Source: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-casd-3_16-cv-01255/USCOURTS-casd-3_16-cv-01255-2/pdf.json

Nature of Suit Code: 190
Nature of Suit: Other Contract Actions
Cause of Action: 28:1332oc Diversity-Other Contract

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-1- Case No. 16-cv-1255-GPC-AGS

ORDER GOVERNING DISCOVERY OF ELECTRONICALLY STORED AND HARDCOPY INFORMATION

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

DINA ANDREN, SIDNEY BLUDMAN, 

VIRGINIA CIOFFI, BERNARD FALK, 

JEANETTE KERZNER-GREEN, CAROL 

MONTALBANO, and DONALD RIGOT, 

individually, and on behalf of other 

members of the general public similarly 

situated,

Plaintiffs,

v.

ALERE INC., a Delaware corporation, 

ALERE HOME MONITORING, INC., a 

Delaware corporation, ALERE SAN 

DIEGO, INC., a Delaware corporation,,

Defendants.

Case No. 16-cv-1255-GPC-AGS

Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel

Mag. Judge Andrew G. Schopler

ORDER GOVERNING 

DISCOVERY OF 

ELECTRONICALLY STORED 

AND HARDCOPY INFORMATION

The Parties hereby agree to the following production of Electronically Stored 

Information (“ESI”) and paper (“hardcopy”) documents. This protocol, subject to the 

Protective Order in this litigation, governs all production in this litigation. Nothing 

in this protocol shall limit a party’s right to seek or object to discovery as set out in 

the applicable rules or to object to the authenticity or admissibility of any ESI or 

hardcopy document produced in accordance with this protocol. The Parties having 

conferred and agreed to entry of the within Consent Order, and good cause appearing 

therefore, it is hereby ORDERED as follows: 

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-2- Case No. 16-cv-1255-GPC-AGS

ORDER GOVERNING DISCOVERY OF ELECTRONICALLY STORED AND HARDCOPY INFORMATION

I. GENERAL PROVISIONS

1. Applicability. This Order will govern the production of Electronically 

Stored Information ("ESI") and hardcopy documents. 

2. Cooperation. The parties shall cooperate to identify and facilitate 

access to the contents of encrypted, password-protected, corrupted or difficult-toaccess files produced. The parties will work cooperatively to fashion reasonable, 

precise and cost-effective search strategies and to agree upon and implement 

appropriate measures for quality assurance and quality control. Parties are obliged to 

be forthcoming and transparent in disclosing their use of mechanized tools to cull 

responsive data and encouraged to bring technically-adept personnel together to 

resolve e-discovery issues.

3. Modification. This Order may be modified for good cause. If the parties 

cannot resolve their disagreements regarding modifications, the parties may submit 

their competing proposals and a summary of their dispute. Proposed modifications or 

disputes regarding ESI that counsel for the parties are unable to resolve will be 

presented to the Court as soon as practicable.

4. Designated ESI Liason. Each party shall designate one or more 

individuals as Designated ESI Liason(s) for the purpose of meeting and conferring 

with the other Parties and of attending Court hearings on the subject of ESI. The 

Designated ESI Liason(s) shall be prepared to speak and explain the Party’s relevant 

electronic systems and capabilities and the technical aspects of the manner in which 

the Party has responded to e-discovery, including (as appropriate) relevant ESI 

retrieval technology and search methodology. 

5. No Designation of Documents Requests. Production of ESI and 

hardcopy documents in the reasonably usable form set out in this protocol need not 

include any reference to the document requests to which a document may be 

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-3- Case No. 16-cv-1255-GPC-AGS

ORDER GOVERNING DISCOVERY OF ELECTRONICALLY STORED AND HARDCOPY INFORMATION

responsive. However, upon a reasonable request and on a case-by-case basis, a 

Producing Party will provide a Bates range and/or source file when a particular set of 

materials can be found in their production. 

6. Avoidance of Duplicate Production. A Producing Party shall take

reasonable steps to de-duplicate ESI vertically (i.e., within custodial or non-custodial 

data source). “Duplicate ESI” means files that are exact duplicates based on the files’

MD5 or SHA-1 hash values. Parties will disclose the method upon which hash 

values are calculated on emails and email families; any such method shall 

include BCC values in the calculation. Entire document families may constitute

Duplicate ESI. De-duplication shall not break apart families. A document within a

family (such as an email attachment) shall not be considered a duplicate of a standalone document even if the hash values are the same. In such instance, a copy of 

both the document family and the stand-alone document will be produced. 

