To read more about uploading documents on Everlaw, feel free to refer to the articles in our Uploads section.
Table of Contents
- What is the uploads feature?
- Do I have access to upload documents?
- How Everlaw handles metadata
- Advanced processing defaults
What is the uploads feature?
Everlaw’s uploads feature allows you to add new data to your database at any time of your choosing. If you are an admin and part of the Uploaders group, you can access the uploads page via the admin icon in the navigation bar.
The uploads page accepts:
- Native Files: Everlaw has a cloud-processing system that will automatically process native files for ingestion into the platform. This includes de-NISTing, deduping, and generating text, metadata, and images for your documents.
- Processed Files: You can also use the upload page to transfer processed files directly to Everlaw. Processed files can be either Bates-stamped or non-Bates stamped. Unlike native files, processed files are sent to the Everlaw support staff, who will need to put processed files through an intermediary stage before uploading them into the case. If you are an organization administrator, you can upload processed data for your organization (see organization administrator articles for more detail).
Once documents are successfully uploaded, they will be searchable and viewable in your case. You can also easily find documents by upload on the homepage under the Document Sets column, by searching for them, or by using the history cards in the uploads page. Please note the following:
- For native uploads: A native upload can contain one file, or multiple files. You can also retroactively upload new documents to an existing upload (This is useful if you want to group related documents together. See the “Preparing your native data to upload” section for more information). Uploaded documents go through three stages of processing before being added to your case: examine, PDF, and text. For more information about native uploads, see the native uploads article.
- For processed uploads: A processed data upload goes through three phases: (i) the successful transmission of the data to Everlaw, (ii) the completed processing of the data on the backend, and (iii) the uploading of the transmitted data into the platform. You can keep tabs on what stage an upload is at via the appropriate card on the “Processed Data” page. For more information about processed data uploads, see the processed uploads article.
- If you are an organization admin, see the organization admin section for information on uploading processed data.
Do I have access to upload documents?
You must gain access to the "Uploader" permissions group to upload documents. You must be an Admin to gain Uploader permissions. Admins can request access by reaching out to an existing Uploader on the project (found in Case Settings), or contact an Everlaw support member by emailing support@everlaw.com or calling 1-844-383-7529 during normal support hours. You will not have upload permissions by default.
If you are a current Uploader and need to add users to the Uploaders group:
- Navigate to the users section of the case settings page
- Click the gear icon in the Groups column of the user you want to give uploading privileges to.
- Select the Uploaders group.
- Remember, the user must also be part of a user group with administrative privileges in order to have access to the uploads feature.
If you are in the Uploaders user groups, you are able to upload documents into any partial project that you are part of. In addition, uploads will automatically be added to all complete projects from the same primary database, even if you are not on that project.
If you are considering whether or not to authorize uploading privileges, be aware that anyone in the Uploaders user group will be able to see the names of all complete projects originating from a parent project, even those they are not part of. However, they will only be able to access projects they are on.
How Everlaw handles metadata
Upon upload, Everlaw automatically detects metadata fields that refer to the same underlying concept, and groups them together. For example, all variations of the custodian field (“Custodian”, “Custdn”, “CUST”, etc.) will be grouped into the “Custodian” field. Though this automatic grouping is performed for all fields in the case, particular attention is paid to approximately 40 of the most common metadata fields, determined through an empirical analysis of the types of metadata fields that appear in document sets. These 40 or so fields are referred to as canonical fields. Raw metadata fields will therefore be mapped to these grouped and canonical fields upon upload.
You can view the ‘raw’, unmapped metadata fields for a document in the review window. If you expand the metadata panel and scroll to the bottom, you can expand the ‘raw metadata’ field category. All of the provided fields for a document will be visible. You can click again to hide.
Because of the mapping, the default name of a metadata field might not be original field name. If you hover over the value of a metadata field in the panel, you’ll be able to see both the original and mapped field name.
For more information on canonical fields, visit our help article about the topic.
Advanced processing defaults
The list below outlines some default processing configurations. Though it is not exhaustive, it will hopefully set proper expectations for you and your review team.
- The orientation of documents is preserved from its native version (a document that is in landscape orientation will remain that way upon upload)
- Embedded files: Everlaw will extract all embedded files, including audio and video files, in an Office file (e.g., an Excel file embedded in a PowerPoint) and any file embedded in a PDF.
- Email image attachments: for projects where no native uploads have been run, images attached to emails will, by default, be extracted as children. For projects with previous uploads, image attachment settings are determined by the configuration of the most recent native upload. You can choose to either extract image attachments as children, or display them inline in the email's PDF.
- The children of container files are extracted with no limitation on depth. As an exaggerated example, a Word doc attached to an email that’s attached to another email that’s in a Zip file that’s in another Zip file will be extracted.
- Hidden columns in Excel are displayed.
- Notes will be extracted and presented in the image view for Word documents and the native view for spreadsheets
Sometimes, you may try to upload an entire hard drive or a folder with personal files mixed in with system/software files. Some of these files have no user-specific content and can be removed upon processing. This process is called deNIST (removing NIST files). Any files that are on the NIST list will qualify for deNISTing automatically upon upload. Binary files, and virtually all containers, are not part of this list and will not be removed.
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