5.05 Load Files

Concordance Load Files

1.       A .DAT load file without a supporting file showing: field structure, field size and field sequence.

2.       The first line of the .DAT file should be the field names. When loading a .DAT file, this is the simplest way to see if the data loaded correctly.

3.       Badly formatted body Meta-Data. The spaces and returns must match the original text. No odd characters, such as a semi-colon, should appear in lieu of a soft-return or a space. These kinds of problems not only make the text hard to read, but they also interfere with searching.

4.       More than one document per database record. This kind of error can cost the Firm hours and days or a case. When the review team identifies all the documents to produce, a ratio other than 1:1 will result in the wrong documents getting produced along with the right documents.

5.       Databases and load files should open sorted by “Bates” or “docno”. Concordance displays records in the same order that they were loaded. Therefore a disordered load file results in a disordered database.

6.       Duplicate, overlapping or gaps in “Bates” or “docno” fields.

7.       Bates / Docno prefix contains characters other than A…Z.

8.       Bates / Docno suffix contains letters and is not zero-added to four places (.0001).

9.       Bates / Docno contains a space, such as “AA 00001”.