Lawyer PDF

UPDATE: Federal Court Requirement for PDF-A - ON HOLD

2012-01-14T18:06:00.001-05:00

LawyerPDF understands that the Office of Court Administration is advising all federal courts that PDF-A format is NOT REQUIRED for filings, until further notice. The requirement has been implemented in a few districts, but documents are not being validated for compliance. I suspect that technical implementation issues are the reason for the postponement.

Please be certain to check with the specific federal court in which you are filing for confirmation.

Never Having to Say Goodbye

2011-12-22T13:59:00.003-05:00

I was recently discussing a client’s concernsabout losing control of a PDF document after they have emailed it. They fretted about where it might be forwarded and who might see it. The client is very astute about all of thebuilt-in tools available for securing a PDF like passwords and applying no-copyor no-print attributes. But nonetheless,there was a nagging concern about “losing control” of the actual file once itsemailed to someone who can then save it to their own system or forward it toanyone else.

I quipped… well, don’t email it if you're concerned about losing control in the ether-web. My client replied… “You’re on. Show me how!”.

Never Having to Say Goodbye (to your document)

Enter the world of InformationRights Management (IRM) or Digital Rights Management (the latter tendsto refer to rich media assets like video and audio) – a world where yourdocuments are always under your control. Thisis accomplished by maintaining the document on a server – so that you are never actually sending the document. Theserver hosting your document is running software which gives you completecontrol over access to the document and can restrict functions like,

- printing (or no printing)

- printscreen (or no printscreen)
- saving or not
- restrict forwarding via email
- view with watermark to discourage cameracapture
- file expiration on demand or specified date

How it Works

There are two general approaches to IRM toconsider when selecting a solution. Thefirst approach might be called “quarantine” and the second might be called“tethering”.

When you quarantine a document,you load the document onto an IRM server which is often doing double-duty as a secure web-meeting-room. Once the document is loaded,, you email web-links instead ofemailing the document itself.

Therecipient clicks on the link in their email message and can then view or usethe document depending on the access level you have provided. Since they don’t have the document, therecipient cannot forward it.

When you tether a document, you load the documentonto an IRM server and add a module to your copy of Outlook. You then email a “package” to the recipient – typically a speciallyconfigured PDF file.

The recipient opensthe package which is attached to their email, and will be prompted to add aspecial module to their copy of Adobe Reader. This module communicates with the IRM server to determine what accesslevel is available to the recipient. Inthis scenario the document is “tethered” to the IRM server so it is still undercontrol.

In the context of IRM and “native” MS-Officefiles, Microsoft has continued to improve IRM functionality beginning with Office 2003and including Office 10. I mention this for readers sending Worddocuments rather than PDF files which is often the case during the edit cycle.

A free option (this is not an endorsement andthere are other free options) to consider is FilesAnywhere. It is easy to use which is a real plus. See a sampledocument quarantined here.

A couple of products to look at:

- Watchdox
- FileOpen
- Brainloop
- AdobeLivecycle at 4point.com

Happy Holidays

This is the last post for 2011. Thank you for your readership, comments, andsuggestions.

UPDATE: PDF/A-1 1a and 1b - A Difference Without a Distinction

2011-11-11T12:05:00.001-05:00

In May 2011, I commented that PACER did not discuss the difference between PDF-A 1a and 1b so there seemed to be no preference for either. Since then, PACER has published detailed instructions outlining creation of PDF-A 1a format. In addition, some courts are adding this specification.

A difference without a distinction - may no longer be true. It is now important to determine whether 1a or 1b is the preferred format. Comments are invited regarding specific courts and their exact requirements.

PS: Here is a very useful seminar published on AcrobatUsers.com discussing the differences between PDF-A 1a and 1b.

What Happens in Electronic Format Stays in Electronic Format

2011-10-31T14:34:00.002-04:00

What Happens in Electronic Format Stays in Electronic Format - think of it as the golden rule of content.

In law firms, perhaps one of the worst (or best?) examples of waste and needless expense is paper-based pre-billing. In this example, we create reams of printed paper for a review-and-comment cycle - and then we (gulp) archive the paper for a while. As a paper-based process, this takes longer and is less accurate than using an electronic format like PDF for pre-billing. And I would submit that PDF documents are the ideal way to handle the process.

Here’s why:

1) pre-billing data comes from the billing system so its entirely electronic to begin with. If you have information in electronic format, you never need to convert it to paper.

2) a collection of pre-bills can easily be combined or packaged by billing attorney, so you’re sure that all prebills are sent to the billing attorney and returned to the billing staff - in one nice neat bundle. Consider adding a check-box on each page of the bundle which the billing attorney would tick to show they’ve reviewed that page.

3) a pre-bill collection in PDF format is searchable. Billing staff and billing attorney now have the convenience of searching for invoice numbers, dates, and words. Imagine the benefit of simply searching to answer the question... "what did we say on the other bill? "

4) Typical PDF annotation tools are ideal for reviewing any type of content, including pre-bills. I encourage using the commenting tool because comments can quickly be summarized and reviewed by the billing staff when they receive the annotated pre-bill PDF files from the billing attorney.

5) If you’re using Acrobat X, consider using the SENDNOW feature which lets you track the progress of pre-bill review.

6) With PDF annotation tools for iPad, its now possible to do pre-bill review-and-comment from an iPad (while on the train / plane / cab / subway).

7) If you’re keen to archive pre-billing for a period of time, its obviously easier to store a record of changes in PDF format than paper.

This is just one example of “keeping it electronic” – and there are many more!

A picture is worth 1000 words except when ...

2011-09-02T10:29:00.001-04:00

Every day, document collections are populated with image files which contain valuable, often vital, information.  Common sources are in-house scanning, downloads of filings or other court documents, or as attachments to emails which are then filed into the document collection. Docs Corp results show that there are often a large number of image-files in a given document collection. (1)

What's the issue? Image files do not contain searchable text, making them invisible to most full-text search engines (2). This creates the risk that users do not get complete search results when looking for documents.

What's the solution?
The simple solution is to assure that OCR (optical character recognition) is applied to image files upon creation or capture - thus making the content "visible" to your full-text search engine. This can occur at the scanner, or be applied to image files to convert them to searchable format on an as-need basis. But most document collections contain 1000s or 100,000s of documents which have already been ingested as image files.

Docs Corp has created a solution (contentCrawler) which can attack large collections of image files, by surveying the entire contents of a document management system or file system, and then create new versions of files (including email attachments) that include OCR text.   These files are then captured by the full-text search tool with the final result being complete and accurate search results.

Docs Corp is conducting a webinar on this topic on September 9th. register here  http://bit.ly/r36wCl

(1) Results gathered by Docs Corp show that between 17 and 25% of documents collections typically include image files.
(2) Some full-text search engines can index an image-only document without prior OCR - check with your provider on this!.

Content Management - Risky Business

2011-06-13T10:56:00.002-04:00

Organizations including law firms are obsessed with managing content, and with good reason (1). We have more of it than ever before, so we deploy document management systems, records management systems, case management systems, human resources information systems, and knowledge management systems, to help us create, accumulate, manage, use, and dispose of information. It’s impractical not to use these systems – right? They’re essential to efficient and effective business operations and vital to managing risk.

CONTENT MANAGEMENT – RISK MANAGEMENT ALIGNMENT

We often think of managing content from a tactical point of view (how do I find it when I need it) and in a reactive way (the client called with changes, lets find the documents and make edits). But content management systems are one of the most important risk management tools you have at your disposal.

Managing risk domains like regulatory compliance, litigation, human resources, conflicts of interest, operational, and ethics, means reaching back to the content we’re managing to assure content management practice aligns with risk strategy and policy.

MOVING FROM AD-HOC TO MANAGED

Part of this alignment means taking a hard look at ad-hoc processes and transforming these to managed processes. A working example of where has been implemented is the move to matter-centric document management. This change has streamlined content intake, improved accuracy, and cascades from the document management system to the records management system.

RISK MANAGEMENT:

For any organization including law firms, efficiency is how we improve profitability and become more effective in areas like customer service, but managing risk is how we stay out of the really hot water.

Perhaps examining the obvious, here are a few examples of risk domains and their intersection with content management:

· Operational Risks

- Are vendor contracts managed to assure the firm takes advantage of all available discounts?

- Do you have a way to systematically search all systems for client conflicts? Is this method documented?

- Is your pre-billing process entirely paper-free?

· Client privacy and confidentiality

- Does your document management environment make it easy to establish group or ethical wall security?

- Does it allow only authorized users to remove content from the managed environment?

- Are laptops encrypted?

Regulatory Compliance.

- What is the typical regulatory request and required response time? Are you confident you can locate the required content on time?

- What are the unlikely but possible regulatory requests and how will you respond to them?

Litigation

- Can you easily identify relevant content in your document management, email management, records management, and HR information system by custodian? How long would it take?

- Can you easily collect, hold, and quarantine, relevant content?

- Is your records retention and destruction policy defensible? Can you assure that it has been applied consistently?

Attendant to managing the content itself in a “risk-aware” manner, are related issues of continuous user training and assessing their compliance with procedures. Does everyone in the organization have training on what a litigation hold is and how and why they’re issued and implemented? Does everyone have training on how your records policy works? Do you audit employee conformance to the policy?

ITS NOT JUST FEATURES AND FUNCTIONS

Content management tools will always be used to deliver important efficiencies that make it possible for the modern business to operate in the information age. But as the universe of risks becomes wider and more complex, content management solutions also play a role. The very systems that we use to create, accumulate, manage, use, and dispose of information are the same systems that must help us manage risk.

Addendum

Why do you use content management solutions?

I submit that it really boils down to three things: efficiencies, effectiveness, and risk management. Efficiency means lower costs; effectiveness means better organizational execution, and risk management means lower risk. We’ve discussed risk management, but what about the other two areas?

