For many teams, it's important to run productions organized so that Bates numbers are assigned to documents in a specific order.
By default, productions that you run on Everlaw sort the documents by their Native Path and Bates/Control number, which groups attachments after their parent document. This mimics the organization of the files from their original source.
If you want to produce your documents in a custom order, you can. Use this article to learn about some strategies to get your documents produced in your preferred order.
Requirements
To create a production protocol, where the sort order of productions is determined, you must have Admin permissions for Productions.
Some of the tools described for creating a custom order require additional permissions. They are described in their relevant sections.
Understand production sort order
You can define the sort order for your production on the Details step of creating a production protocol.
The default order is by Native Path and Bates/Control number, which preserves family order. This means that documents meeting your production criteria will be sorted and assigned Bates numbers based on the file path captured upon their initial upload.
To customize the order, select the plus button, and then choose the field that you'd like to sort based on. Regardless of the order you select here, attachment families will still be sorted together. To sort your attachment family members independently, follow the instructions for using Other Bates, which is described in more detail in a section below.
You can also choose a multi-sort, so that documents are sorted first by X, and then by Y within X. One example of using a multi-sort is to sort your documents first by Custodian, and then by Primary Date. This sorts all the documents from each given custodian together. Then, within the custodian's documents, the documents are sorted chronologically (still with attachments grouped based on their Family Date, which puts them with their parents).
Sort orders are always ascending, with the lowest value being assigned the lowest Bates number value upon production.
You can learn more about sorting your production at Create a Production Protocol.
Tools to create custom sorting
Some clients need to sort their productions in an order that doesn't exactly match a given metadata field. If that is the case for your team, you can:
- Create custom fields and apply values to your documents to get them into the preferred order. These custom fields can take the form of either freeform codes or custom metadata.
- Sort on existing code categories and codes
Freeform code or a custom metadata field
Required permissions:
- To create a freeform code, you must be a Project Admin or have the Code Admin permission.
To apply a freeform code to documents, users must have Edit permission on the freeform code (and those who also have Batch Updates permission can apply values from the results table in a batch action) - To create a custom metadata field, you must be a Project Admin.
To edit the values for the custom field, users must have Edit Metadata permission (and those who also have Batch Updates permission can edit values from the results table in a batch action).
To overlay metadata fields, a user must have Upload or Database Admin permission.
A freeform code or a custom metadata field allows you to apply custom values to your documents. When you sort your production by the freeform code/custom metadata field, each document is sorted with those that share its value. Each document can have a unique value, or groups of documents can be assigned the same value.
A common use-case is when you need to run a production organized by RFP number. In this scenario, you create a freeform code/custom metadata field called "RFP Number." All the documents responsive to RFP #1 can be assigned 1, all the documents responsive to RFP #2 can be assigned 2, etc. The image below shows what this looks like in a results table.
Then, when you run your production, you can make sure it's sorted by your RFP Number code/field. This makes sure that all the RFP 1 documents get sorted at the beginning of the production, and so on through all the assigned values. As described above, attachments will still be grouped with their parents, regardless of the RFP value assigned to them.
Custom metadata field vs. freeform code
Both a custom metadata field and a freeform code allow you to apply custom values to documents and can achieve the same outcome for your production sort order. There are some slight nuances between them that might help you decide which is appropriate for your team.
Custom metadata is better if you want to add the values to your documents via an overlay that adds the custom value for all your documents at once. You can't add values to a freeform code through an overlay.
A freeform code is better if you have reviewers adding the appropriate value as they review documents. It takes fewer clicks to apply a freeform code in the review window than to add a value to a custom metadata field.
If you are batch-applying values from the results table, both options will function about the same.
Learn more about freeform codes in our Administer Codes for Review article.
Learn more about custom metadata fields in our Project Settings Metadata article.
Coding categories and codes
If a code category is selected, the internal sort matches the order in which the category’s codes are listed in your Project Settings.
Other Bates
Required Permissions: You must be an Organization Admin or a Database Admin to assign Other Bates
Other Bates is a tool to assign Bates numbers to documents prior to production.
Other Bates functions a bit differently than the custom metadata field/freeform code for three main reasons:
- Each document is given a unique value
- The unique values can be applied to every document in a results table in one batch action
- Using the Other Bates values assigned pre-production as your Bates numbers during production allows you to separate attachment families during production sorting
While uncommon, some teams do not want their attachment families to sort together, and instead want the documents in their productions to sort independently. For example, a production that needs to be sorted chronologically, with attachments sorted within their designated spot within the timeline, rather than along with their parent document. This is the main use-case for using Other Bates values to determine the sort order.
Learn more about Other Bates in our Assign Other Bates article.
Before you produce
Using Other Bates as your production sort order requires some planning steps:
- Identify the documents you plan to produce. The best practice is to put them into a binder that you can easily identify when it's time to assign Other Bates values.
- Decide on the Bates prefix and padding you'll use. The settings you use when you apply Other Bates will carry over to the produced version of your documents.
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Access a results table of the documents you plan to produce and sort them based on the field you want them to produce in.
The key thing to remember for this sort order, if you plan to sort attachment family members independently, is to make sure that your Search settings have No grouping. This makes sure that each document sorts based on its own value, and not that of an attachment family member.Important
Be careful that your results table only includes the documents you are producing. If you assign Other Bates values to documents you don't produce, your production will have Bates gaps.
- Once your documents are sorted in your preferred order and you have confirmed that only those that are ready to produce are included, you can assign the Other Bates values to them. You can read up on how to do so in our Other Bates article.
Use Other Bates in your production
Bates number schemes are chosen on the Details step of the production wizard. To use Other Bates for your Bates numbering, select Use metadata Other Bates for numbering.
You do not need to select a specific sort order on this step; choosing to use your Other Bates values overrides any sort order. Using the pre-assigned Other Bates ensures that your final production retains the sort order you selected in your results table when you initially assigned them.