The Producing Party will not use e-mail threading as a method of de-duplication.

7. Non-Discoverable ESI. The following categories of ESI are not subject 

to preservation and are not discoverable:

i. Deleted, “slack,” fragmented, or unallocated data on hard drives;

ii. Random access memory (RAM) or other ephemeral data;

iii. On-line access data such as (without limitation) temporary internet

files, history files, cache files, and cookies;

iv. S y stem, network, server, or software application logs; and 

v. Structural files not material to individual document contents (e.g.

.CSS, .XSL, .XML, .DTD, etc.). Files with the same file name extensions as structural 

files but which contain substantive otherwise discoverable information, e.g., a .XML 

file used for data transfer between systems, are still subject to preservation and are 

discoverable.

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-4- Case No. 16-cv-1255-GPC-AGS

ORDER GOVERNING DISCOVERY OF ELECTRONICALLY STORED AND HARDCOPY INFORMATION

9. Production Media & Protocol. The production media for document 

productions that do not exceed 5 GB shall be secure FTP link provided via email at 

the time a production letter is emailed, unless the parties agree otherwise. On the 

occasions when a particular document production exceeds 5 GB, the production media 

may be a CD-ROM, DVD, external hard drive (with standard PC compatible 

interface), or USB drive, so long as such production media is sent no slower than 

overnight delivery via FedEx, UPS, or USPS. Each item of production media (or in 

the case of FTP productions, each production transmittal letter) shall include: (1) text 

referencing that it was produced in Andren, et al. v. Alere, Inc., et al., (2) the type of 

materials on the media (e.g., “Documents,” “OCR Text,” “Objective Coding,” etc.), 

(3) the production date, (4) the Bates number range of the materials contained on such 

production media item, and (5) a short description of the categories of information in 

the production (e.g., Custodian X’s email, centralized purchasing files, etc.). The ESI 

Liaisons shall designate the appropriate physical address for productions exceeding 5 

GB that are produced on physical media.

II. GENERAL PRODUCTION FORMAT PROTOCOLS 

1. TIFFs. All production images will be provided as single page Group IV 

TIFFs of at least 300 dpi resolution. Page size shall be 8.5 x 11 inches unless in the 

reasonable judgment of the producing party, a particular item requires a different page 

size. Each image will use the Bates number of the first page of the document as its 

unique file name. Original document orientation should be maintained (i.e., portrait 

to portrait and landscape to landscape). Hidden content, tracked changes or edits, 

comments, notes and other similar information viewable within the native file shall 

also be imaged so that this information captured on the produced image file.

2. Text Files. Each paper document or ESI item produced under this order 

shall be accompanied by a text file as set out below. All text files shall be provided 

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-5- Case No. 16-cv-1255-GPC-AGS

ORDER GOVERNING DISCOVERY OF ELECTRONICALLY STORED AND HARDCOPY INFORMATION

as a single document level text file for each item, not one text file per page. Each text 

file shall be named to use the Bates number of the first page of the corresponding 

production item.

a. OCR. Paper documents will be accompanied by an OCR file. The 

parties will endeavor to generate accurate OCR and will utilize quality OCR processes 

and technology. The parties acknowledge, however, that due to poor quality of the 

originals, not all documents lend themselves to the generation of accurate OCR. OCR 

text files should indicate page breaks where possible.

b. ESI. Emails and efiles will be accompanied by extracted text taken from 

the ESI item itself. The extracted text will include any From, To, CC, BCC, Subject

and Attachment labels and values present in the email.

5. Bates Numbering. All images must be assigned a Bates number that 

must always: (a) be unique across the entire document production; (b) maintain a 

constant length (0- padded) across the entire production; (c) contain no special 

characters or embedded spaces; and (4d) be sequential within a given document. If a 

Bates number or set of Bates numbers is skipped in a production, the producing party 

will so note in a cover letter or production log accompanying the production. The 

producing party will brand all TIFF images in the lower right-hand corner with its 

corresponding bates number, using a consistent font type and size. The Bates number 

must not obscure any part of the underlying image. If the placement in the lower 

right-hand corner will result in obscuring the underlying image, the Bates number 

should be placed as near to that position as possible while preserving the underlying 

image.