EFFICIENCIES

Given the amount of content moving through and within any organization, it’s obvious that tools are needed in order to operate in a rational and efficient way. Imagine running a 200 lawyer firm without a document management system? The simple question of “most recent version” would become an untenable task – and an expensive task. The task of starting a new document would be almost always from scratch.

Securing documents would mean endless emails to the network administrator asking for new folders and new groups. Document management systems make these tasks effortless – and the result is a business that operates more efficiently – and at much lower cost. Cost savings through efficiency is a key reason we deploy content management solutions. It’s cheaper to operate with managed content.

EFFECTIVENESS:

Content management systems make us more effective as an organization. Organizational effectiveness is how well your firm executes on core values like Client Service, Value, or Expertise (or all 3). The very fact that you’ve implemented these solutions reflects core values like “leveraging content” or “client retention” (through better customer service and competitive pricing).

------------------------------

(1) The Digital Universe Decade – Are You Ready? - IDC May 2010 IDC iView

. IDC predicts that “…. by 2020, our Digital Universe will be 44 TIMES AS BIG as it was in 2009.”

PDF/A-1 1A and 1B - A Difference Without a Distinction

2011-05-18T10:03:00.007-04:00

It turns out that the following information about PDF/A may be more than you need to know, but forewarned is fore-armed!

There has been a great deal of discussion about PDF/A as a specific PDF file format and some confusion about the two flavors of PDF/A. PDF/A is subdivided into 1A and 1B - these are each referred to as a “Compliance Level”. For legal practice the question at hand is whether a specific Compliance Level will be required by the Federal Courts under new rules for PDF/A format. As you may recall, the Federal Courts will begin requiring that ECF documents be submitted in PDF/A format in 2011. By the way, there is nothing preventing you from voluntarily filing in PDF/A format today.

PDF/A Compliance Levels:

The short description is: PDF/A 1A is considered a “minimal” level of compliance with 1A including additional features for “a"ccessibility for reading disabilities. “PDF/A-1b (basic) is easier to generate and guarantees the visual reproducibility of content”. (1)

Our friends at AIIM have very succinctly described the two Levels of Compliance as:

“• PDF/A-1a – Conformance level 1a shall adhere to all of the requirements of the PDF Reference as modified by the ISO 19005 specification and requires structural and semantic properties to be preserved. Level 1a uses “Tagged PDF” and Unicode character maps to preserve the document's logical structure and content text stream in natural reading order. For some applications, users may need to use a PDF/A-1 conformant viewer to take maximum advantage of embedded metadata.

• PDF/A-1b – Conformance level 1b requirements are intended to be those minimally necessary to ensure the visual appearance of electronic documents. Level 1a preserves document structure from the original document that allows the consumer to the archived document to view and manipulate the document as they could the original.”(2)

A few other key points are discussed at PDFA.org which I won’t recite here but are well worth perusing. And this list of PDF/A compliant solutions published by AIIM will be useful if you don't have a solution yet.

Also download the whitepaper that Docs Corp has published on the topic of PDF/A.

Which one should I use for ECF?

NARA

Perhaps a place to start is guidance from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) which sets records standards for the federal government. From NARA FAQs:

“4. Does NARA require a specific PDF/A-1 conformance level?

No. NARA does not require a specific conformance level for permanent PDF/A-1 records. Agencies should use the conformance level that best suits their business needs. (3)

PACER

Perhaps PACER can give us some guidance as to which Compliance Level to use. But alas, Pacer doesn’t discuss PDF/A 1A or 1B – see this PACER announcement. And from PACER personnel came the comment “We have been told either format will be accepted. There will be more information made available at each court's ECF website when they begin to require the PDF/A format.”.

CONCLUSION

Short of specific instructions from your Federal District Court administrator, it seems that the distinction between PDFA 1A and 1B is moot. 1B Level Conformance is easier to accomplish and seems to win by default.

(1) http://www.pdfa.org/doku.php?id=artikel:en:pdfa_a_look_at_the_technical-side#what_does_pdf_a_require_to_be_pdf_a-1a-compliant

(2) http://www.aiim.org/documents/standards/PDF-A/19005-1_FAQ.pdf

(3) http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/initiatives/pdf-faq.html

As always, comments and questions are welcome!

Another Top-10 List (12 actually) - Evaluating Your Next PDF Content Solution

2011-05-02T09:53:00.005-04:00

ILTA will convene a panel discussion on PDF Content Solutions at this years annual ILTA conference - which affirms the importance PDF content solutions in the legal market. Clearly the PDF content space for legal practice has evolved to include a number of credible solutions. I hope the next step for ILTA is to develop a Requirements Assessment Tool for those who want help sorting through the feature-sets and methods that are now available among several PDF content solutions.

In my September 17th 2010, blog I discussed the pros-and-cons of free PDF tools and those you pay form (Free or Full Featured) and promised that "In my next post I'll drill into the areas of Convert-to-PDF, filling-out-forms, creating-PDF-binders, and advanced editing tools and what to look for.". The ILTA announcement prompts me to fulfill this overdue promise so this post drills into the Top-12-Things-to-Evaluate when selecting your next PDF content solution.

In working with dozens of law firms over the past 5 years, I have seen a number of firms choose their next PDF content solution based on how similar it was to their current solution – typically by heavily weighting user preference in the selection process. This approach assures quick user adoption, but firms may be missing the opportunity for significant productivity improvements at cost of additional user training. If you hope to duplicate your current solution at lower cost – skip this post. If you are prepared to consider additional training and help desk support for improvements in efficiency – read on.

There are literally hundreds of features across Adobe Acrobat, pdfDocs Desktop, Nuance eCopy - pdfConverter, and Workshare PDF Professional. When you multiply these features by the possible workflows they represent – you have a monumental task in figuring out what fits user requirements best and meets your current requirements.

Add new requirements like PDF/A files (new Federal Court requirement) or bundling tools used to deliver transaction and litigation document sets to receiving parties. Add the competing desires of the stakeholders involved. IT wants a single PDF content solution on the desktop. Training wants a solution that matches the range of requirements among users – from litigation support to the filing clerk. Users want a solution that is intuitive, simple, powerful, full-featured, easy to use, and makes their work effortless.

Can you get by with Scan-to-PDF (probably not – how do you handle creating PDF/A files) or do you need to invest in a copy of Adobe Professional for all of your users. Perhaps – or somewhere in the middle is the perfect solution that will make users more efficient with real bottom line benefits.

Where to Start

When you consider the feature-sets, ways to implement, and possible workflows – the permutations can be overwhelming. How do you start sifting through this feature / function universe? Perhaps start with a user survey to determine which features users need, which they want, which they like and which features they find frustrating. As a starting point, this will help you rank the features you are evaluating but I consider this data a starting point, not the final set of criteria.

The Top-12 Things to Evaluate

While PDF is an ISO standard (International Standards Organization 32000) , the variety of PDF content solutions available today for legal practice demonstrates that creative approaches within the same product category can make a solution more or less efficient depending on how your users do things. The differences can have a big impact on workflows and efficiencies. Here are 12 areas that are important to consider:

1) Creating PDF Files

It should be simple enough and usually it is, but since we don’t just create PDF files for fun, look at what happens after file creation. Is the user creating a PDF to email it? Save it to the document management system? Combine it with other PDF files? The number of steps in the workflow can vary between PDF content solutions so know your common workflows.

Consider where your users work most often (MS-Word or Outlook or your document management system) and then determine whether the user can easily create PDF content from within their typical “workspace”. Do your users need a really simple method like “drag-and-drop” to create PDF files? Will File-Print or Save-as-PDF get you there?

2) PDF/A Format

PDF/A is an ISO Standard which defines a PDF format for long-term archival (see http://www.pdfa-info.com ). As PDF/A becomes a format commonly required by the courts, carefully examine the steps required of a user creating a PDF/A file. There can be substantial variation depending on the solution you’re evaluating.

3) Application Integration

One of the biggest information governance issues with PDF content solutions is the “save-anywhere” issue. It always amazes me when a user (a) accesses a highly confidential document safely secured in the DMS and (b) converts it to PDF format only to (c) save it to My-Documents so they can email it / combine it / edit it / or otherwise manipulate it in their PDF content solution. Well designed application integration can assure that users always “manage” PDF content with the same rigor as any other document – and that PDF files which are truly “temporary” (created just for the instance of mailing / combining / saving-to-DMS) are then properly deleted from temp-folders or My-Documents locations (as 2 examples).

4) Document Management Integration

If your organization relies heavily on a document management system, then carefully evaluate the integration points between your DMS and the PDF content solution. Can users easily save a new PDF file INTO the document management system? Can users easily access documents in the DMS and edit PDF files or convert native files to PDF format? While in the DMS, can users easily select source files and convert them to PDF format? The way DMS integration is implemented can be a real time saver (direct-save for example) or a real frustration (save-to-MyDocuments / import to DMS for example).

5) Binders and Portfolios (Bundling)

Binders and Portfolios are becoming the standard way to deliver bundles of PDF or embedded-native files to co-counsel, opposing counsel and clients. There are important differences between the bundling tools on the market. Look carefully at DMS integration if that is where your source files are. Determine whether the resulting Bundle can be printed if that’s a requirement.

6) Redaction

If used properly, any redaction tool should produce permanent deletions of content in a PDF file and give you the option to mark the deletion in a variety of ways. But the steps to accomplish this will vary and should be carefully reviewed against your desired redaction workflow. As an example some tools Apply-on-Demand and some tools Apply-When-Saved. Some tools permit batch-redaction while some only work against one PDF file at a time.

7) Editor Functions

I define PDF editing as ‘changing the displayable content in a PDF file”. Not all PDF content solutions provide the same set of editing tools. The ideal solution will present tools your users need and omit or give you a way to hide tools they never use. The result is a more concise user interface which should be easier for the user.

