To read more about uploading documents on Everlaw, feel free to refer to the articles in our Uploads section.
Table of Contents
- Accepted processed data types
- Migrating data from another platform into Everlaw
- Creating and managing processed data uploads
- Standard format for processed data
- Additional formatting information
For complex processed uploads, the Everlaw Customer Experience team can complete the upload for you. If you would like to perform your own processed upload, read this article on uploading document sets with a load file or PDFs without a load file.
If you have the Database Upload permission, you can 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, Everlaw support staff will need to put processed files through an intermediary review stage before uploading them into the case.
A file transfer can go through a number of stages before the data is available on Everlaw. The stage that a file transfer is in will be displayed on the respective card on the File Transfer’s page.
The possible stages that a file transfer can be in are as follows:
- Received
- A file transfer enters the received stage upon successful transmission of the data to Everlaw. You should see a green bar move to the right as the transfer progresses, and the bar will reach 100% once all files have been successfully transferred. When your files are done uploading, it will display "Received." Do not close the tab or window before the upload is complete, as this will interrupt the transfer.
- Pending
- A file transfer enters the pending stage when there are questions or extraneous considerations to be made with the upload. A file transfer will usually only enter this stage if the Everlaw team has questions about how to proceed with the upload, or there are external factors that must be considered prior to processing the upload.
- Uploading
- File transfers enter the uploading stage when you are transferring your documents to Everlaw. If the uploading user leaves the file transfer page before the upload is complete, the file transfer can become stuck at the uploading step. If your file transfer card displays the status "Uploading", this is a good indicator that it was interrupted.
- Processing
- Once the Everlaw team has begun processing your files for upload, the file transfer enters the Processing stage.
- Completed
- When the Everlaw team has successfully completed the upload, the file transfer will be in the Completed stage. A card representing the upload will be available in the Completed section of the Processed Uploads tabs. Here, you can find a summary of the uploaded files. For more information about the Processed Uploads tab, visit this article.
- Not to be completed
- File transfers that are cancelled will enter the “Not to be completed” stage.
If you are having trouble transferring your data, or are seeing your File Transfers error out before reaching 100%, please make sure that Everlaw domains are whitelisted by your IT team.
Accepted processed data types
Everlaw can process and convert any combination of standard and non-standard data formats. However, some data formats are easier to process than others, potentially affecting wait times between when documents are received and when they become available for review on the platform. To view our requirements for standard data (i.e. data that we will be able to upload easily and without charge), please consult our article.
* Often, the details and specifications for a production (ex. What formats to produce? Which metadata fields to include?) are negotiated at the beginning of a case. If you have questions about negotiating a production protocol, please reach out to support@everlaw.com.
Migrating data from another platform into Everlaw
You can migrate data from another platform into Everlaw through a processed, non-Bates stamped data upload. By default, we import review data as metadata fields, which will allow you to search by those values. If you instead want to import the review data as codes in Everlaw, please contact support@everlaw.com - these types of imports will incur additional support charges.
For more information about migrating data, see our migration workflow guide.
Creating and managing processed data file transfers
To start a new file transfer, navigate to the Uploads page and select “Processed.” Then select “File transfer to Everlaw team” and click “Start upload.”
Alternatively, click “+ New Upload” in the top right corner of the File Transfers page.
If uploading multiple files, you need to compress them in a zip file first. Once you have created your zip file, drag and drop it into the uploader field, or use the file selector. You can also drag and drop a folder here when using Chrome, Edge, or Firefox.
Once you have selected your files, you'll be asked to provide any passwords for the files you uploaded. After confirming, you’ll be taken to the File Transfer page. Your upload will be represented as a status card. A progress bar will show an estimate for when your files will finish transferring to Everlaw. File Transfers require the page to remain open until the upload is complete. You can navigate to another tab or window, but the tab performing the upload must stay open in the background.
