Discover-E again

Just had the presentation from Rich Radford et al, and this product looks slick! We’ll check it out with some of the guys that run it, but we are very impressed so far. hoever, as with all these things, you really have to look at what you’ve got and what you need and test the products thoroughly! Needless to say we have had some very good recommendations though! Thanks Rich! http://www.discover-e-legal.com

Martin.

forensics and SQL server

Ok, so what do you do when faced with an entire live SQL system to search or image? What do you suggest when it comes to this type of enquiry? how can you do this without taking the server out of action!? Any information would be most welcome.

Discover-E

I would be interested to hear anyones feed back on this product. We are about to get a demonstration and wondered if anyone has experience of the company and the support it offers. Also, does anyone have the product?

 Martin.

British Computer Society

The BCS has a great website with some good articles in security, compliance, forensics and law. http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=nav.8256 Check out the security, Forensics and Compliance sections of the website. They are a very progressive organisation and seem to be keeping more up to date these days.

Get revisions of Word Docs

On the lit support group in Yahoo, a question was posed as to how to get a list of all word documents that had track changes turned on.

Here is my solution. Do what you will with it. I nor my company accept any liabltiy for the results of excecuting this code. If I were you I’d back up your files first… Place this code into a new Word Document VBA Module. Its not pretty, but its the basics to work from.

Sub Revisions()

Dim fso As Scripting.FileSystemObject
Dim app As Word.Application
Dim mydoc As Word.Document
Dim fsoFolder As Folder
Dim folderStr As String
Dim file As file

Set fso = CreateObject(”Scripting.FilesystemObject”)

folderStr = InputBox(”Enter folder path”, “Enter Folder name”)

Set app = CreateObject(”Word.Application”)

Set fsoFolder = fso.GetFolder(folderStr)

For Each file In fsoFolder.Files

If Right(file.Name, 3) = “doc” Then

    Set mydoc = app.Documents.Open(file.Path)

    If mydoc.Revisions.Count > 0 Then

        Debug.Print mydoc.Name & ” ” & mydoc.Revisions.Count

    End If

End If

Next

End Sub

You can write out the Debug.Print file to a Text Stream Object. It works I think!

Martin.

http://ediscovery.wordpress.com

bLAWgs I know of

Links to blogs I was given via LitSupport Group on Yahoo. Some very good examples there. I can but only aspire to emulate!

http://www.estrinlegaled.typepad.com/
http://informeddecisionmaking.blogspot.com/
http://www.infogovernance.blogspot.com/
http://www.discoveryresources.blogspot.com/
http://arkfeld.blogs.com/ede/
http://www.ediscoverylaw.com/
http://informeddecisionmaking.blogspot.com/
http://www.fuzdata.com

And a particularly good forum: www.accesslitigation.com/forum.

Martin.

Print outlook in date order

Something of a secret up until now.  Faced with the problem of printing thousands of emails sorted in Chron order from outlook 2000, sorted by date. When we printed, the emails would come out in a random order all together.

I battled for a while to find the answer. Simply go to tools options, the Mail Format and set the defult to ‘Plain Text’ for outgoing mail… and hey presto, it prints in order…..  Obvious really… (!?!?!). Anyone need any help with this one, feel free to mail Martin.Nikel@gmail.com

EDRM

Our boss keeps hyping about this. I have been studying closely and it really is good. It’s about time someone brought some structure to the jungle of Litigation Support and e-disclosure. Now if only more UK vendors and law firms would take note. LiST is I guess working towards this, and their website is a great reference also

http://edrm.net/index.php/Main_Page

http://www.listgroup.org/

Legalworks Second Annual e-Disclosure Forum

Something in London…!

The disclosure of electronic information, records retention practices and the new Practice Direction to Part 31 of the CPR continue to present struggles to practitioners and litigation support managers in the United Kingdom.The Practice Direction to Part 31 of the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) now specifies certain factors which the Court should take into account in determining whether a search for electronic documents is reasonable and proportionate. What is meant by “electronic documents?” What are your new obligations with respect to electronic data? Are you prepared?