I would suggest taking an inventory of the editing tools your users currently use – with details about how often they use them. Balance this against the inventory of editing tools in the solution you’re evaluating to assure there is a comparable tool or a suitable workaround.

8) File Manipulation

If your practice demands that you combine PDF files, extract pages, merge pages, or split PDF files then carefully evaluate the workflow required to accomplish these functions. There are significant differences between PDF content solutions that will please users who do these things often (Click-and-Combine) or frustrate them because of extra steps (Select-and-Merge).

9) OCR Integration

Sooner or later, users will want to (a) convert a PDF file to MS-Word format or (b) convert an Image-PDF file to Searchable-PDF. Each of these workflows will require an OCR solution so evaluate thoroughly the steps required to accomplish each.

Also consider whether you need OCR functions integrated into your document management application which can save time if this is where PDF content is commonly stored. Also know that some providers offer OCR implemented on a Server (a great solution when users are operating in Citrix or Terminal Server) and some providers implement OCR within the PDF application (needed when operating “off the network”).

10) Scan Capture

Going Paperless? Handling litigation scanning in-house? Your current and desired paper-to-PDF workflows may help define your PDF content solution. Do you want to “scan-to-DMS” with a coversheet? Do you want to deskew / despeckle from within the PDF content solution?

11) Forms

Many users need to fill out forms in PDF format – and some users need to create forms in PDF format. PDF form filling has become easier these days with the advent of Rights-Enabled forms. Forms-Creation capabilities (read-and-create / create manual with simple tools / create manual with complex tools) will vary between PDF content solutions so, evaluate thoroughly if form building is a requirement.

12) Adobe Reader Support:

In some organizations there is a desire to use alternatives to Adobe Reader. While this is laudable and may make sense for IT strategy, it has the potential to create workflow problems. Many websites assume that Adobe Reader (or Acrobat) is present on the workstation and won’t perform as expected with other PDF applications.

Evaluate whether your PDF content solution will co-exist with Adobe Reader in the event that you must keep Adobe Reader for access to certain websites.

In Summary

No square pegs in round holes. Focus on key requirements, future needs, user adoption, and these key areas and you will find a solution that meets your needs and delivers new levels of efficiencies. Consider training users on new tools and methods if the benefits are there – we all can handle learning a new tool if we’re showing the benefits and are supported with training and help desk.

PDF content management is now a key applications area in legal practice - and can deliver remarkable new efficiencies and benefits to your firm.

Questions on assessing your next PDF content solution? Write me!

Diamonds are Forever - Records are for Archiving

2011-04-07T11:07:00.001-04:00

The last several postings have discussed “going paperless” and the related benefits. The subtext of the “going paperless” conversation is records management – or what ARMA (Association of Records Managers & Administrators http://www.arma.org ) calls an Information Retention and Disposition Program.

In my experience a surprising number of firms (law firms / other professional services firms / public and private companies) don’t have a records policy and an even more surprising number – have a policy which they don’t enforce (see http://www.nextpage.com/forms/cio-form.htm - registration required). Having a policy means committing to internal audits and employee education to assure compliance with your records program. To do otherwise is perhaps worse than no policy at all and can expose the firm to a variety of risks. See https://extranet1.klgates.com/ediscovery/

If you have a records policy which is well implemented then skip this blog posting – but if you are operating without a policy or are simply using the “keep it all” method then keep reading.

WHAT IS A RECORD:

The definition of a record provided by ARMA is the following:

Record: Recorded information, regardless of medium or characteristics, made or received by an organization that is evidence of its operations, and has value requiring its retention for a specific period of time. Recorded information in any format that is created, received, and maintained as evidence and information by an organization or person, in pursuance of legal obligations or in the transaction of

business.

In short – a record is every kind of information created in or moving through your organization.

WHAT IS A RECORDS MANAGEMENT PROGRAM?

A records management program – or an INFORMATION RETENTION AND DISPOSITION PROGRAM – is an organization-wide framework which defines the scope and procedures for retaining and ultimately disposing of information in your organization. A retention schedule is merely one part of the program, but no more important than user-education, self-auditing, defined procedures for record destruction, or procedures for implementing legal holds. Suffice to say, creating and then operating a records program is complex and can seem daunting at the outset.

Some of the key elements of a records program are:

1) Records Program Committee. This committee will provide vital input from key areas of the organization like information systems, legal, and operating departments.

2) Records Retention Schedule. This will be a compilation of the records kept by the organization along with details about the records lifecycle (active, inactive, destruction).

3) Litigation Hold procedures. How a litigation hold is instigated, implemented, and audited.

4) Destruction procedures. How records destruction is authorized and how the process is documented.

5) Employee training. This is a vital link in defending your records program and assuring it operates efficiently.

6) Compliance Auditing. This step helps assure your records program is managed in a way that identifies and corrects errors in the operation of the program.

KEEP EVERYTHING? IT’S SURE EASIER!

First let me deflate the notion that it is sufficient to simply “keep everything”. Here’s why this isn’t:

1) One of the key objectives of a records program is efficiency achieved through smaller records inventories and systematic management of records. If you assume that your business is an on-going concern then you will have an ever-increasing inventory of records to store and access. The haystacks hiding the needles just get bigger and bigger.

Whether paper or electronic – this method of records management will eventually become less and less efficient and will ultimately overwhelm itself – the question is not if, but when.

2) If you use the “keep everything” method then you must truly “keep everything”. Selective or arbitrary deletion of records leaves you open to charges of bad behavior or worse. There are innumerable examples in the annals of e-discovery documenting cases lost and sanctions lodged because of arbitrary and capricious destruction of records.

3) If your business is potentially subject to audit or lawsuit, you have created a Pandora’s Box of record-finding which will be larger and more expensive than necessary. You can always argue undue burden and excessive cost but a records policy gives you a legitimate way to preemptively dispose of records that no longer have any operational, regulatory, or legal value thus limiting the scope of audits or discovery related to a legal action.

MYTHICAL CONVERSATION:

Plaintiff’s Attorney to CEO: “Hi Jerry, its Tom. We just finished the 30(b)6 deposition. Guess what? “

CEO “Give me some good news Tom”

Plaintiff’s Attorney to CEO: “The good news is… they don’t have a records policy. They just keep everything. That’s what we’ll ask for in discovery.”

CEO “They’ll just claim the requests are over-broad”.

Plaintiff’s Attorney to CEO: “Yes, and they’ll have to prove it. It will take them tons of extra time and effort”.

INFORMATION RETENTION AND DISPOSITION PROGRAM

If an Information Retention and Disposition Program (Records Program) is so important to the efficient and effective management of records, then why do many organizations choose to operate without one? They’re hard to implement – here’s why:

1) A Records Program is by definition very comprehensive and requires thorough research and careful decision-making. “Retention Management for Records and Information” is an ARMA publication (http://www.arma.org/standards/RetentionManagement.cfm ) which thoroughly outlines the scope of a Records Program and how to organize and execute the effort. It is an excellent place to start and includes an excellent bibliography.

2) There is no “one-size-fits-all” Records Program. You can refer to examples provided by others in your industry – and some of the reference documents listed below will provide this – but every aspect of a Records Program must be evaluated in the context of your business.

If you’re in the legal industry, then someone in your firm should be a member if ILTA – or consider joining. The membership published a “MODEL PROPOSED RECORDS RETENTION POLICY” which is a useful starting point of a Records Policy.

And even if you’re a member of ILTA – take a look at this sample policy published by the ABA:

http://apps.americanbar.org/lpm/lpt/articles/sampledocretentionpolicy.pdf

3) Senior Management Sponsorship. Implementing an Information Retention and Disposition Program requires sponsorship from the organization’s most senior management. This level of sponsorship helps reinforce the importance of the initiative. It also helps demonstrate (and sometimes prove) that the organization is serious about a records program.

4) The “C” Word To assure that your Records Policy truly fits your organization and offers a defensible framework means assembling a committee of stakeholders. I know that for some organizations, this is the death knell of many projects – but the input is vital and consensus is even more important. This is where senior management sponsorship can be very helpful.

THE TIME IS NOW (Not when you get the audit notice)

I hope I’ve convinced you that a records management policy is vital to your organizational health. Perhaps I’ve also convinced you that it’s a big project – and like all big projects you’ve got to start somewhere. Since you’re probably the person who will be project leader – start with research. Understand the scope of the effort, and then get your Managing Partner, Named Partner, CEO, CFO, and / or CIO on board. Develop the committee – and convene your first meeting. You may be encouraged by the support and interest in finally getting this corner of the house in order.

RESOURCES:

The Sedona Conference Working Group Series: THE SEDONA GUIDELINES: Best Practice Guidelines &Commentary forManaging Information& Records in theElectronic Age November 2007 http://www.thesedonaconference.org/dltForm?did=Guidelines.pdf (name and email address required)

ARMA International: Retention Management for Records & Information ISBN: 1-931786-27-5 (PDF version) http://www.arma.org/standards/RetentionManagement.cfm

Creating a Record Retention & Destruction Policy: A CNA Professional Counsel Guide for Lawyers and Law Firms http://www.jamisongroup.com/downloads/IP_recordretention.pdf

American Bar Association: Sample Retention Policy http://apps.americanbar.org/lpm/lpt/articles/sampledocretentionpolicy.pdf

Blog posting at AIIM – Harjit Singh – January 16^th 2011 http://www.aiim.org/community/blogs/community/Formulating-A-Document-Retention-Policy

Disclaimer: This information contained in the posts at www.Lawyerpdf.com are intended to be informational only and should not be construed as legal advice. This information is commentary and is intended as a starting point for your own research into the issued discussed here.

A Little Marketing Research?

2011-03-28T15:40:00.000-04:00

Thanks in advance for those who can take a few minutes. Using the comment space, can you tell me...
- how you heard about LawyerPDF
- how you would rank the content of this blog? (using 1 to 10 1=not beneficial 10=very beneficial)
- what would you like to learn about next?
- other suggestions or general comments always welcome!

