What is a Concordance load file?

A load file written in the format originally used by the Concordance review platform: a DAT metadata file using the þ (ASCII 254) character as a text qualifier and ¶ (ASCII 020) as a field separator, paired with an OPT image file. The format outlived the product and is now the common exchange format between platforms.

What is a Relativity load file?

The same structure, a delimited metadata file plus an image or native file reference, with Relativity's default delimiters, which match Concordance's. Relativity imports DAT/OPT productions directly; the phrase usually just means a load file prepared for import into Relativity.

How do I create a load file?

Review platforms generate load files automatically when you run a production: you choose the fields, the delimiters and the image or native output, and the platform writes the DAT and OPT alongside the files. Hand-building one in a spreadsheet is possible for a small set but error-prone; delimiter and encoding mistakes are the most common reason a production fails to load.

Load file in eDiscovery: what DAT and OPT files contain

How does a load file work?

A production is not just a folder of files. The receiving side needs to know that pages SMITH-000148 through SMITH-000151 are one document, that this document was custodian J. Mendez’s, that it was sent on a particular date, and that a native spreadsheet accompanies the placeholder image. The load file carries exactly that.

A DAT file holds one row per document. Each row lists the agreed metadata fields (beginning and ending Bates numbers, attachment range, custodian, sent date, subject, file path, hash value and so on) in an order the parties fixed in the ESI protocol. Fields are separated by delimiters chosen to be unlikely in real text: the Concordance defaults are þ (ASCII 254) as a text qualifier and ¶ (ASCII 020) as a field separator.

An OPT file holds one row per page. Each row gives the page’s Bates number, the production volume, the path to the image, and a Y flag on the first page of each document so the platform knows where documents begin and end.

Some platforms use an LFP file in place of OPT for images, and productions of native files reference them through a NATIVELINK field in the DAT rather than through the image file.

What does a load file look like in practice?

A single DAT row, with the default Concordance delimiters shown as they would appear in a text editor:

þSMITH-000148þ¶þSMITH-000151þ¶þSMITH-000148þ¶þSMITH-000152þ¶þMendez, Janeþ¶þ2024-03-11þ¶þRe: Q1 forecastþ¶þ\NATIVES\SMITH-000148.xlsxþ

Read left to right: BEGBATES, ENDBATES, BEGATTACH, ENDATTACH, CUSTODIAN, DATESENT, SUBJECT, NATIVELINK. The attachment range extends one number past the document because a spreadsheet was produced natively as its attachment.

The matching OPT rows for the four image pages:

SMITH-000148,VOL001,\IMAGES\001\SMITH-000148.tif,Y,,,4
SMITH-000149,VOL001,\IMAGES\001\SMITH-000149.tif,,,,
SMITH-000150,VOL001,\IMAGES\001\SMITH-000150.tif,,,,
SMITH-000151,VOL001,\IMAGES\001\SMITH-000151.tif,,,,

How does a load file show up on an eDiscovery invoice?

Producing a load file is where many vendors charge a separate production or export fee, commonly per gigabyte, sometimes per page or per production volume. The load file itself is a few kilobytes; the fee is for the work of assembling images, natives and metadata into an agreed structure. On a platform where productions are included in the license, that line does not appear.

Validating the load file before a volume goes out is item 16 to 19 on the production checklist.

Questions worth asking any provider: Is there a per-production fee, and is it per GB or per page? Is a re-production after a correction charged again? Which load-file formats are supported on export, and is a custom field order extra?

Sources

EDRM, Production Guide and load-file guidance.
The Sedona Conference, Glossary: eDiscovery & Digital Information Management.
Fed. R. Civ. P. 34(b)(2)(E) on the form in which ESI is produced.

Load file