Metadata is information about your documents (data about your data) that might not be evident or visible when reviewing the document. Instead, it is extracted or calculated from the documents upon upload, shared in the load file of a produced document set, configured by a user on Everlaw, or calculated upon production.
Metadata is useful to help you search and organize documents, and some metadata fields are crucial for identifying documents and their relationships to others in the database.
On Everlaw, Metadata fields are separated into a few categories, and how each category functions varies a bit in different parts of Everlaw. Use this article to understand each type of field and how it functions, as well as where to access each field type.
Standard fields
Standard fields are the most common metadata fields across different document types. Information such as the Author, Title, or Subject of a document are common standard fields.
See our article on standard fields for a complete list and for more information about how the values for standard fields are determined for both native and processed uploads.
In every Everlaw project, all standard fields:
- Are available as search terms
- Can be added as columns to a results table view
- Are displayed in the Metadata tab of the document review window
Note
By default, only the fields with values for that document are displayed in the Metadata tab. You can modify this by pinning specific fields.
- Can be included in metadata slipsheets for PDF exports and from Storybuilder
- Can be included in CSV exports
Note
Any field included in the load file of a processed data set is treated like a standard field on your Everlaw project.
Default columns
The values in these fields reflect either:
- Upload and processing information, such as the billable size of a document
- User-applied review work, such as codes or annotations
In every Everlaw project, default columns:
- Are mostly available as search terms. On the Search page, the terms are listed across the Document, Review, and Everlaw AI categories. If they are not search terms themselves, they are often a field within a search term.
-
Can be added as columns to a results table view. They are listed in the Default Columns section when you edit your results table view.
- Can be included in CSV exports from a results table
Because they are not traditional metadata fields, these fields:
- Are not displayed in the Metadata tab of the document review window, though some information, like review work, is displayed in the Annotations and Codes tabs of the review window
- Cannot be included with metadata slipsheets when doing a PDF export from either the results table or from Storybuilder.
- Cannot be included in production load files, though there is often an equivalent calculated field
Table of default columns
| Name of Field/Column | Description |
| Admin Rating | How a Project Admin has rated a document |
| Attachment Group Size | How many documents are in the attachment group (including parents and children) (only available in complete projects) |
| Billable Size | Size of the document, in KB, MB, or GB |
| Binders | Binders the document has been added to |
| Coded | Codes applied to the document |
| Coded under | Coding categories that codes applied to the document fall under |
| Coding Suggestions | Codes suggested by Everlaw AI Assistant |
| Conflict: New Rater | The person who most recently rated the document |
| Conflict: New Rating | The most recently applied rating |
| Conflict: Previous Rating | The rating applied previous to the current rating |
| Conflict: Prev Rating Time | The date and time that the document was previously rated |
| Conflict: Previous Rater | The person who applied the previous rating |
| Conflict: Type | Conflicting ratings can be reviewer-reviewer, review-admin, or admin-admin |
| Description | Description generated by Everlaw AI Assistant |
| Document Set | Upload or Production that the document belongs to |
| End Bates/Control # | Bates/Control # of the last page of the document |
| Extractions | Extractions generated by Everlaw AI Assistant |
| Holdout ID | The unique identifier for documents in the holdout set, used to generative Predictive Coding performance metrics |
| Languages | Languages detected in the document |
| Native Path | The native path for native files. The value is either included in the load file of a processed upload or extracted upon native upload |
| Notes | Note(s) content that reviewers have applied to documents |
| Num Pages | The number of pages in a document |
| Processing/Production Flags | Any flags/errors generated during production or processing |
| Produced To | The Begin Bates value(s) that a document was produced to |
| Produced to Volume | The name of the production volume(s) that a document was produced to |
| Rating | The rating applied to a document |
| Redaction Stamp Details | The page numbers and redaction stamps for the redactions in a document |
| Redaction Stamps | The redaction stamp(s) applied to documents |
| Row # | The row number of a results table that a document is listed in |
| Topics | The topics generated by Everlaw AI Assistant |
| Type | The file type of a document (spreadsheet, email, etc.) |
| Viewed By | Users who have viewed the document |
| Freeform Codes (column category) | Any freeform codes available in the project |
| Prediction Models (column category) | Any predictive coding models available in the project |
| Coding Category (column category) | All the coding categories available in the project |
Calculated fields
Calculated fields are fields that you can include in the production load file. These are metadata that must be calculated based on your selected production settings and criteria. You decide which calculated fields to include in the Load file metadata settings step of creating a production protocol. Natively uploaded documents will not have values for any of these fields.
For example, Begin Bates is a calculated field because Everlaw needs to use information from your production protocol to determine the Bates prefix and starting number to calculate each document's Begin Bates value. The value cannot be propagated from the source documents. Another example is File Size, which is calculated at the time of production in case the size of the produced document differs from the size of the source document.
By default, calculated fields:
- Are not included as search terms
- Cannot be added as results table columns
- Cannot be included in CSV exports
- Cannot be included with metadata slipsheets when doing a PDF export from either the results table or from Storybuilder
A calculated field becomes available if you run a production that includes a calculated field in the load file.
Once there are produced documents in your project that include a calculated field, the field:
- Becomes a metadata search term
- Can be added as a column in the results table
- Can be included in metadata slipsheets upon PDF export
- Can be included in CSV exports
- Is displayed in the Metadata tab of the document review window (for fields that have a value for the document you are reviewing)
Note
Only the documents you produce values for in your production load file(s) will have values for these fields when you search or view information about them.
For example, if you do not add the Redaction field to your load file, none of the documents produced with that load file will have a value for Redaction, even if the documents are redacted. Only the documents you produce values for in your production load file(s) will have values for these fields when you search or view information about them. For example, if you do not add the Redaction field to your load file, none of the documents produced with that load file will have a value for Redaction, even if the documents are redacted.