Going Paperless – The Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth - Part III

2011-03-16T10:44:00.002-04:00

This installment is a bit long for a blog post.. but what can I say? Lots to say!

A Morning in the Life….

John and Jane arrive at work for another busy day of juggling client demands and deadlines.

John arrives early so he can catch up on his inbox – the inbox full of paper sitting on a corner of his desk. He moves the stack onto his blotter and starts with the first item. It’s a resume which he quickly scans and thinks might be ok, so he writes “OK” on the top and drops it into his outbox to return to HR. Next are several benefits forms which he drops into his briefcase to review on the train. Next is an expense claim prepared by his administrative assistant – he signs it and drops it into his outbox. Next is a letter from a client requesting an update on a case. This is placed in a special spot on his desk for immediate follow up.

The phone rings – co-counsel calling about a case they’re preparing for trial. While John begins the call, he moves the remaining stack of papers to his in-box to review “later”. During the call, co-counsel advises that they’ve mis-placed two documents. John puts the caller on hold, and goes to the file cabinet to retrieve the two documents. He gives the documents to his secretary and asks that the documents be faxed to co-counsel. 7 minutes later – he’s back on the phone with co-counsel.

Jane arrives after having finished a breakfast meeting with a prospective client. She turns her attention to her computer and her electronic inbox.

Jane scans the list of new inbox items scanning the “document type” column and selects a document type of Client Letter. The letter is displayed in a viewing window on Jane’s computer so Jane can easily read it – the client is asking for an update on a case. Jane clicks on a “cabinet” icon and clicks on the client’s electronic case file to see a chronological list of all documents and emails. She reviews several documents and emails and then jots a note on the letter image with details for the client. Jane then selects an electronic “route stamp” and enters her secretary’s initials. The letter with comments is moved to the secretary’s electronic inbox so that she can type the reply letter incorporating the comments added by Jane.

Jane returns to her electronic inbox to scan the list of “NEW” items and spots a resume. She’s in the process of hiring a new paralegal she urgently needs. She clicks on this document and the resume is displayed in a viewing window on Jane’s computer. She scans the resume and decides this candidate is worth reviewing so she selects an electronic “accept stamp” and clicks on the resume image. She enters a comment into the stamp which says “please schedule an interview – before 9 or after 6 any day this week”. The resume disappears from her inbox and appears in the inbox of the HR Director who schedules the interview.

Jane sees a set of benefits forms in the electronic inbox and displays these forms in a viewing window. She uses annotation tools to fill out the forms, and then uses an electronic stamp to “sign” them. As part of the signature Jane indicates that the forms should be forwarded to HR and they are removed from Jane’s inbox.

The phone rings – co-counsel calling about a case they’re preparing for trial. Co-counsel cannot locate 2 key documents. Jane clicks on her electronic filing cabinet and then the electronic case file, locates the documents, and emails both to co-counsel who receives the documents while they’re still on the phone.

These examples are intended to (a) exemplify the differences between paper and paperless and (b) demonstrate the power of being paperless. The paperless office is more than just scanning – but should incorporate intelligent scanning which can streamline how documents move through an organization. The benefits are real and can be seen on the bottom line!

How does it work?

Intelligent scan capture can feed workflow or document management systems so that documents can be easily stored, accessed, and systematically managed through their lifecycle. A few common elements are:

a) Document Prep
The idea is to make the scanning process as fast as possible. As mundane as it sounds the first step is to prepare the paper for scanning. This will typically involve:

- making sure metal is removed. This is very unfriendly to scanners and means that all paperclips and staples are removed.

- making sure odd-sized pages are accomodated. Smaller sizes should be affixed to an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper, and larger sizes need to be separately batched.

- check for double-sided pages. These are ok if you have a duplex scanner - but must be copied to single-sided if you're scanner does not support duplex scanning.

- affix a barcode or cover page to "separate" documents automatically (see "d"). This will allow you to scan a batch of files together - and end up with separate scan files.

c) QC the Scan Output

Your scan process must include a review of the scan output. This is a process which involves a human who will examine each page for quality (alignment and clarity primiarily). Examining thumbnail images of the scanned pages will easily show mis-alignments but closer examination for readability may be needed.

d) Bar-codes

When barcodes are “read” by a scanner (using optical character recognition or OCR) they are converted to electronic information with 100% accuracy or not at all. Barcodes can transmit details about a document or simply tell a scanner when a “new” document has started – so you can feed an entire stack of documents into a scanner which can separate the stack into separate electronic files based on a barcode “separator”.

e) Zone OCR

Zone OCR gives a scanner the ability to see a specific part of a page (a zone) and convert what it finds into electronic information. This makes it possible to take information from a location on a page and feed that information into a system. This works especially well when with documents that are formatted alike (pre-bills, purchase orders, etc.) but can be adapted to a number of workflows.

NOTE: that zone-ocr works with paper documents that have been scanned OR electronic documents being loaded into a system (pre-bills or new-matter form or conflict form are just a few of many examples).

f) Workflow using Stamps

Imagine taking a piece of paper and using a rubber stamp to print the words “approved” or “forward to ____” or “Paid on ____ “. Then imagine that the piece of paper flew off to a destination simply based on the stamp. That is what you can accomplish in an entirely electronic world!

EXAMPLE:

Electronic HR FILE: Employment often begins with a resume and these often arrive in paper format – but may arrive as an email attachment.

a) hard-copy resumes arrive in the mailroom where a bar-code is affixed (or use a coversheet to keep the original paper document unmarked).

b) the document is placed in the ‘to be scanned’ inbox

c) the mailroom takes the to-be-scanned stack and loads into the scanner.

d) the mailroom reviews each scanned document for integrity and then applies a “send to” stamp adding the recipients initials (rather than carrying the paper around the office for delivery).

e) the recipients see mailroom items accumulate in their electronic inbox – including the HR Director who receives the resume.

f) the HR Director opens the resume to see that it is a paralegal resume. The HR Director applies an electronic “send to” stamp entering the initials of 3 attorneys who are hiring a new paralegal.

g) the resume is routed to each of the attorney’s electronic inboxes..

h) the resume is returned to the HR Director who arranges interviews while the resume is placed in an electronic “pending” file.

i) the paralegal is hired – and the resume is then placed in a new electronic HR folder for this new employee.

Imagine routing a Conflict Form using the same methods described above – and this document started out as a Word or PDF document and was never paper. The same methods work – and the conflict form moves to several of the reviewing attorneys simultaneously – and the status of the form can be checked at any time (who’s holding up approval of this new client?!).

Culture Shock

So why isn’t the world paperless?! Going paperless requires using new tools to do the work we're already doing. Often the steps can remain the same - but are easier and faster when automated. But even the slightest change can be hard to implement. Without the enthusiastic participation of everyone involved, going paperless will fail. Electronic Case Files won’t have all the documents in them (“I’m keeping just a few paper documents on the floor next to my desk because they’re really important”), processes will be interrupted (“I’m not reviewing that resume on line – just print it for me!”), and frustration will abound.

Recruit a sponsor. Unless you have a named partner, senior executive, or department manager on board – you’re going to find it much harder to go paperless.

Start small. Identify a simple process that touches many in the organization – and use it to show the power of going paperless. Perhaps HR forms, or an Electronic Correspondence File which can be the foundation for an Electronic Case File.

Notice that there is “back office paper” (HR, Benefits, Accounting) and “front office paper” (client correspondence and other client content) which may impact your decision on where to start. Back office paper tends to be more routine and easier to automate – but automating front-office-paper can often deliver a bigger benefit. Ultimately you’ll automate both.

User Support. Users must have confidence in going paperless which means confidence that they will Always Find Their Document. Implement tools that make it simple to find a document (searches that execute automatically for example) and give them enough training to assure they know how to find a document.

Going Paperless. It can deliver hard-cost savings and can transform your organization to be substantially more efficient – delivering another healthy dose of profitability to the P&L.

Share your experiences by posting a comment!

Going Paperless – The Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth - Part II

2011-02-17T08:51:00.000-05:00

Scanning Your Backfile and Day Forward Documents – It’s Day and Night

In the preceding blog post we discussed the economics of scanning your backfile. My conclusion is that costs usually exceed benefits so unless there is a compelling reason to invest in this conversion – continue to store the existing paper backfile. You will work this archive down in size over time as you apply your records policy.

A) Benefits of Scanning

On the other hand, scanning on a day-forward basis can often yield significant benefits especially when implementing workflow. These benefits include:

No more adding paper to your backfile archive or using office space to store paper since you can scan incoming documents and – in most cases – destroy the paper version.

Storing and retrieving electronic documents is more efficient (faster, more flexible) and less expensive than storing and retrieving paper.
If your paper records have been converted with OCR software, you can easily search through an entire document library for specific words or phrases in seconds. This is something you simply cannot accomplish with paper documents.
Its easy to back up your electronic documents. Ever try xeroxing an entire file cabinet of paper to make a back up copy?
Its easier to secure your electronic documents by securing the server , hard drive, or database storing the documents.
It is possible to automate and improve existing workflow and implement new workflows to manage electronic documents. Day-forward documents are the new paper documents received by the firm. There may also be internally generated paper documents – but these should be exceptions since electronic documents should rarely be converted to paper. In either case, the electronic version of these documents can be managed in computerized workflow processes.

B) Applying Computerized Workflow Management

By their very nature, day-forward documents are at the very beginning of a workflow in your firm – whether it’s a letter, resume, invoice, expense report, medical authorization, or any other type of document. In electronic format, incoming documents can be routed or re-routed and tracked through an automated workflow process which will mean collapsing a process from days or weeks to hours or minutes – simply by applying automation of the process. More about this in my next installment.

