Large Volumes Of Trial Exhibits

Client Workspace or legal extranet systems are good methods of posting large numbers of trial exhibits for joint client and law firm use.

It is important that the system administrator of a law firm client workspace system properly estimate the number of documents (both the actual number as well as the size (in GB) required to post the data) before selecting a system. For databases which are several GB, it is wise to consider a system with a relational database engine (such as Oracle or SQL Server) "under the covers" to be sure this large document set can be properly stored and properly rendered to clients.

It is also wise to advise all the parties connecting to such a extraent or client workspace system that it is important their individual internet connection is sufficient to access files of a large size (i.e. several page TIF or PDF file).

Ideally, the legal extranet system should provide an automated and easy mechanism for administrators to load large blocks of files and information so that the system can be flexible enough to support the evolving and rapidly changing needs of a large litigation.

One should also be sure to select a system with full text searching capability, and well as a system which allows document coders to assign keywords to documents along with the obvious assignment of a document title.

System users should be able to search for documents by the full text search capability (which should include the ability to FTS an image document), the keyword, or the document title. Ideally, users will be provided with a few different searching mechanisms to allow them to find and locate documents in the manner most convenient to them.

Training for such systems can be done in a fairly economical manner using web-based meeting technologies such as Web Ex.