Slip sheet

How does a slip sheet work?

An imaged production is a sequence of numbered pages. Some documents cannot sensibly be turned into pages, and some must not be. The slip sheet is how the sequence survives either case.

There are three standard uses. A spreadsheet, presentation, audio file or database export produced natively gets a slip sheet in the image stream, with the native file itself referenced from a NATIVELINK field in the DAT file. A document withheld for privilege gets one where the protocol calls for withheld items to keep their place in the numbering. An item that processing could not render, a corrupt file or an unsupported format from the exception report, gets one so the receiving party can see that something exists and was accounted for.

Mechanically the slip sheet behaves like any other produced page. It is endorsed with the Bates number and any confidentiality legend, it occupies a row in the OPT file with the document-break flag set, and it counts toward the page count in the volume manifest.

The failure mode is a native produced with no placeholder at all. The file arrives with a Bates number in the DAT and nothing in the image stream, so the receiving platform shows a document with no pages, and any citation to it in a brief has no page to point at.

What does a slip sheet look like in practice?

The text of a native placeholder, as it appears on the page:

                    SMITH-000151

        This document has been produced in
        native format. See the accompanying
        native file at \NATIVES\SMITH-000151.xlsx

                   CONFIDENTIAL

The matching DAT row carries BEGBATES = SMITH-000151, a populated NATIVELINK, and the same attachment range as its parent email. The OPT file carries one row for this single page, with the document-break flag set.

How does a slip sheet show up on an eDiscovery invoice?

Slip sheets are generated during production and priced inside the export and production fee. Where endorsement and branding is billed per page, placeholder pages generally count as pages, so a production with several thousand natively produced files carries several thousand endorsed slip sheets on that line.

That is a small number set against what the placeholder saves. Producing spreadsheets natively with placeholders avoids the format conversion charge on every one of them, and avoids imaging a file type that loses content when imaged. The format risk planner shows which types those are.

Worth asking: are placeholder pages counted toward per-page production or imaging charges, and is the placeholder text configurable to match the protocol’s required wording.

Sources

• EDRM, Production Guide on placeholders and endorsements.
• The Sedona Conference, Glossary: eDiscovery & Digital Information Management.
• Model ESI orders requiring a Bates-numbered placeholder for natively produced files, including the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California model stipulated order.
• Fee categories: the Fee Field Guide dataset.