6. Parent-Child Relationships. Parent-child relationships (the association 

between an attachment and its parent document) that have been maintained in the 

ordinary course of business should be preserved. For example, if a party is producing 

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-6- Case No. 16-cv-1255-GPC-AGS

ORDER GOVERNING DISCOVERY OF ELECTRONICALLY STORED AND HARDCOPY INFORMATION

a hard copy printout of an e-mail with its attachments, the attachments should be 

processed in order behind the e-mail.

7. Load Files. All production items will be provided with a delimited data 

file or “load file.” Acceptable formats for the load file are .log, .opt, .dii .lfp, .txt, .dat, 

or .csv, as detailed in Appendix 1. Each party will designate its preferred load file 

format. The load file must reference each TIFF in the corresponding production. The 

total number of documents referenced in a production’s data load file should match 

the total number of designated document breaks in the Image Load files in the 

production. Each deliverable volume should limit directory contents to 

approximately 1000 files per folder.

8. Color. Documents or ESI containing color shall be produced initially in 

color. The production of documents and/or ESI in color shall be made in TIFF format 

or in an alternative format, such as single page JPEG format, that provides sufficient 

quality for the review of these documents and/or ESI. All requirements for 

productions stated in this Order regarding productions in TIFF format would apply to 

any productions of documents and/or ESI in color made in such an alternative format.

9. Confidentiality Designations. If a particular paper document or ESI 

item qualifies for confidential treatment pursuant to the terms of a Protective Order 

entered by the Court in this litigation, or has been redacted in accordance with 

applicable law or Court order, the designation shall be shown both on the face of all 

TIFFs pertaining to such item/document, and in the appropriate data field in the load 

file.

III. PRODUCTION OF HARDCOPY DOCUMENTS

1. Hardcopy Documents to be Produced Electronically. The parties 

agree that responsive paper documents from Document Custodians will be scanned 

and produced electronically rather than in paper format. Generally all centralized 

paper documents will be scanned and produced electronically, unless a party 

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-7- Case No. 16-cv-1255-GPC-AGS

ORDER GOVERNING DISCOVERY OF ELECTRONICALLY STORED AND HARDCOPY INFORMATION

establishes good cause for making such documents available via paper and reasonable 

access is provided to the opposing party to review the documents directly.

2. Coding Fields. The following information shall be produced in the load 

file accompanying production of paper documents: (a) BegBates, (b) EndBates, (c) 

BegAttach, (d) EndAttach, (e) PgCount, (f) Custodian, (g) Source Party, (h) TextPath, 

(i) Confidentiality, and (j) Redacted (Y/N). Additionally, all paper documents will be 

produced with a coding field named “Paper Document” marked with a “Y.”

3. Unitization of Paper Documents. Paper documents should be logically 

unitized for production. Therefore, when scanning paper documents for production, 

distinct documents shall not be merged into a single record, and single documents 

shall not be split into multiple records.

4. File/Binder Structures.

a. Unitization: Where the documents were organized into groups, such as 

folders, clipped bundles and binders, this structure shall be maintained and provided 

in the load file. The relationship among the documents in a folder or other grouping 

should be reflected in proper coding of the beginning and ending document and 

attachment fields. The parties will make their best efforts to unitize documents 

correctly.

b. Identification: Where a document, or a document group – such as folder, 

clipped bundle, or binder – has an identification spine or other label, the information 

on the label shall be scanned and produced as the first page of the document or 

grouping.

c. Custodian Identification: The parties will utilize best efforts to ensure that 

paper records for a particular custodian, which are included in a single production, are 

produced in consecutive Bates stamp order.

IV. PRODUCTION OF ELECTRONICALLY STORED INFORMATION 

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-8- Case No. 16-cv-1255-GPC-AGS

ORDER GOVERNING DISCOVERY OF ELECTRONICALLY STORED AND HARDCOPY INFORMATION

1. System Files. ESI productions may be de-nisted using the industry 

standard list of such files maintained in the National Software Reference Library by 

the National Institute of Standards & Technology. Other file types may be added to 

the list of excluded files by agreement of the parties.