Scanning and Intelligent Scanning

So let’s buy a scanner or two and start scanning! Sounds pretty simple but realize that this is just the first of two parts to the equation. The right scanning hardware is vital but the right scan-capture solution can make your scanning process much more intelligent.

A) Lets go Shopping

So let’s buy a scanner or two and start scanning! Before you buy anything – do a bit of planning and consider the following:

Identify existing workflow bottlenecks – if you can spot them then they’re probably pretty severe so focus there first. You’ll see quick payoffs this way.
Figure out how much paper you need to scan every day.
Calculate scanned pages per hour and match your scanner capabilities to this requirement.
Calculate the amount of electronic storage space required.
Consider who will do the scanning.
Consider whether scanning is centralized or distributed. Or both.
Determine what scan-capture software you’ll be using. Not all scanners work with all scan-capture software solutions – although many are interchangeable. Double-check!

· Determine which features you must have or would like to have in a scanner. Speed and cost go together and some features may greatly enhance the scanning process. Example: Duplex scanners can simultaneously scan the front and back of a page but this may not be necessary because many documents are one-sided.

Example: Built-in OCR (optical character recognition) software can produce searchable files which is a tremendous time-saver when retrieving electronic documents.

Example: Bates Numbering can be added during the scanning process.

B) Intelligent Scanning – Scan-Capture Software makes Your Scanner Smart

Now that you have the perfect scanner(s) selected, turn your attention to making the scanning process intelligent. Scan-capture software can “read” information on the scanned page and create metadata (data about the documents) during the scanning process. With metadata it is possible to feed your scanned documents into a workflow solution, document management solution, and ultimately a records management solution often with little or no human intervention for further coding. Intelligent scanning takes you from “simply scanning” to “automating and managing” electronic documents in your organization. The benefits can be quite remarkable.

Intelligent Scanning and Workflow

In our next installment, we’ll talk about how to make the scanning process smart – and discuss a few examples of automating what you’re already doing with paper – only better.

Going Paperless – The Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth

2011-02-06T16:13:00.002-05:00

No, this blog post isn’t about PDF content – but after a recent conversation with a client I felt compelled to clarify – and demystify – what “going paperless” is really about. My next several blogs will cover the issue of costs and how to approach “going paperless” for substantial benefits and cost savings.

As a separate subject but very much a part of going paperless is the need for a Records Policy. A Records Policy is the only way you can justify destroying records – and without one – you’re a prisoner to an ever growing library of content. ARMA (www.arma.org) is the resource on this topic. http://www.arma.org/pdf/WhatIsRIM.pdf

PART I – The Whole Truth about Costs

A) Going Paperless - The Vision

The conversation with my client went something like this:

Client: “Well I’m glad you asked about our 2011 initiatives. One of the biggies is going paperless. We think it will save us a ton of money and we're really having trouble locating paper documents”.

Me: “That’s great! It sure could. What processes are you planning to automate?”

Client: “Oh, we’re not automating anything really – just getting rid of all of those boxes in storage and putting everything on line. Our storage vendor said it might reduce their revenues a bit – but will make us much more efficient.”.

Me: “I see. Are they helping you develop a records policy so you can thin out the old paper records?”

Client: “Not necessary since we’re still keeping everything.”

Me: “And what about the new paper you’re receiving or creating every day?”

Client: “That’s the best part. Nothing has to change. We’ll just box up the paperwork, send it to our vendor, and they’ll put it on line!. Really simple!"

And with that, I realized that my client was excited about a project which will probably increase costs while delivering little or no benefits.

B) Some Nomenclature

Uniform Photographic Copies of Business and Public Records as Evidence Act (UPA) – This is the law which makes it legal to substitute electronic records for paper copies. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode28/usc_sec_28_00001732----000-.html
Records Policy – a set of guidelines which defines how long you must keep any type of record in your organization and when you can destroy that record.
Back File – This is your existing collection of paper records, most of which you never or rarely need to access.
Day-Forward – This is the new paper you create day to day which is referred to often and must be accessible.
Workflow – a process someone or some people follow when completing a task.

C) The Economics of Scanning - Backfile Conversion

To figure out whether its economical to “go paperless”, I suggest dividing your universe of paper into two segments: Backfile and Day Forward. Lets look at the cost of storing your backfile as paper or in electronic format.

We need to make a few assumptions which are:

1) we’re working with a bankers box of about 10” high x 12”wide x 15” deep. This box will contain 2000 to 2500 pages. PS: this box is about 1.04 cubic feet in size. Bankers boxes 24" deep will store 4500 to 5000 pages.

2) A scanned page of paper will average 50k in size so a single box containing 2000 pages (15" deep) will require about 100 Mb of storage. 1 Gb of storage will accommodate about 10 boxes of scanned content.

3) You can get a page of paper prepared and scanned for 8 cents. Remember - these are my assumptions and your costs may vary.

4) 1 Gb of storage will cost you about $35 per month.

The results are:

Cost to scan a box = $160.
Cost to store the electronic version of the documents in 1 box = $3.50 per month.

Compare the cost of scanning and storing a box to your cost of storing a box. Its probably cheaper to store the box.

In the case of my client the storage costs include $1.50 to receive a box and about 25 cents per box per month to store it. There are also retrieval, re-file, and destruction fees as well – this is why you may consider scanning boxes that are retrieved often.

D) So Scanning the Backfile is Break-even or Often may Cost More – So Why Do it?

Under certain circumstances, it may pay to convert some or all of your backfile even though there are initial scanning costs and monthly storage costs. A few examples:

Is a portion of your business subject to time-limited requests for documents? You may have no choice but to identify the specific documents subject to requests and invest in scanning and storing those documents.
Are you the custodian of document records like wills and mortgages which must be accessible for very long periods. In these examples the paper original may be required but its important to “back up” the paper by scanning the originals to electronic media and microfiche.
Are there particular boxes that you seem to be constantly recalling from storage? It may save you money and will certainly save you time if you scan these boxes and store the electronic versions on line.
Are you implementing a records policy? It may actually be easier to review and cull records in electronic format than in paper format because the electronic version may be indexed with helpful key words and may be full text searchable – making it possible to search and locate electronic records in ways simply not possible with paper documents.

PART II – Day Forward and Workflow – Transforming your Organization

In my next post, I’ll discuss the benefits of going paperless and how it can transform your business into the efficient document machine you’ve always dreamed about.

Practicing Safe Text - PDF Security Myths and Misdemeanors-PART II

2011-01-20T08:33:00.001-05:00

In Part I of this posting, we discussed "out of the box" PDF security and issues to be aware of. Part II summarizes measures you should consider when dealing with content worthy of security.

SAFE TEXT – What to do

In this blog post we discuss Digital Certificates which provide a significant level of protection for PDF content and also review these out-of-the-box measures:

become familiar with standard PDF security options which can significantly limit the ability of the typical user to modify your PDF document;
Add watermarks to discourage converting your PDF file to MS Word with an OCR solution.
Use an OPEN password since these tend to be very hard to crack, and help keep the document “hidden” (not viewed) until proper access is provided. This is perhaps the best solution in the “standard” arsenal of tools provided in PDF content solutions like pdfDocs and Acrobat.

Even with these out of the box tools, there are third party tools which can circumvent PDF security. So where does that leave you as a creator of PDF documents - why should you trust this document format?

DIGITAL CERTIFICATES

A PDF document provides a way of indicating that a PDF document has either been modified or has been entirely recreated from scratch to look like your original document, by using Digital Certificates.

A digital certificate can be applied to a PDF with the use of a Certificate that you either generate through your Windows server or buy from a “trusted third party” organization like Verisign (just one example of many companies providing this solution). Digital certificates can show a 'physical' signature on a document but more importantly, will calculates a value using all the digital bits and bytes in your documents using a complex mathematical algorithm, and thus create a checksum number on the PDF document.

When you and the recipient of the PDFlook at the PDF in Adobe Reader, it will display the digital signature and indicate who applied it and when, and will verify the check sum confirming that the document has not been modified since the digital certificate was applied.

If someone has un-secured your PDF document, the digital certificate will show that the document has been tampered with since the checksum won't match the bits and bytes now in the document. The digital certificate cannot tell you where it was tampered with, or by whom, but at least you will know it has been tampered with and is no longer reliable.

pdfDocs provides for the ability to easily add digital certificates to a PDF, both from within the pdfDocs Organizer application, but also directly from within many popular document management products by simply right-clicking on the document and 'signing' it - so this should be easy for everyone to do.

In summary, I still believe it is very worthwhile to use “out of the box” PDF security since it keeps 90% of people from editing your document – accidentally or otherwise. If you want to be sure that your documents are in their original format, apply a digital certificate to the PDF so you at least know the PDF you are reading has the information intended by the author.

Dean Sappey is President and co-founder of Docscorp. Dean has a degree in computer science and has been developing technology used by law firms and accounting firms for the past 20 years. He currently manages the growth of Docscorp internationally whilst continuing to be involved in concept and workflow designs for new Docscorp software products. Docscorp has for the past 8 years developed and sold worldwide the pdfDocs Solutions suite, to provide the creation, editing, manipulation of PDF documents integrated into workflows common to Document Management Professionals.

Practicing Safe Text - PDF Content Security Myths and Misdemeanors

2010-11-30T09:11:00.000-05:00

With another release of information from Wikileaks, we’re reminded of the importance of information security policy and practice. This 2-part posting discusses PDF content security strengths and weaknesses and the importance of vigilance, and will guide you in developing a comprehensive PDF content security policy.

I’m pleased that Dean Sappey, President of Docs Corp – is the contributing editor for Part I and II of this blog posting on PDF content security.

PART I – What is PDF Content Security

PDF content is generally considered to be a more secure way to publish and share documents because the PDF standard allows several levels of security and several ways to apply security. However, as hard as we try to make content secure, there is no format which is truly secure against any and all risks and this includes PDF documents.