West Legalworks, the pioneer in the education of professionals in the United States on eDisclosure, electronic discovery and records retention practices, presents this second annual eDisclosure Forum. This comprehensive one-day conference is your chance to hear the opinions of some the leading figures in eDisclosure and records retention from both sides of the Atlantic who will analyse and offer solutions to the day to day issues faced by solicitors, barristers, litigation support managers, paralegals and their clients in England and Wales.The programme will focus on the state of the industry in the UK and examine the current and emerging trends in eDisclosure and records management practices. Bring your most pressing questions and challenging problems. The distinguished panel of experts will answer your questions during the sessions as well as during the networking luncheon and reception.Achieve all this in one day Hear from the Honourable Master Whitaker and the Honourable James C. Francis, IV of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on proportionality and costs. Learn from the experience of leading eDisclosure experts on how to address such issues as minimising escalating costs of electronic document review, disclosure of metadata, format of disclosure and whether a communication gaps exists between lawyers and technology. Tips from corporate counsel on establishing effective records retention policies and managing electronic evidence in global corporations. An in depth examination of the impact of the Practice Direction under Part 31 of the CPR on eDisclosure and records retention practices… and how to make both more manageable and less expensive.

Click here: http://guest.cvent.com/EVENTS/Info/Summary.aspx?e=f70d9941-4071-40ea-a2b0-074ba94d34ef

Data storage

I wondered if any of you out there have any idea regarding managing the expoloding surge in data. How do you manage your data storage requirements? I’d be interested to see how many run it in house, outsource, perform backup routines etc. How many of you have an ‘IT’ department that just manages this for you?

Martin.

Electronic Discovery and Computer Forensic Investigation

Hi there World. This blog or bLAWg as they like to call them in the legal world, is my attempt at logging the days we spend resolving problems in the electronic discovery and forensic investigations arena. We want to be open about what we do and promote the sharing of ideas and solutions to issues faced day in and day out within litigation support and Forensic Computer investigations.

We’ll cover the law, code snippits, software reviews and just what we are up to generally. Some of these solutions will have been posted to the litsupport group on Yahoo, others may be a little more special so we’ll only give you a sneak peak at our bespoke development.

Hope you find it useful, and if you want to contribute feel free! All the best, Martin.

Tiff images

Why not PDF? Any info welcome!?

We can see the ups and downs of both PDF and tiff format. There are many many reasons for either to be produced. But expense and size don;t seem to be an issue any more. And PDF is a portable standard and has the text embedded… I will try to bring in more resources to this blog regarding our trials and tribulations of TIFFing and some product reviews and what we did instead…..!

 Martin.

Training and Quals

There was a recent discussion on the Litsupport group prompted by a few questions regarding Litigation Support training. how can a lit support person be qualified in that arena? There are no standards, just a collection of ideas and products. Well, i think my answer is that a training course just won’t do, although it will provide a lot of insight into a particular area or challenges faced, most Lit support people are self taught and are IT generalists (just like myself).

I think with help of groups like LiST in the UK and Sedona Conference in the US, things will begin to become standardised. Also, blogs like this one may develop into something of a bible (steady on Martin, it’s not that good yet…!) for Litsupport and Forensic Computing individuals. Let’s hope it helps cut out the chaff too!

Martin.

Racing

A few of us popped along to Royal Windsor for some ‘client entertainment’. We met a few interesting people there from regulatory bodies and law firms. It’s strange how the races attracted so many, but the seminars we do, so few…..!

Visio Text extraction

A (slightly unfinished) script for extracting text from visio diagrams. Similarly works for Powerpoint also.

Sub ExtText()
Dim pPage As Page
Dim sShape As Shape
Dim fso As Scripting.FileSystemObject
Dim ts1 As TextStream
Dim DDocument As Document

Set fso = CreateObject(”Scripting.FileSystemObject”)
For Each DDocument In Application.Documents
Set ts1 = fso.CreateTextFile(Application.ActiveDocument.Path & “\” & DDocument.Name & “.txt”, False)
For Each pPage In DDocument.Pages
For Each sShape In pPage.Shapes
Debug.Print sShape.Text
ts1.Write (sShape.Text)
On Error Resume Next
Next
Next
Next
MsgBox “Done”End Sub

This will work for all active Visio diagrams.