2. Metadata Fields and Processing.

a. Auto date/time stamps: ESI items shall be processed so as to preserve the 

date/time shown in the document as it was last saved, not the date of 

collection or processing.

b. Except as otherwise set forth in this Order, infra, ESI files shall be produced 

with at least each of the data fields set forth in Appendix 2 that can be 

extracted from a document.

c. The parties are not obligated to manually populate any of the fields in 

Appendix 2 if such fields cannot be extracted from the document using an 

automated process, with the exception of the following fields: (a) BegBates, 

(b) EndBates, (c) BegAttach, (d) EndAttach, (e) Custodian, (f) 

Confidentiality, (g) Redacted (Y/N), (h) AttachCount, (i) AttachName, (j) 

PGCount, and (k) NativeLink fields, which should be populated regardless 

of whether the fields can be populated pursuant to an automated process.

d. With respect to the italicized fields in Appendix 2, a producing party need 

produce only those fields that it can provide (or can provide without 

additional cost) if it (a) provides the receiving party or parties with a good 

faith, written representation describing the fields it cannot provide or cannot 

provide without additional cost, and (b) agrees not to use any of the 

requested fields that it did not produce. The parties will meet and confer in 

good faith to the extent that additional issues arise.

3. Production of Native Items. The parties agree that ESI shall be 

produced as TIFFs with an accompanying load file, which will contain, among other 

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-9- Case No. 16-cv-1255-GPC-AGS

ORDER GOVERNING DISCOVERY OF ELECTRONICALLY STORED AND HARDCOPY INFORMATION

data points, the ESI data points listed in Appendix 2 hereto. The exception to this rule 

shall be word processing documents with tracked changes or comments (e.g. MS 

Word), presentation-application files (e.g., MS PowerPoint), spreadsheet-application 

files (e.g., MS Excel), personal databases (e.g., MS Access), and multimedia 

audio/visual files such as voice and video recordings (e.g., .wav, .mpeg, and .avi), for 

which all ESI items shall be produced in native format. In the case of personal 

database (e.g., MS Access) files containing confidential or privileged information, the 

parties shall meet and confer to determine the appropriate form of production. In 

addition to producing the above file types in native format, the producing party shall 

produce a single-page TIFF slip sheet indicating that a native item was produced and 

providing the file name of the natively produced document (e.g., “Order.docx”). The 

corresponding load file shall include NativeFileLink information for each native file 

that is produced. Further, the parties agree to meet and confer prior to producing 

native file types other than MS PowerPoint, MS Excel, and multimedia audio/visual 

file types such as .wav, .mpeg and .avi. Prior to processing non-standard native files 

for production, the producing party shall disclose the file type, and meet and confer 

with, the receiving party on a reasonably useable production format. The parties agree 

to meet and confer to the extent that there is data in databases, database application 

files, or other applications using structured data or aggregated data, such as SQL 

databases, adverse event tracking applications, SAS, and SAP, to determine the best 

reasonable form of production of usable data. Through the pendency of this 

Litigation, the producing party shall exercise reasonable, good faith efforts to 

maintain all preserved and collected native files in a manner that does not materially 

alter or modify the file or the metadata.

4. Requests for Other Native Files. Other than as specifically set forth 

above, a producing party need not produce documents in native format. A party may 

request that a document not produced in native format be produced in native format, 

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-10- Case No. 16-cv-1255-GPC-AGS

ORDER GOVERNING DISCOVERY OF ELECTRONICALLY STORED AND HARDCOPY INFORMATION

and the producing party will comply with such requests to the extent that they are 

reasonable and proportional to the needs of the case, in accordance with the applicable 

rules of civil procedure. The parties will meet and confer with respect to any 

disagreements of the reasonableness and proportionality of a request, and may apply 

to the Court for determination in the event of continued disagreement. The requesting 

party will provide a specific Bates range for documents it wishes to be produced in 

native format. Any native files that are produced should be produced with a link in 

the NativeLink field, along with all extracted text and applicable metadata fields set 

forth in Appendix 2.

5. Redaction.

a. The parties agree that where ESI items need to be redacted, they shall be 

produced solely in TIFF with each redaction clearly indicated, except in the case of 

personal database files, which shall be governed by ¶ V(3), supra. Any unaffected 

data fields specified in Appendix 2 shall be provided. For example, if attorney-client 

privilege requires that the BCC field of a document needs to be redacted, all other 

available data fields specified in Appendix 2 shall be provided and the redacted 

metadata fields will be clearly indicated.