PASSWORDS

There are two types of passwords for PDF documents. The first is called a “Master” password which controls access to security settings for editing, copying, and printing (as examples). A second password is an “Open” password which is created by the PDF owner and must be supplied by a PDF user to open a PDF file.

Perhaps since the first password was created people have endevored to unlock them. Quite simply, there are tools available which can crack passwords. This is not a revolutionary notion but should be taken into account when securing PDF content. As long as parties need or want to circumvent security measures – there will be parties providing software or services to facilitate that circumnavigation. Since PDF security relies heavily on password protections it is not uncommon to hear of software designed for PDF password cracking or unlocking.

SECURITY – Tier 1

PDFs created by solutions like pdfDocs Desktop (Docs Corp) and Adobe provide the ability to add security to a PDF document which affects the “functionality” of the PDF document. This security relies on a “Master” document password and allows the creator of the document to:

prevent the PDF from being edited,
prevent information from being copied from the PDF to the clipboard,
prevent commenting,
prevent combining of PDF documents with others,
prevent printing,

SECURITY – Tier 2

Additional security can be added with digital certificates and an open password .

A digital certificate can provide assurances about (a) who created the PDF document and (b) whether the document has been changed or tampered with in any way. A digital certificate” creates a numeric value when applied. The numeric value takes into account all of the bits and settings within the PDF file. The digital certificate will become invalid if the numeric value changes at any time after it is applied. It’s the equivalent of a wax seal on a PDF.

Another important security measure is the “Open” password which prevents a reader from even opening a PDF for viewing without a password. This type of password tends to be much harder to ‘crack’ and – importantly – prevents viewing and reading (or screenshots etc..) without knowing the password.

ADDING SECURITY – Tier 3

Another level of security is found with 3^rd party encryption options including PGP Security but these options are beyond the scope of this posting.

SUBTRACTING SECURITY – Where there is a Will there is a Way

While it is important as the creator of a PDF that you can rely on the fact that your PDF cannot be easily edited by the person receiving your document, it is also important to understand that in reality there is no way to completely ensure your document is never tampered with or recreated.

Many tech-savvy computer users have discovered a range of software products which allow you to remove the security applied to a protected PDF. These software products allow you to view and edit a PDF even if the PDF is secured because they can unlock the Master password.

Whilst these software products may break copyright and terms of use rules for PDF content, in my own personal view, they avoid being classified as illegal and prevented from selling their software primarily because their End User License Agreements stipulate that use is limited to unlocking documents that you own. In other words, they stipulate that you should only unlock documents that you created and possibly just forgot the password of - and not use it to unlock any documents that you do not legally own.

So be aware even when you create a PDF and secure it, the document can still be unlocked and modified by anyone willing to buy a commercial software application.

Speaking personally as President of Docscorp, it is my view that software should not allow this and for this reason pdfDocs does not allow you to unlock a secured PDF (as is the case with Adobe Professional). Of course, even if there were no commercial software available to unlock PDFs, there would always be the hacker willing to provide products for this purpose. .

SUBTRACTING SECURITY - OCR Conversion and Print Attribute

In reality, as long as a PDF can be viewed without a password, security is very hard to enforce because the properties of the PDF can be modified using commonly available programming languages.

Even without resorting to programming, if you can print the PDF to paper – you can scan it and use OCR software to convert the scanned file to PDF or MS Word. Software products like pdfDocs allow the user to take any scanned document and convert it quickly and easily to a full text-searchable PDF or to an editing format like MS Word - in a format that is almost identical to the original document.

This means that even when a PDF is secured from editing, if the PDF can be printed then an almost exact replica of that document can be created using scanners and OCR software. This further emphasizes the limited ability of security on PDFs to prevent changes.

In the next blog posting, we’ll discuss some steps you can take to enforce the security of your PDF content.

___________________________________________________________________

Dean Sappey is President and co-founder of Docscorp. Dean has a degree in computer science and has been developing technology used by law firms and accounting firms for the past 20 years. He currently manages the growth of Docscorp internationally whilst continuing to be involved in concept and workflow designs for new Docscorp software products. Docscorp has for the past 8 years developed and sold worldwide the pdfDocs Solutions suite, to provide the creation, editing, and manipulation of PDF documents integrated into workflows common to Document Management Professionals.

Sizing it Up - the mathematics behind scanned image file size

2010-09-27T09:40:00.001-04:00

One of the questions I often get is "why are my PDF files so large?!". This question typically refers to scanned-PDF files and we all know, usually from direct experience, that scanned color PDF files are larger than black and white, and high resolution files are larger than low resolution files.

Here is the mathematics behind file size. Understanding the math and the variables will give you a way to understand controlling file size.

I - By the Numbers

A) 3 Dimensional Paper
When paper is digitized, it becomes 3 dimensional. The three dimensions are height, width, and bit-depth.

B) Bit Depth
Bit-depth refers to the number of bits needed to represent each dot on the page. Black-and-White dots are 1 bit in size (on for black, off for white) while grayscale is 8 bits in size and colors are 24 bits in size.

C) Dots Per Inch
Dots per inch is controlled at the scanner and with software with 300 DPI being a common setting.

D) Bits make Bytes
As you know, 8 bits make up a single Byte of information (just reciting this for clarity).

E) Compression
To display an image, the raw data must be converted to a format which can be displayed in a PDF. Typical formats are TIFF or JPG. TIFF was developed for fax transmission, where size matters especially back when faxing was invented and data moved over plain-old-telephone-signal wire. TIFF-Group-IV will compress an image at about 20:1 so its been a natural choice as an image format.

II - How it Adds Up
See how things start to add up quickly and sometimes exponentially. Going from gray-scale to black-and-white will reduce your image size by a factor of 8. Going from 300 DPI to 200 DPI will shrink your image size by 1/3 - and will be just as readable.

Lets look at an example of a page scanned at 200 DPI. The formula works like this:
A) Image Size

example 8.5 x 11 = 93.5 square inches)

B) x DPI

example 200 x 200 = 40000 dots per inch x 93.5 sq inches = 3,740,000 dots per page

C) x Bit Depth

example Black-and-White = 3,740,000 total bits at 200 DPI
example Gray-Scale = 29,920,000 total bits at 200 DPI

D) divided by 8 to convert to Bytes

example 200 DPI Black and White = 467,500 raw bytes
example 200 DPI Grayscale = 3,740,000 raw bytes

E) compressed for TIFF Group IV at 20:1

example 200 DPI Black and White = 23,375 bytes or 23K page size
example 200 DPI Grayscale = 187,000 bytes or 187k page size

In the typical example of 300 DPI Black and White image, the math is:

300 x 300 = 90000 dots per inch x 93.5 sq inches = 8,415,000 dots per page
8,415,000 dots (bits) divided by 8 = 1,051,875 bytes
TIFF Group IV compression of 20:1 yields a byte size of 52,593 or 52K

This should give you a clear picture of the factors affecting image size, and the impact of the variables you may decide to 'tweak' when attempting to manage image size. We are typically evaluating file size when dealing with electronic filings.

Other factors to consider when evaluating image file size is:

how the images will be used since you may affect readability. There is a vast difference between viewing a page of type-written text, vs interpreting margin notes during a document review.
what they will be viewed on . There is a vast difference between reading a scanned image on a laptop vs a large-screen-high-resolution monitor.

Happy Scanning!

Free or Full Featured - Rightsizing Your PDF Content Solution

2010-09-17T10:57:00.001-04:00

Whether its free of full featured, how do you decide what PDF Content solution will best meet the needs of your firm? This is a bottom-line issue (meaning money) since you don’t want to spend too much on features your firm doesn’t need – or spend too much filling “gaps” if you don’t have certain features you need in your core solution. Perhaps this framework will help.

A – Litigation Support vs. Office Automation

Start by dividing your assessment into two general areas – PDF content for litigation support and PDF content for everyone else – the office automation “universe”. The Litigation Support folks tend to need automation tools since their documents come in big batches of a similar type – on the office automation side of things, users work on relatively small batches of documents so a feature like document management integration may be vital to them.

B – Work and Flow

When thinking about PDF content in the office automation context, do you know have a good understanding of what users do with PDF content? A survey of help desk personnel and users (indeed power users but also average users) is a key step in understanding requirements for PDF content creation, editing, and management in your firm.

Examples – from a long list - of things to know:

CREATE:
- why is paper scanned? (printing out MS Word to sign it for example..)
- how is paper scanned and captured,
- who emails PDF attachments,
EDIT
- do they need to apply security to those attachments,
- do users need to combine files? If so – how is it done?
- do users need to split files?
- are users retyping PDF files for editing? (they need an OCR solution)..
- do users need to redact?
- do users need to Bates?
- do users create closing binders / deal binders / transaction binders ?
MANAGE
- are PDF files saved into your document repository? If so – how?
- are PDF files saved to My-Documents? If so – why?
- what is a typical workflow when the result is emailing as an attachment,

Certain requirements will probably vary from one practice area to another – but you will find a wide range of functions that almost everyone in your firm needs to use.

C - Legal Desktop Integration

This is a fairly big topic by itself so there’s the condensed version: Where do users spend 85% of their time? In Word and Outlook. What is your system of record? It’s your document repository or records management system. Its vital that your PDF content solution integrate well in these applications so users save time whenever they are creating – emailing – or saving PDF content.

In my next post I'll drill into the areas of Convert to PDF, filling out forms, creating PDF binders, and advanced editing tools and what to look for. Meanwhile - be sure to inquire if you need assistance with creating or executing a survey of your PDF content requirements.

Managing Confidential Information

2010-09-12T11:51:00.003-04:00

I'm sure you remember the most recent redaction mistakes like the TSA Screening Management SOP document or the more recent motion to issue a trial subpoena to President Barack Obama in USA v Rod Blagojevich. Yet - even with these memorable events practitioners and staff still continue to create documents with faulty redactions.

