Administer Codes for Review

Codes are applied to documents to help your team organize and search for any documents relevant to specific issues in your case. In Everlaw, codes are organized into categories. Every code belongs to a category, as set up by an Admin. 

This article explains how to create and manage categories and codes in Everlaw, from the perspective of an Admin.

To instead learn how to apply existing codes to documents during review, visit How to Code a Document in the Review Window and Use Coding Presets.

Required permissions

You must be a Project Admin or Codes Admin to administer codes. For more information about these roles, visit User Groups and Project Permissions.

Access a project's category & codes

Categories and codes are created and managed at the project level.

To access a project's categories and codes settings: 

1. Go to Project Management > Project Settings.
2. Select Codes to open the Categories & Codes page.
   

The Categories & Codes page displays two sections:

• A Categories section on the left
• A Codes section on the right

At least one category must exist for the Codes section to appear. 

When you have one or more categories, the currently selected category is highlighted, and only that category's codes are displayed in the Codes section.  

Create a code category

To create a new category:

1. Go to Project Settings > Codes.

2. In the Categories section, select the input field, located at the bottom of the table. Enter a name for the new category. Then select Add, or hit Enter on your keyboard.
   

   Note

   By default, the new category appears at the top of the category table. However, if someone on your team has already selected the option to alphabetize categories, the new category is instead inserted into the list alphabetically, or if the categories have been manually reordered, the new category will be inserted at the bottom of the list.

   Regardless of the new categories position in the category list, it is automatically selected and ready for you to add codes. 

3. [Optional] If you want the category to be mutually exclusive — meaning only one code from that category can be applied to a document at any given point in time — select the checkbox in the category's Mutually exclusive column of the table.
   

   Tip

   Making a category mutually exclusive can help prevent errors or inconsistent coding for categories that have conflicting codes. For example, if you have a "Privileged" category with the codes "Privileged" and "Not Privileged," you likely won't want reviewers to code a single document as both "Privileged" and "Not Privileged". Setting the category to mutually exclusive prevents them from accidentally doing this. 

Create a code

To add a new code to a category manually:

1. Go to Project Settings > Codes.
2. In the Categories section of the page, select the category you would like to add a code to. If an appropriate category doesn't already exist, create it now.

3. Type the codes section of the page, select input field, located at the bottom of the table. Enter a name for the new code. Then select Add, or hit Enter on your keyboard.
   

   Note

   As is the case with categories, each new code appears at the top of the codes table. However, if someone on your team has already selected the option to alphabetize codes, the new code is instead inserted into the list alphabetically, or if the codes have been manually reordered, the new code will be inserted at the bottom of the list.

4. [Optional] Repeat the previous step for any additional codes that you want to add to the same category.

Each new code automatically becomes available to your team as you create it. 

Category and code management

Once categories and codes are created, there are a number of administrative actions that are available from the same Project Settings > Categories & Codes page. Both categories and codes can be renamed, rearranged, and deleted. Categories can also be set as mutually exclusive. 

Rename a category or code

To rename a category or code:

1. Select the edit button associated with the category or code.
   
2. This highlights the name in an input box.
3. Type to edit. Then hit Enter on your keyboard, or click outside the box, to save your changes. 

Rearrange a category or code

The order of categories and codes on the Categories & Codes settings page is reflected in the batch coding panel, as well as all for instances of the query builder (e.g. the search page and production wizard) for all users. This can be useful to keep in mind when considering how you want your team to view codes during review.

Both categories and codes can be rearranged manually or alphabetically.

To manually rearrange the order of categories and codes, drag-and-drop rows from one location to another.

To organize categories or codes alphabetically, click the associated Alphabetize button. 

Delete a category or code

To delete a category or code, select the trashcan button associated with the category or code.

Make a category mutually exclusive

You can choose to designate any category as mutually exclusive. This setting means that only one code from that category can be applied to a document at any given point in time. 

Making a category mutually exclusive can help prevent errors or inconsistent coding for categories that have conflicting codes. For example, if you have a "Privileged" category with the codes "Privileged" and "Not Privileged," you likely won't want reviewers to code a single document as both "Privileged" and "Not Privileged".

To make a category mutually exclusive, select the checkbox in the category's Mutually exclusive column of the table.

If documents have already been coded in a manner that violates mutual exclusivity, you’ll see a warning below the category name. To open a results table with the documents that are in violation, select the link provided in the warning.  

Manage users coding permissions 

Permissions can be set for codes by user group.

To adjust coding permissions, go to the Project Settings > Permissions. To learn how to set code permissions, visit User Groups and Project Permissions. 

Additional coding options

Create freeform codes

Sometimes you'll have a category of information that want reviewers to specify with a code, but there isn't a clear set of predefined values for those codes. In this case, we recommend creating a freeform code. 

When you create a freeform code,  you as the Admin define the category and code format (i.e. Text, Number, or Datetime). Reviewers can then enter any value that they believe applies to that category as a code. This occurs during review. To learn how reviewers can apply freeform codes, visit the Freeform codes section of How to Code a Document in the Review Window and Use Coding Presets.

To create a new freeform code:

1. Go to Project Settings > Codes > Freeform Codes.
   
2. Select + New Freeform Code. 
   A new blank category entry appears in the Freeform Codes table. 
3. Enter a category name into the new text box.
   
4. Select the format for the freeform code from Select format dropdown. 

5. Select Add to add the code.

   Note

   The format affects the content users can enter as the value for a freeform field and how these values can be searched. The format for a field cannot be changed after the fact. For more information on different formats, visit Searching Metadata.

Configure Code as previous settings

When users are using coding presets to apply codes do documents, they have the option to use a Code as previous preset. This preset applies the codes of the most recently viewed document to the currently viewed document. On the Project Settings page, you can configure a few settings for what review work gets applied.

To configure project-wide Code as previous settings:

1.  Get to the Code as previous page. To do so, go to Project management > Project Settings > Codes > Code as previous.
2. Define what counts as the "previous" document.
   
   You can select one of the following:
   • The last viewed document: Applies the codes that are applied to the user's most recently viewed document, whether they modified the codes on that document or not
   • The last modified document: Applies codes to the current document that are applied to the document that a user most recently added/removed codes for. 
     If you select this option, you can further specify whether or not you want to apply only the codes that the user most recently applied instead of all the codes applied to that document. 
     For example, if a document already had an "Issue: Fraud" code applied to it, and a reviewr added a "Responsiveness: Responsive" code, you should select Only apply new codes instead of all codes to just apply the "Responsiveness: Responsive" view the Code as previous preset. 
3. Define which review work to include in the preset. By default, Freeform codes and Rating are included with the Code as previous preset, but you can switch them off.
   
   You can further customize them:
   • For freeform codes: By default, the Code as previous preset will override an existing freeform code in a given category. If you select Only if the current document has no value for that freeform code, a freeform code in a given category will not be applied if the current document already has a code for that category applied (an existing code will not be overridden).
   • For rating: By default, the Code as previous preset will not override an existing rating. Deselect Only if the current document is Unrated to set the preset to override the current rating. This means that the rating of a previous document is applied to the current document, regardless of the current document's rating.

Structure review with coding rules

You can create rules to ensure structured and consistent coding during review. For more information about coding rules, visit Using Coding Rules to Structure Review.