b. If the items redacted and partially withheld from production are Word-type 

documents, PowerPoint-type presentation decks or Excel-type spreadsheets as 

addressed in ¶ IV.3, supra, and the native items are also withheld, the entire ESI item 

must be produced in TIFF format, including all unprivileged pages, hidden fields and 

other information that does not print when opened as last saved by the custodian or 

end-user. For PowerPoint-type presentation decks, this shall include, but is not limited 

to, any speaker notes. For Excel-type spreadsheets, this shall include, but is not limited 

to, hidden rows and columns, all cell values, annotations and notes. The producing 

party shall also make reasonable efforts to ensure that any spreadsheets produced only 

as TIFF images are formatted so as to be legible. For example, column widths should 

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-11- Case No. 16-cv-1255-GPC-AGS

ORDER GOVERNING DISCOVERY OF ELECTRONICALLY STORED AND HARDCOPY INFORMATION

be formatted so that the numbers in the column will display rather than 

“##########.”

c. If the items redacted and partially withheld from production are audio/visual 

files, the producing party shall provide the unredacted portions of the content. If the 

content is a voice recording, the parties shall meet and confer to discuss the 

appropriate manner for the producing party to produce the unredacted portion of the 

content.

6. Exception Logs: ESI that cannot be reviewed, produced and/or imaged 

because of technical issues should be identified as exception files and included on a 

log that lists the file name, custodian, and reason for exception: for example, 

corruption, unavailable password protection, proprietary software, or other technical 

issues. The producing party shall provide an updated copy of this log to the receiving 

party within three (3) business days of a production, and shall provide a final copy of 

the log upon completion of document production. If the receiving party requests 

production of any files listed on the exception log, the parties will meet and confer on 

a reasonable and cost-effective means for attempting to provide the requested files.

V. APPLICATION OF SEARCH TERMS & OTHER CULLING METHODS

1. Search Terms. The Parties agree to meet and confer in good faith 

regarding the formulation and validation of appropriate search terms and protocols in 

advance of any search to cull Document Custodians’ ESI. 

2. Other Methods to Streamline Culling of ESI. The parties agree to 

meet and confer in good faith about any other technology or process that a producing 

party proposes to use to reduce the document population to be produced or to identify 

documents to be included or excluded from that population in this case (e.g., near deduplication, any technology assisted review or advanced analytic (i.e., non-Boolean) 

automated “filtering” or “culling” application to identify items which are potentially 

responsive or which are to be excluded from its production). 

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-12- Case No. 16-cv-1255-GPC-AGS

ORDER GOVERNING DISCOVERY OF ELECTRONICALLY STORED AND HARDCOPY INFORMATION

VI. SPECIAL ESI ISSUES

1. Password-Protected or Encrypted Files. With respect to any ESI items 

that are password-protected or encrypted, the Producing Party will take reasonable 

steps based on industry standards to break the protection so that the document can be 

reviewed and/or produced. In the event that encrypted or password-protected 

documents, which are reasonably likely to be responsive to Plaintiffs’ document 

requests, remain for a particular custodian after such reasonable efforts have been 

made, the producing party shall let the receiving party know the total number of such 

documents and each individual producing party shall meet and confer with the 

receiving party.

2. Hidden text. ESI items processed after the execution date of this 

Production Order shall be processed, to the extent practicable, in a manner that 

preserves hidden columns or rows, hidden text or worksheets, speaker notes, tracked 

changes and comments.

3. Embedded Objects. Objects embedded in Microsoft Word and .RTF 

documents, which have been embedded with the “Display as Icon” feature, will be 

extracted as separate documents and treated like attachments to the document. Other 

objects embedded in documents, e.g., in PowerPoint presentations, shall be produced 

as native files and treated like attachments to the document. Image files in emails, 

e.g., as part of signature blocks, should not be separately produced.

4. Compressed Files. Compression file types (i.e., .CAB, .GZ, .TAR, .Z, 

.ZIP) shall be decompressed in a reiterative manner to ensure that a zip within a zip 

is decompressed into the lowest possible compression resulting in individual folders 

and/or files.

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-13- Case No. 16-cv-1255-GPC-AGS

ORDER GOVERNING DISCOVERY OF ELECTRONICALLY STORED AND HARDCOPY INFORMATION

VII. PARAMETERS FOR CUSTODIAL ESI COLLECTION

For each of Defendants’ current or former employees identified as a Document 

Custodian (through the parties’ meet and confer process), Defendants will do the 

following:

1. Email. Unless Defendants establish good cause to the contrary, the 

presumption is that Defendants will collect all emails sent to or received by a 

Document Custodian regardless of whether such emails are in the Document 

Custodian’s actual email account.