When you first submit your data for upload, the status card for that upload should say “Received.” When the upload has been completed by our Everlaw support team, that card’s status will change to “Completed.”
A card representing the upload will be available in the Completed section of the Processed Uploads tabs. Here, you can find a summary of the uploaded files. For more information about the Processed Uploads tab, visit this article.
You can access documents from a completed processed upload via the appropriate uploads card on the homepage. Processed uploads cards are located under the Document Sets column and have a light orange band. The card’s name will be “Processed:” followed by the name of the upload. Everlaw support staff will also notify you when your documents are ready for use in the platform.
If you have Delete permissions and want to delete the documents from an upload, locate the appropriate card, click the three-dot menu icon, and select "Delete." All documents from the given upload will be removed from your database.
Standard format for processed data
The produced data should have four main components:
- A directory (folder) containing images of every document in the production. Each image file must be named after its Bates number.
- A directory containing native files for a subset of the documents. Each file must be named with the same extension as the original native file type of the document (e.g. xlsx, .pptx, etc.), and preferably after the Bates number of the first page of the document it represents.
- A directory containing OCR or extracted text files, one file per document, each file named with the Bates number of the first page of the document it represents, followed by “.txt”
- A load file containing Bates range and metadata for each document
At minimum, the loadfile should contain:
- The begin Bates
- Either the number of pages or the end Bates
- If there are native documents, a native link/path pinpoint to the native files
Please note that we do not accept overlapping Bates numbers within the same loadfile. This means that each page, not just each document, needs to have its own Bates number. For instance, instead of naming a four-page document
ABC001, 4 pages
please name each page with its own Bates number, using this format:
ABC001.1, ABC001.2, ABC001.3, ABC001.4
or
ABC001, ABC002, ABC003, ABC004.
If any other metadata fields are important to your review, make sure to request the producing party to include them in the load file.
Additional formatting information
- If you are migrating data from another platform, please follow Migration Workflow Guide and Best Practices.
- For documents that have a Bates prefix, a document’s Bates prefix should contain only letters, numbers, or underscore characters. Characters such as “( ) { } [ ]” are not permitted. Space characters will be removed from a prefix when uploaded, and ending a Bates prefix with a space is not recommended.
- Documents may have no Bates prefix, and use only a Bates-number. In such a case, the Bates number used must be unique to this document. Please note that use of an empty Bates prefix for Australian rolling Bates numbers is not supported. For example, ABC.001.015.020 is a valid Australian rolling Bates number, but 001.015.020 is not.
- If the metadata fields that define attachment groups, such as Begin Family or Family, contain Bates numbers with an empty Bates prefix, then there should be one or more document(s) in the loadfile with a Begin Bates number that uses an empty prefix. For example, if a document’s Begin Family value is “005,” there should be a document in the loadfile with the Begin Bates number “005.” This restriction ensures that family metadata columns are recognized as Bates-type data.
- The begin Bates number is the unique identifier of a document and each page of a document is assigned a sequential Bates value. Documents cannot have overlapping Bates numbers unless the overlapping Bates setting has been activated by a Database administrator. Information on that setting can be found in the overview of database administration and permissions. For example, if document ABC001 has three pages, with the end Bates ABC003, no other document can use Bates ABC001, ABC002, or ABC003. However, numeric page separators are supported. For example, the same three-page document can have the Bates range ABC001.001 - ABC001.003. And the next document can have the begin Bates ABC002.
- Everlaw does not support using alphabetical Bates suffixes to distinguish two documents with the same Bates prefix and number. For example, ABC001 and ABC001_Translation are considered the same and cannot both be uploaded to the platform.
- A parent email and its attachment(s) should be separate documents and the relationship between the parent and child(ren) represented via a metadata field such as “begin family” or “family id”; every document in the same family should have the same value and each family should have a unique value. For example, a parent email ABC001 and its two attachments ABC004 and ABC005 can be associated by having the same “begin family” value “ABC001.”
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