Document Listing / Disclosure Systems

Disclosure Systems are primarily designed to handle the creation of lists of the documents disclosed in litigation. This task has conventionally been done by simply typing up lists in a word processor. The inefficiencies inherent in this are obvious - entries must be sorted manually, any sub-lists such as affidavit indexes, or merged lists such as trial bundles, must be retyped from scratch, and separate records must be kept about where documents came from or where they are now, as well as information about the importance or relevance of a document.

In a Disclosure System, information about a document is kept in an electronic record card which, at its simplest, holds the same information as appears in a conventional list of documents - a description such as "Letter", the names of the sender, and recipients and the date. For the purpose of producing a disclosure List, this is all which needs to be entered - the same details as those typed up in a word processor.

The same amount of effort, however, brings immediate added value over the WP method. Names can be picked from a list instead of being retyped, improving both speed and accuracy. Final decisions about privilege or inclusion can be made with a single mouse click. Lists can be reordered instantly - by date, by file or by date within file.  Most systems offer imaging as well, so you can see an image of any document on screen, beside the record card.

And for the life of the case, before or after the list has been served, you still have a useful database system in which you can store your notes about documents, categorise documents on the issues, etc.

Some systems have special features to assist with various concerns of lawyers or stages of the case :

• setting an order for documents with the same date

• setting 'non-date' dates for undated or approximately dated documents

• exporting the "public" disclosure information (data and images) in a format that reflects the numbering in the disclosure list (and does not disclose the existence of any gaps)

•  paginating documents for trial bundles

• ability to jump straight to a paginated trial bundle page (e.g. for use in court)

For details of our own Openlaw Litigation Software, follow the link above.