Earlier this year I resolved to try to find a solution - not a technology solution, but a people solution. The result is a course designed to teach practitioners and staff about PDF redaction (and metadata). The course is titled "Managing Confidential Information - PDF Content and the Law and Technology of Redaction and Metadata".

This course is suitable in any jurisdiction with an examination of recent federal case law regarding redaction and a thorough review of PDF technology and how redaction works (as well as a discussion of redaction best practices). The course is accredited as a CLE in Florida, Georgia, and New York (with Ethics Credit) with conditional approval in New Jersey.

The course was developed by Discovery Partners, Inc. and Marshall Sklar J.D.

Your PDF Content Solution and Your DMS - what do they have in common?

2010-08-16T23:14:00.002-04:00

Lets start with the obvious: for many firms, a document management system is a vital repository used to manage content throughout its lifecycle. The document management system will identify, catalog, store, and secure content and is the firm’s system of record – the place you go when you’re looking for active content (distinguishing from a records management environment).

I point this out not as a preamble to why a document management system is important, but to emphasize the importance of integration between the DMS and your PDF content solution. Without tight integration, the firm is exposed to information risk and users spend extra time on tasks that could be more efficient.

INFORMATION RISK
Here is a workflow I see all too often:
1) User needs to convert 2 documents to PDF format and send to client. These are highly confidential and managed within ethical wall security.
2) User opens each document and uses file-print to convert the file to PDF format, and
3) Is prompted to save the new PDF. User chooses MyDocuments and creates a name to save the new PDF.
4) The user then opens Outlook and creates a mail message, using insert-file to attach the new PDF files.
5) User moves on to the next task.

The problem with this workflow is that important documents now reside outside the DMS in an unmanaged location. A well integrated PDF content solution eliminates this risk entirely by implementing a workflow that manages the PDF file entirely – from creation to attach-to-email to delete temporary copy. pdfDocs (www.docscorp.com) may be unique in its ability to manage this entire workflow.

EFFICIENT WORKFLOW
Besides information risk, good integration between the PDF content solution and your DMS can save steps which means saving time. When the user is converting content to PDF format they should be presented with options to save to the DMS – as part of the conversion process. The integration should be as natural as the integration between MS-Word and your DMS (or better perhaps).

pdfDocs is perhaps unique in its ability to encapsulate common workflows to eliminate Information Risks and deliver remarkably efficient workflows. A few examples of integration that sets the bar:

- Select a PDF file in your DMS and right-click to Convert-to-Word (PDF to Word Conversion);
- Select an MS-Office file and right-click convert –to-PDF without opening the file;
- File-Print any file and choose to profile directly to the DMS;
- Button click in MS-Word convert to PDF and profile to DMS;
- Select an entire matter from DMS to import to an electronic binder.

As you are evaluating your next upgrade or purchase of a PDF content solution, carefully test and evaluate the integration with your DMS. It can make your information safer, and your users more efficient.

Redaction - Part III

2010-08-11T15:42:00.002-04:00

Redaction - Part III

In this third and final installment of my series about redaction, I’m offering some “best practices” you may consider implementing at your firm. And not a moment too soon because it has happened again: annotations were applied to a PDF with the intention of redacting content – in a motion filed in United States of America v Rod Blagojevich . The user appears to have used black highlighting and the underlying text – hidden but available - is now posted all over the internet. This could have been prevented with (a) proper redaction, (b) adding “no-copy” security, or (c) flattening the PDF before filing.

The list of best practices is extracted from a CLE we offer in New York, New Jersey, Florida, and Georgia (other states pending). The CLE is titled Managing Confidential Information: PDF Content and the Law, Ethics, and Technology of Redaction and MetaData (ethics only in New York state) and covers the information discussed in this blog (Redaction Part I, II, and III) – and more. The objective of the CLE is to help practitioners understand their legal obligations to redact content, and how the technology works when managing confidential information.

Here are several suggestions for Redaction Best Practices:

-Know your requirements. When are you legally or ethically required to redact content.

-Know the capabilities of your tools. Which version of Acrobat includes redaction, which does not as examples.

-Look for tools which integrate PDF creation and PDF redaction. This typically will eliminate steps and reduce the chance for mistakes.

-Know whether you’re working with an image-PDF, OCR-PDF, or text-PDF – and be sure your redaction tool accommodates each.

-Be sure you have discovered everything you intend to redact. Word and pattern searches may not be accurate enough especially with documents which have been OCR’d. Be prepared for manual inspection depending on the nature of the PDF files and the nature of your redaction targets.

-Check your work and challenge your assumptions. This sounds like common sense but we see the results of having skipped this step all too often.

Other suggestions are included in the CLE content but these are the essentials. They spring from common sense and knowing about PDF content, technology tools and good techniques.

Follow these best practices for foolproof redactions.

Email me for details about this blog or the CLE offering.

Redaction - Part II

2010-08-02T12:31:00.002-04:00

BLOG – Redaction – part II

What You Can See and What You Can’t See
When redacting PDF content, know that there may be content that you can’t see – so you must rely on your redaction tool to find and remove this unseen content to redact safely.

PDF files can be described as a “container” – or as a “sandwich” which is my preferred description because they can contain different layers of information. This notion of layers is described in a whitepaper recently published by Docs Corp and can be downloaded here . The whitepaper discusses 3 types of PDF format to take into account when redacting a PDF.

OCR’d PDF Files
The PDF format I’m discussing here is a sort of “combo” PDF, created when an image-PDF is converted to searchable PDF using an OCR process. OCR is “optical character recognition” software which can “read” the letters and spaces in an image file and create searchable text automatically. When this is applied to an image-PDF, the image remains and is what’s visible to the reader – but the searchable text is added as a new layer in the PDF.

The result is a PDF file containing an image layer and a text layer.

Removing Text and Image
Your redaction tool must remove the area in the image marked for redaction and the corresponding searchable text. It is absolutely vital that you only use a tool with a true redaction annotation since this is the only way to remove content you can see and content you can’t see - other annotation marks will simply cover what you can see and will ignore what you cannot. Note that Adobe Professional (not Standard) is the only version of Acrobat with a true redaction tool – and only the more recent versions.

One option you may consider is to "flatten" your PDF file so that all content is reduced to a single layer. There are at least 2 approaches to flattening a PDF file - so email me if you're not sure about how to do this. But you still a true redaction tool to remove content from the area marked for redaction. Simply flattening is not a complete solution.

Ask your PDF content provider what capabilities their tool has – and then test it! (email me for a description of a simple way to test whether redaction has worked).

In a future blog we’ll discuss some redaction best practices to adopt which should keep you on the straight and narrow.

Redaction - Part I

2010-07-01T14:39:00.003-04:00

BLOG – Redaction – Part I

A colleague and I have created a CLE covering Redaction. The CLE is intended to (a) bring newer attorneys up to speed about when they are (legally or ethically) required to redact content and (b) clarify how redaction works at a technical level. This is the first of several posts that discuss key concepts I’ve extracted from the CLE program.

Lets start here: What is Redaction?

A simple enough question but with changes in technology and the tools we use to create content, so have there been important changes in what redaction means. When paper was the primary means of transmitting documents, it was usually good enough to mark the paper as a way to remove (or hide) content. Even this simple method wasn’t always reliable since different colors and types of ink could reveal the covered text when holding a page up to the light (the ethics of this is an entirely different topic).

Today the primary means of transmitting documents is electronically and redaction is no longer a simple matter of “covering” content. As defined by Adobe: “Redaction is the process of removing data from a page. With printed pages, redaction involves blacking-out or cutting-out areas of the printed page. With electronic documents that use formats such as PDF, redaction involves removing (not just obscuring) content within a region.” PDF Redaction: Addendum for the PDF Reference, sixth edition, version 1.7: Adobe Systems Inc: November 2006, pg 2

Remove is the operative word here. There are a number of reasons why this is true – and we’ll discuss those in a future blog but the logic is simple enough – the recipient cannot discover or recover that which is not there. Users must be certain that the tool they’re using removes content identified for redaction whenever working with electronic documents – and unless your PDF content solution explicitly says that it can redact – it probably cannot.

The NSA was so concerned with this issue that they published a document describing in detail how to redact a WORD document BEFORE its converted to PDF (Note that the NSA document was created before good PDF redaction tools were widely implemented) – see Redacting with Confidence: How to Safely Publish Sanitized Reports Converted From Word 2007 to PDF, Architectures and Applications Division of the Systems and Network Attack Center (SNAC) Information Assurance Directorate; March 2008

In the next blog on this topic, we’ll consider the structure of PDF files as a container and the impact on the redaction process, and will outline some best practices to consider when managing redactions.

Free is Good - but is it worth it?

2010-05-23T18:08:00.003-04:00

FREE IS GOOD – but is it WORTH IT?

I was talking with a client last week about using Office 2007’s Save-as-PDF function. Its free to use – so why not? Good question.

The Save-as-PDF Office 2007 (MS07-PDF) plug-in is in the category of several free PDF conversion tools – and if you only need to create a PDF these options may be an alternative. But there are some important considerations and I encourage you to text extensively.

1) Lets start with metadata. Know that the MS07-PDF plug-in has a setting to include / exclude File Properties metadata in the output PDF. This option is defaulted “ON” (checked) in MS Word but users can uncheck the setting once and it stays off. Applications like pdfDocs naturally do NOT INCLUDE this metadata.

2) The MS07-PDF plug-in only works with Office 2007. This is fine if that’s that the only document source you need to convert. But there are many instances when you want to convert scanned content, web pages, and much more, so this may be a serious limitation.

3) As a point of interest, the Microsoft Office plug-in directly converts the source-file to PDF format – and does NOT use a file-print-stream process. Most PDF conversion tools use a File-Print method of capturing and converting output, and this makes it entirely universal (works from any application that can “print”).