2. Cloud Based ESI. To the extent a Document Custodian made any use 

of cloud-based document storage services (such as DropBox) for work-related 

purposes, Defendants will obtain such information and produce responsive 

information. If for some reason Defendants are unable to obtain cloud-based ESI for 

a Document Custodian, then Defendants will provide Plaintiffs with a written 

explanation of the circumstances of the inability, including (a) the name of the 

Document Custodian, (b) the name of the cloud-based system on which the data is 

believed to be stored, (c) a description of the type of ESI believed to be stored in the 

Cloud-based system, (d) the efforts Defendants undertook to obtain the information, 

(e) whether any data on the cloud-based email system is believed to have been deleted 

or lost, and if so, when, and (f) whether or not the user name and password for such 

information is known to the Document Custodian and/or Defendants.

VIII. CLAIMS OF PRIVILEGE AND REDACTIONS

1. Production of Privilege Logs. For any document withheld in its 

entirety or produced but redacted, the producing party will produce 

privilege/redaction logs in Excel format or any other format that permits electronic 

sorting and searching, except that the Parties shall have no obligation to log 

information generated after the date of commencement of this lawsuit. A producing 

party will produce a separate privilege/redaction log for each production within 21

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days of the production of documents for which a privilege is asserted. A party 

asserting privilege over a chain of emails must assert privilege separately on the 

privilege log as to each portion of the email chain.

2. Challenges to Privilege Claims. Following the receipt of a 

privilege/redaction log, a receiving party may identify, in writing, the particular 

documents that it believes require further explanation. Within 21 days of such 

identification, the producing party must respond to the request. If a party challenges 

a request for further information, the parties shall meet and confer to try to reach a 

mutually agreeable solution. If they cannot agree, the matter shall be brought to the 

Court.

3. “Relevancy” Redactions. The parties will not make any redactions 

based upon the purported relevancy of a document.

4. All other issues of privilege, including the production of privileged or 

protected documents or information, shall be governed by the Protective Order 

entered by the Court in this litigation. Officers, directors, employees, agents, and legal 

counsel, are referred to as the “Parties” solely for the purposes of this Protocol.

IX. MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS

1. Objections Preserved. Nothing in this protocol shall be interpreted to 

require disclosure of information protected by the attorney-client privilege, workproduct doctrine, or any other applicable privilege or immunity. Except as provided 

expressly herein, the parties do not waive any objections as to the production, 

discoverability, authenticity, admissibility, or confidentiality of documents and ESI.

2. Databases and Other Structured or Aggregated Data. To the extent 

a response to discovery requires production of discoverable electronic information 

contained in a database, or other structured or aggregated data source, the parties shall 

meet and confer to determine the format of production. In the absence of agreement, 

a party may apply to the Court for resolution. Prior to the meet and confer, the 

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requesting party may make reasonable requests for additional information, e.g., to 

explain the database’s or data source’s purpose and function, reporting or exporting 

functionality and formats, schema, codes, abbreviations, user and administrator 

manuals, etc.

3. Inaccessible ESI. If a producing party asserts that certain ESI is 

inaccessible or otherwise unnecessary under the circumstances, or if the requesting 

party asserts that, following production, certain ESI is not reasonably usable, the 

parties shall meet and confer with their respective technology experts to discuss 

resolving such assertions. If the parties cannot resolve any such disputes after such a 

meet and confer has taken place, the issue shall be presented to the Court for 

resolution.

4. No party shall modify the date or time as contained in any original ESI.

5. If either party objects to producing the requested information on the 

grounds that such information is not reasonably accessible because of undue burden 

or cost, or because production in the requested format is asserted to be not reasonably 

accessible because of undue burden or cost, and before asserting such an objection, 

the responding party will inform the requesting party of the format, if any, in which 

it is willing to produce it, the nature and location of the information claimed to not be 

reasonably accessible, the reason(s) why the requested form of production would 

impose an undue burden or is unreasonably costly, and afford the requesting party 21

business days from receipt of such notice to propose an alternative means of 

compliance with the request. Such proposal may include alternative cost estimates for 

ESI discovery production. Prior to a party producing ESI in a format not requested 

and/or agreed to by the requesting party, (1) the parties will meet and confer regarding 

the issue, and failing resolution, the parties will (2) file a joint letter brief with the 

Court regarding the issue, with each party permitted 2 pages to lay out its position.

