New features for privileged and embedded documents

We have recently added two new features to add more flexibility for listing privileged documents and embedded documents.

Grouping of privileged documents

Privileged documents of the same nature may be described by group (High Court Rule 8.16(2)). A new option on the Discovery tab allows you to specify whether or not a privileged document is listed individually:

  • If the document is set to list individually, it appears in the Part 2 (Privileged) list.
  • If it is set to not list individually, it will not appear in the Part 2 (Privileged) list, and it should be described by group (in accordance with the relevant requirements for doing so).

Embedded documents

The 2012 Rules continue the requirement that relevant attachments and replies should be listed as separate documents. LawFlow can automatically extract and separately list attachments from emails in supported native formats, and provides tools for splitting attachments in scanned PDFs into separate documents.

However, a complication can arise when a document contains other documents that are “embedded” within it, for example a scanned email with one or more replies included in the same scanned document or native email file. Even though such replies are not technically attachments, they may still need to be listed separately: clause 8(3) of Schedule 9 specifically requires separate listing of “embedded” documents.

A new option on the Discovery tab allows you to add list entries for embedded documents. These entries are listed as separate documents in accordance with clause 8(3)(a) of Schedule 9. This provides a convenient way of listing documents separately without the need for manually ‘splitting’ or separating documents.

This update also includes a number of other improvements.

These new and improved features are available immediately for all users on new and existing projects. As always, we are grateful for the feedback we have had from our users, and we are proud to continue the development of an e-discovery system designed for New Zealand requirements.

If you have any comments or would like more information, please contact us.