media (e.g.,
“Documents”, “OCR Text”, etc.) and the Bates Number range(s) of the
materials on the Production Media shall also be contained on the
Production Media, and where not practicable to do so may be provided in
an accompanying letter.
11.
Meta‐Data Fields and Processing. Each of the metadata and
coding fields set forth in Appendix 1 that can be extracted shall be
produced for that document. The parties are not obligated to manually
populate any of the fields in Appendix 1 if such fields cannot be extracted
from a document, with the exception of the following: BEGBATES,
ENDBATES,
BEGATTACH,
CONFIDENTIALITY,
ENDATTACH,
REDACTED,
CUSTODIAN,
OTHER_CUSTODIAN,
and
CDVOLUME. The parties agree that the OTHER_CUSTODIAN field
should be populated by the party or the party’s vendor to identify other
custodians in possession of the document before deduplication was
applied to the data set. The parties will make reasonable efforts to ensure
that metadata fields automatically extracted from the documents are
correct.
12.
OCR/Extracted
Text.
The
parties
will
produce
corresponding Optical Character Recognition (“OCR”) text files for all
hard‐copy documents and any electronic documents that require
redaction prior to production. For documents that exist natively in
electronic format that have not been redacted and that are produced as
images, the parties shall produce extracted text files reflecting the full text
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that has been electronically extracted from the original, native electronic
files. The OCR and extracted text files shall be produced in ASCII text
format and shall be labeled and produced on Production Media in
accordance with the provisions of paragraph 10. These text files will be
named with the unique Bates Number of the first page of the
corresponding document followed by the extension “.txt.” The OCR and
extracted text files shall be produced in a manner suitable for importing
the information into commercially available document management or
litigation support software such as Concordance.
13.
Use of Search Terms. Plaintiffs shall first provide
Defendants with an initial listing of search terms they propose Defendants
use to search for documents and relevant ESI, and Defendants shall have
the opportunity to propose modifications to those search terms, including
the use of appropriate Boolean and proximity operators. Either party may
also propose custodians and date limitations for searches. After the parties
agree on an initial set of search terms, the parties shall conduct a further
meet and confer to determine whether modifications should be made to
those search terms, including the use of appropriate Boolean and
proximity operators. The parties will produce potentially‐relevant ESI in
their possession according to the agreed search terms, custodians, and
date ranges.
a.
Each party shall be provided with an opportunity to
propose additions or amendments to the search procedures and
terms;
b.
The parties acknowledge that the agreement to the
use of such search procedures and terms shall not be construed as a
waiver of any party’s right to request subsequent searches and
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productions; particularly where there is a showing that the agreed‐
to search terms and procedures have resulted in inadequate
productions or failed to identify relevant materials. The parties
reserve their right to object to any additional requests or
subsequent searches;
c.
The parties will produce ESI on a rolling basis so as to
provide each other with documents as expediently as possible; and
d.
Documents identified by search terms may be
reviewed for privilege, confidentiality, redactions and relevance or
responsiveness prior to production.
14.
Original Documents. The parties will retain the original
hard‐copy and ESI documents. Subject to preservation of appropriate
privileges and other protections, the parties will consider reasonable
requests, after any necessary meet and confer, to produce the original
copy and ESI documents of specific documents or groups of documents,
or where a document existed originally in only hard copy format, make
originals of any produced document available for inspection by the
requesting party in the form in which such documents are kept in the
ordinary course of business.
15.
Inaccessible or Not Reasonably Accessible Storage Media.
The parties will take reasonable steps to collect potentially relevant ESI
stored on servers, work stations, and readily accessible drives and
databases. The parties shall discuss sources of potentially relevant
information deemed “not reasonably accessible.” Where a party seeks
production of information from sources designated by another party as
“not reasonably accessible,” the parties shall meet and confer in an effort
to resolve any disagreements before seeking relief from the Court.
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16.
Incorporation by Reference of Protective Order. The
provisions of the any Protective Orders entered in the above‐captioned
case shall be incorporated by reference into this Order, including but not
limited to the provisions relating to the identification, use, and restrictions
on Confidential and Attorneys Eyes Only information and information
subject to a claim of privilege.
17.
Costs of Production. Each party shall bear its own costs of
production.
Dated at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, this 9th day of May, 2017.
BY THE COURT:
J.P. Stadtmueller
U.S. District Judge
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