Before making a decision about imaging, check your local, state and federal rules to determine whether imaging guidelines are currently in place. Many courts are embracing imaging technology, while others are just beginning to review the possibilities. If no rules exist, you may want to become an advocate for implementing imaging rules in your jurisdiction. In addition, electronic exhibits can be quickly accessed during deposition and projected on a screen for viewing by judge and jury during trial. Indexing or coding is essential to the accurate retrieval and manipulation of images.
Indexing includes fields that remain static over a few thousand pages.
For example, box numbers or file folder labels are static fields. Coding may include both objective and subjective information contained within individual documents. Coding fields usually consist of document date, type, author and recipient. Document coding is often labor-intensive, with the length of time necessary to do the work dependent upon the document population and the number of fields needed. To search for textual information in any database software, you must input key words or phrases included in the index or coding fields.