Directly converting using the MS07-PDF plug-in may have implications for metadata that converters using File-Print avoid entirely. This is something for you to confirm directly with Microsoft or through your own testing, but be aware that File-Print methods of conversion cannot capture internal metadata from any source document.

4) Last but not least - some of the biggest drawbacks of the MS07-PDF plug-in revolve around workflow and content security. A few examples:

A) The MS07-PDF plug in does not give user any way to control PDF attributes like security, watermarking, and headers-footers. With pdfDocs Desktop, users can be prompted to change these and other attributes (or these attributes can be pre-configured) as part of saving an MS-Office document (any version) as a PDF.

B) The MS07-PDF plug in doesn’t provide users with advanced tools for Bates, Redaction, Splitting, Combining etc.. but this may be where a full-featured PDF solution is used for users with these requirements.

C) The MS07-PDF plug in doesn’t integrate with legal document management systems (that I’m aware of). The result is that users save new PDFs locally – probably in \My Documents. This should be a significant concern to law firms who spend $1000s to assure their documents are managed and secured within a document management system.

Once the user saves a copy of the PDF to \My Documents for the purpose of a workflow like emailing-to-client, you’ve lost control of the content. Be sure your records manager is aware of this workflow.

A solution like pdfDocs assures that every new PDF is managed just like all the other content in your law firm.

D) There is also the issue of housekeeping, cleaning up all of these PDF files where were not created for the purpose of residing in \My Documents, but were created as part of a workflow (emailing / filing / binding). Law firm PDF content solutions should “clean up” after themselves and avoid creating “stray” temporary documents in the first place. pdfDocs architecture is a good example of how this can work really well.

Free is good – but you get what you pay for. Know the limitations and how best to use save-as-PDF, and test (and test some more).

The Editor

What is a PDF/A

2010-05-12T16:45:00.002-04:00

What is a PDF/A

We’ve all heard of it and many have used it – some use it quite often. A few courts even require it as a filing format. I’m talking about PDF/A of course.

PDF/A is one of the oldest PDF-ISO standards – it was created in 2005 as ISO 19005-1:2005 and precedes ISO 32000 which is the PDF standard written more recently to define the overall PDF format as a standard. PDF/A is quite simply a format for long term archiving - hence the appendage of “A”.

PDF/A is intended to assure that a PDF created today – can be easily opened and read again 10, 20, or 50 years from now. To make this possible, PDF/A prohibits use of PDF features that could potentially restrict access in the future so features like encryption and password protection are not allowed. And PDF/A files must be entirely self-contained so they tend to be larger that standard PDFs.

PDF/A is unsuitable for many day-to-day uses because of its lack of security and generally larger size of file - but it’s a vital format for long-term storage and retrieval. Creating a PDF in PDF/A format should be clearly defined in your PDF application (you’ll know if you have this capability) and it should be simple to do. Your records manager will typically define when to use PDF/A internally – and agencies and courts will be very clear about using this format when required.

Metadata - There Ought to be a Law

2010-04-29T17:41:00.006-04:00

There seems to be much discussion lately about metadata. Some of the courts have raised new concerns about filings that may contain metadata - and law firm staff and practitioners alike are sometimes confused by the very topic. Perhaps The Sedona Conference and case law can give us guideance.

What is metadata? The answer to this question is often "data about data" which is correct although this definition fails to provide any context - and that is vital. From The Sedona Conference and case law we can develop a more concise definition:

1) although metadata often is lumped into one generic category, there are at least several distinct types, including substantive (or application) metadata, system metadata, and embedded metadata. Sedona Principles 2d Cmt. 12a;

Substantive metadata, also known as application metadata, is "created as a function of the application software used to create the document or file" and reflects substantive changes made by the user. [track changes, prior edits or editorial comments, and includes data that instructs the computer how to display the fonts and spacing]

System metadata "reflects information created by the user or by the organization's information management system." [OS author date/time created or modified]

Embedded metadata consists of "text, numbers, content, data, or other information [*355] that is directly or indirectly inputted into a [n]ative [f]ile by [**15] a user and which is not typically visible to the user viewing the output display" of the native file. Md. Protocol 27.
Examples include spreadsheet formulas, hidden columns, externally or internally linked files (such as sound files), hyperlinks, references and fields, and database information.Aguilar v. Immigration & Customs Enforcement Div., 255 F.R.D. 350, 354-55 (S.D.N.Y. 2008)

From the context of litigation, we have some concise guidance about what metadata really is.

PDF Documents and Metadata

What does all of this mean in the context of PDF documents?

Embedded metadata is not transferred when a source document is converted to PDF format. If you recall comments from an earlier blog about how PDF files are created, you know that only visible content is in the PDF file when converting a source file. The single exception might be text colored to white in an attempt to hide it.

System metadata belongs to the document itself. The system metadata from a source document is not transferred when converting to PDF format, but the PDF document will have its own system metadata. Many PDF document solutions allow you to change or remove this metadata.

Substantive metadata follows the "visible" rule. If you can see track changes in your Word document - then you will see them in the resulting PDF document. If you "accept all" so that track changes are not showing then they are not contained in the resulting PDF document.

The objective of this commentary is to provide a bit more information about metadata and what to expect when converting source documents to PDF format.

The Editor

Workflow Really Does Matter

2010-04-27T09:54:00.002-04:00

If you're already embedding clear-stamp signatures to sign-and-email your documents - skip this post.
--------------------------------------------------------------
I was talking with a client a few weeks ago about how to improve common workflows hoping to find ways to reduce costs. We were working through my standard survey and came to the topic of signing documents. Not the paper kind - but the electronic kind.

For the purpose of emailing a signed copy of a document - here's what they were doing:
1) Finish the document in Word and
2) Print the Word document to paper and
3) carry the printed document to the attorney for signature and
4) carry the signed document to the scanner and
5) scan the signed document to PDF with auto-email to the attorney who
6) would forward it to his recipient.

This method violates several rules of workflow and at least one international treaty on conservation of paper products... Here's what I suggested:

1) Finish the document in Word and
2) File-Print-to-PDF with a PDF application to convert the source Word document to PDF and
3) Add a clear-stamp of scanned signature to the signature block in the PDF document and
4) email the PDF document to recipient.

All of this takes place at the user desktop, in much less time, and with significantly less resources. And its easy to implement.

The client asked about how secure the signature stamp was, how it was created, and where it is stored. "Well... its scanned and its stored in the PDF application". "What if someone stole it?" they asked. "Aren't you sending your signature out anyway?" I asked?

The client is happily converting output documents to PDF format at their desktop and adding a nice signature stamp to the PDF document and then emailing. All done with a few clicks.

Moral of the story - workflow does matter and it adds up in a hurry. Look around - the workflow bottlenecks are usually easy to spot.

PS: When creating signature stamps - use a graphics program (free public domain program like GIMP) to create a "CLEAR" stamp. This is a signature stamp which does Not have a white background - so when you apply it, the lines of the signature flow over the signature block in a natural way.

The Editor

Not All PDF Documents are Created Equal

2010-04-27T09:22:00.002-04:00

One would hope that - with the advent of ISO 32000 - PDF documents would all be of same quality. Alas - this is not the case.

The Basics - How are PDF Files Created

There are two basic steps in the process. The first is to use your PDF application which creates a postscript file with the help of Windows. The second step is to convert the postscript file to PDF format - this is where the real work is. As a user, you will never see these bits - just the final result as a PDF document.

Step 1 - The Common Denominator
It all starts with a postscript file. This is created when you use File-Print in MS Word, WordPerfect or any other source application and choose your favorite PDF application as the printer. The result is actually a Postscript file although you never see this. This process uses the existing Windows Printing software (part of Windows) to create the postscript file - in fact - your source application thinks its printing to paper.

Postscript files were originally designed to help postscript printers exactly recreate an electronic document on paper. Thus the perfect adaption of this type of printer-control-file for electronic paper which we call PDF.

Step 2 - Creating the PDF Document
The next step is to translate the postscript file commands into the equivalent (or something close to equivalent) to PDF commands. Basic conversions tend to be consistent from one PDF application to another although formatting variations and problems can creep in at this stage.

Once the basic conversion has been completed, some PDF applications will then try to improve the PDF. How is this possible if they're following the ISO standard? The standard defines the components and output format - not how a PDF is are assembled and that's the difference.

More sophisticated products will embed font information pulled from the computer's Windows font libraries - thus eliminating the need to manually embed fonts (sometimes required by a court or agency). Some products will optimize graphics by compressing them or by looking for repeating graphics which are then stored just once in the PDF document. The result is often a smaller more complete PDF document file.

I mentioned formatting problems - these occur when the PDF application has not done a good job of finding a PDF command(s) to match a series of postscript commands. The results can be PDF files which don't display correctly or worse.

The Bottom Line
I'm afraid you can't tell by looking. If you're having problems with filings or exchanging PDFs this may help you understand why. If you are considering a new PDF application, ask your provider about these issues - and test (test and test) samples with test-filings whenever possible.

The way a PDF file is created can make a difference. It can save you frustration and time - and what's more valuable than that?

The Editor

Why a blog about PDFs??!!

2010-04-27T07:36:00.001-04:00

I'm sure you've noticed that PDF documents are everywhere in legal practice. They're probably more common than MS-Word documents - and have become the "common denominator" format for MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, paper, and many other source formats.

PDF documents have become the de-facto way to "publish" information whether its being sent to a lawyer down the hall or across the country. It is considered more secure, and delivers a document which can universally be opened, read, and printed.

Thus - PDF documents have become a central format in the universe of document content in legal practice. You would think we'd know more about them and handle them more efficiently. Well - that's the objective of this blog. It is to give you information which may be helpful, and give you ideas about how to be more resourceful. I hope it also becomes a forum for discussion about topics like "are all PDFs created equal"... which might be a good topic for the first blog.

Best regards,

The Editor