Export Outlook to HTML

A function to export emails to HTML (exluding the attachments, but thats just a SaveAs to be added. Just place it in ‘This Outlook Session’

Sub testExportToHTML()Dim inBox As Outlook.MAPIFolderDim objEmail As MailItemDim inBoxItems As Outlook.Items

Set inBox = Me.ActiveExplorer().Session.GetDefaultFolder(Outlook.OlDefaultFolders.olFolderInbox)

Set inBoxItems = inBox.ItemsinBoxItems.Sort “SentOn”, 1 For Each objEmail In inBoxItems Dim mailObj As MailItem Set mailObj = objEmail
If (objEmail.BodyFormat = olFormatPlain Or olFormatRichText Or olFormatUnspecified) Then

mailObj.BodyFormat = olFormatHTML ‘converts body to HTML if RTF, Text or other format.
End If
mailObj.SaveAs “c:\test” & Format(i, “0000″) & “.html”, olHTML ‘location and name and format to save in i = i + 1

Next

End Sub

Feel free to email me about this. Ciao

Bates Numbers

Access VBA code to work out range of numbers

There was a recent question on the litsupport group about how to make up a range of ‘bates numbers’ e.g.

In two fields you have:
DocID BatesNo
A00001 A00001
A00001 A00002
A00001 A00003
A00001 A00004

And what you actually want is one record stating:
DocID BatesNos
A00001 “A00001, A00002, A00003, A00004″

The only way to do this in Access would be to loop through the record set using VBA. this is a simple bit of code which I have adapted to the situation.

A simple function:

Function BatesRange(firstbates As String, lastbates As String) As String

Dim firstBatesNo As Long
Dim lastBatesNo As Long
Dim prefix As String
Dim i As Long

prefix = Left(firstbates, 1) ‘ gets prefix for bates numbers

firstBatesNo = CLng(Right(firstbates, 5)) ‘converts last 5 digits to a number
lastBatesNo = CLng(Right(lastbates, 5)) ‘converts last 5 digits to number

For i = firstBatesNo To lastBatesNo
BatesRangeTmp = BatesRangeTmp & prefix & Format(i, “00000″) & “;”
Next

BatesRange = BatesRangeTmp
End Function

All you do is pass it your two values for start and end. You can get this by grouping your data in a query by DocID, the displaying the first and last
values of the BatesNo using the standard [First] and [last] grouping functions in a group query. Hope this helps. If you have any questions or want the sample database I created, please email me.

‘Copying Websites’

The best ‘internet explorer’ option would be to create a ‘favorite’ and tick ‘Make Available offline’. Click customise and it will give you some options as to how many links ‘deep’ you want to go.

A better free tool for this would be HTTRACK, which is highly configurable and is completely open source, so the support is there.

All of this depends entirely on what the copy of the website will be used for, (i.e. evidence, reference etc) and how dynamic the website is. (i.e. imagine trying to ‘copy’ yahoo. Each individual user has their own settings that can dynamically change based on preferences. Using most of the methods suggested would only result in your ‘version’ of the website being copied.) The only true way to copy a website (especially a complex dynamic one) would be to image all of the servers (content, databases, images etc) so the site can be recreated on other servers. It may be possible to retrieve back up tapes from the servers which will contain this information.

So, the key to what you do depends on the type of site. If its static its easy, if its dynamic, it can be hard depending on what you want.

SFO Serious Fraud Office

Had a word with a contact from the Serious Fraud Office about the powers or search and seizure of data etc. It looks as though they have wide ranging powers. 

They search under Section 2 of the CJA 1987 and occasionally search warrants under PACE.  Basically they can ask/search for anything they deem relevant to and investigation.  The SFO has their own Computer Forensic Unit (CFU) which appears to do the same sort of work as most forensic units.

Lotus Notes

Welcome to our first posting, we hope to make this into a very useful tool for those involved in discovery and investigation of computer held data, disclosure of computers as evidence in courts, for investigations and for regulatory bodies and the like. Let me start off by asking a question….

I wondered if any of you our there have any issues with Lotus Notes Conversion? We have come across some issues with Posted Date Verses Sent Date, which we think we have solved. Anyone else got any issues with Lotus Notes Conversion to Outlook? Martin.