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6. If a party believes that responsive ESI no longer exists in its original 

format, or is no longer retrievable, the responding party shall explain where and when 

it was last retrievable in its original format, and disclose the circumstances 

surrounding the change in status of that ESI, including the date of such status change, 

the person or persons responsible for such state change, the reason or reasons such 

ESI is no longer retrievable in that format, and whether any backup or copy of such 

original ESI exists, together with the location and the custodian thereof.

Dated: July 18, 2017

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Appendix 1: File Formats

Image Load Files

The name of the image load file should mirror the name of the delivery volume, and should have 

the appropriate extension (e.g., ABC001.LFP).

The volume names should be consecutive (i.e., ABC001, ABC002, et. seq.).

There should be one row in the load file per TIFF image.

Every image in the delivery volume should be contained in the image load file.

The image key should be named the same as the Bates number of the page.

Load files should not span across media (e.g., CDs, DVDs, Hard Drives, Etc.), i.e., a separate 

volume should be created for each piece of media delivered.

Files that are the first page of a logical document should include a “D” where appropriate. Files 

that are the first page of an attachment to an e-mail should include a “C” where appropriate. 

Subsequent pages of all documents (regular document, e-mail, or attachment) should include a 

blank in the appropriate position.

IM,VN00000001,D,0,@29502601;295026001\0000;VN00000001.TIF;2

IM,VN00000002, ,0,@29502601;295026001\0000;VN00000002.TIF;2 

IM,VN00000003, ,0,@29502601;295026001\0000;VN00000003.TIF;2 

IM,VN00000004, ,0,@29502601;295026001\0000;VN00000004.TIF;2 

IM,VN00000005,D,0,@29502601;295026001\0000;VN00000005.TIF;2

IM,VN00000006, ,0,@29502601;295026001\0000;VN00000006.TIF;2

IM,VN00000007, ,0,@29502601;295026001\0000;VN00000007.TIF;2

IM,VN00000008, ,0,@29502601;295026001\0000;VN00000008.TIF;2 

IM,VN00000009,D,0,@29502601;295026001\0000;VN00000009.TIF;2

IM,VN00000010, ,0,@29502601;295026001\0000;VN00000010.TIF;2

Opticon Delimited File:

MSC000001,MSC001,D:\IMAGES\001\MSC000001.TIF,Y„,3

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MSC000002,MSC001,D:\IMAGES\001\MSC000002.TIF,Y,,,,

MSC000003,MSC001,D:\IMAGES\001\MSC000003.TIF,Y,,,,

MSC000004,MSC001,D:\IMAGES\001\MSC000004.TIF,Y,,,2

MSC000005,MSC001,D:\IMAGES\001\MSC000005.TIF,Y,,,,

Summation DII File:

@C HASIMAGE YES

@T EPRG036023 2

@DD:\FILES\PRODUCTION\CD0004\VOL0011\Images

EPRG036023.tif

EPRG036024.tif

Concordance Delimited Files:

þBegDocþþEndDocþþBegAttachþþEndAttachþþPgCountþþCustodianþ

The data load file should use standard Concordance delimiters:

Comma - ¶ (ASCII 20);

Quote - þ (ASCII 254);

Newline - ® (ASCII174).

The first record should contain the field names in the order of the data.

All date fields should be produced in mm/dd/yyyy format.

Use carriage-return line-feed to indicate the start of the next record.

Load files should not span across media (e.g., CDs, DVDs, Hard Drives, etc.); a separate volume 

should be created for each piece of media delivered.

The name of the data load file should mirror the name of the delivery volume, and should have a 

.DAT extension (i.e., ABC001.DAT).

The volume names should be consecutive (i.e., ABC001, ABC002, et. seq.).

If Foreign Language / Unicode text exists, DAT file shall be in appropriate UTF-8 or UTF-16 

format.

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OCR / Extracted Text Files

OCR or Extracted Text files shall be provided in a separate \OCR\ directory containing Document 

level text files

If Foreign Language / Unicode text exists, TEXT files shall be in appropriate UTF-8 or UTF-16 

format

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Appendix 2: ESI Metadata and Coding Fields

Field Name1 Populated For 

(Email, Edoc, 

Calendar, Contact 

or All)

Field Description

BegBates All Control Numbers.

EndBates All Control Numbers.

BegAttach All Control Numbers (First 

production bates 

number of the first 

document of the 

family).

EndAttach All Control Numbers (Last 

production bates 

number of the last 

document of the 

family).

PgCount All Page Count.

Custodian All Custodian name (ex. 

John Doe).

CustodianOther All All custodians who 

were in possession of a 

de-duplicated 

document besides the 

individual identified in 

the “Custodian” field. 

Size All Size (in bytes) of the 

original document.

LogicalPath All The directory structure 

of the original file(s). 

Any container name is 

included in the path.

EmailFolder Email Mailbox folder from 

which an email was 

collected.

Fingerprint All The MD5 or SHA-1 

hash value.

NativeFile All Native File Link.

 

1

Field names can vary from system to system and even between different versions of systems. Thus, parties are to be 

guided by these Field Names and Descriptions when identifying the metadata fields to be produced for a given 

document pursuant to this Order.

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Field Name1 Populated For 

(Email, Edoc, 

Calendar, Contact 

or All)

Field Description

Email Thread ID Email Unique identification 

number that permits 

threading of email 

conversations. For 

instance, unique MS 

Outlook identification 

number 

(“PR_CONVERSATIO

N_INDEX”) is 22 

bytes in length, 

followed by zero or 

more child blocks each 

5 bytes in length, that 

permits email threading 

in review software

Thread Index Email Message header 

identifier, distinct from 

“PR_Conversation_Ind

ex”, that permits 

threading of email 

chains in review 

software.

EmailSubject Email Subject line of email.

DateSent Email Date email was sent.

DateMod Email, Edoc Date the document was 

modified.

TimeSent Email Time email was sent.

ReceiveTime Email Time email was 

received.

To Email All recipients that were 

included on the “To” 

line of the email.

From Email The name and email 

address of the sender of 

the email.

CC Email All recipients that were 

included on the “CC” 

line of the email.

BCC Email All recipients that were 

included on the “BCC” 

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Field Name1 Populated For 

(Email, Edoc, 

Calendar, Contact 

or All)

Field Description

line of the email.

AttachmentCount Email Number of attached 

documents.

Attach Email The file name(s) of the 

attached documents.

Importance 

Ranking

Email Level of 

importance/sensitivity 

of messages. 

Status as READ 

or UNREAD

Email Whether or not a 

message was READ or 

UNREAD. 

GUID/$Message 

ID

Email The unique Email 

message identifier (to 

extent different from 

“Email Conversation 

Threading Index 

Number” noted above).

ID of Original 

Message 

REPLIED to or 

FORWARDED

Email The unique Email 

message identifier of 

the previous message in 

the thread (the message 

that was replied to or 

forwarded).

DateCreated Edoc Date the document was 

created.

FileName Email, Edoc File name of the edoc 

or email. 

Title Edoc Any value populated in 

the Title field of the 

document properties.

Subject Edoc Any value populated in 

the Subject field of the 

document properties.

Author Edoc Any value populated in 

the Author field of the 

document properties.

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Field Name1 Populated For 

(Email, Edoc, 

Calendar, Contact 

or All)

Field Description

DocExt All File extension of the 

document.

TextPath All Relative path to the 

document level text file 

specified in Paragraph 

I.C of this ESI Order.

Redacted All “X,” “Y,” 

“Yes,” 

“True,” are all 

acceptable 

indicators that 

the document 

is redacted. 

Otherwise, 

blank.

Confidentiality All Indicates if document 

has been designated as 

“Confidential” or 

“Highly Confidential” 

under the Protective 

Order.

MD5 Email, Edoc MD5 or SHA-1 hash 

value of the document

Date of Creation Contact Date the contact entry 

was created or sent

Last Modified 

Date

Contact Date the contact entry 

was last modified.

Importance 

Ranking

Contact Level of 

importance/sensitivity 

of the contact entry 

Date of Creation Calendar The date the calendar 

entry was created or 

sent

Last Modified 

Date

Calendar Date the contact entry 

was last modified.

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Field Name1 Populated For 

(Email, Edoc, 

Calendar, Contact 

or All)

Field Description

Originator / 

Author 

Calendar The author of the 

calendar entry or the 

person who sent the 

calendar entry.

Recipients Calendar The persons that the 

calendar entry was sent 

to.

Subject / Title 

field(s)

Calendar The subject or titles for 

the calendar entry.

Importance 

Ranking

Calendar Level of 

importance/sensitivity 

of the calendar entry 

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