Finding Textual Exact Duplicates

If you're a Relativity admin, here's how to go about finding exact text duplicates.

1. Create a fixed length field with 255 characters.

2. In the Relational Field Properties section of the new field form, set the field to be relational, import blank values unchanged, and select the 'Textual Near Duplicates Relational View'.

3. Save the field.

4. Under Indexing & Analytics, select Structured Analytics Set, then click, 'New Structured Analytics Set'

5. Enter a name and prefix, choose a saved search as the document set, and then check off "Textual near duplicate identification" as the operation.

6. Set the minimum similarity percentage to 100, then in the 'Destination Textual Near Duplicate Group' select the new field you created.

7. Save and then in the console on the right click, 'Run Structured Analytics'.

8. You'll be give the option to either update all of the documents, or just new documents added to the set.

9. In this example, the summary at the end indicates that 40 exact textual duplicates were found.

10. So in this example we can see that there are three duplicates of CTRL0000001186.0001, which is given as the group ID for all four. A separate Yes/No field, 'X617: Textual Near Duplicate Principal' indicates which document is the anchor for the others.

Relativity User Group on Case Dynamics

Tonight I attended a Relativity User Group on Case Dynamics (formerly known as Fact Manager) at the offices of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP in New York City. Case Dynamics is a free application that is designed to be a substitute for case management software such as CaseMap. Case Dynamics can serve this purpose if you can convince your attorneys to use it. My own experience has been that absent a clear directive from a client, or partner enthusiastic about case management programs, lawyers are likely to track key witnesses, facts, and issues in an ad hoc manner in multiple Word documents.

Relativity's presentation emphasized that Case Dynamics may be most useful in identifying key documents and developing a theory of a case before a complaint is filed, or preparing for a deposition. There are different tabs for Facts; Issues; People; Organizations; Interview Questions; and Outlines.

Inline coding can be performed to update facts, issues and other fields. Entering an @ symbol before a name will generate a list of key people and organizations to select from, helping keep the names standardized.

The Timeline Builder features pop out boxes for multiple entries from the same date, and can be toggled from horizontal to vertical mode. The timeline can link to specific facts which in turn can take you to specific documents. I thought it was too bad Relativity did not include the ability to add in small thumbnail images of key documents directly on the timeline.

A master report can be exported to a zip file that will include an html file with all of the key issues, etc., and also hot documents, and outlines.

Relativity confirmed at the user group session that the ability to export data to Case Map has been retained.

Setting Up an Email Threading View

Here's a follow-up to the Tip of the Night for June 10, 2018, which explained how to run an email threading analysis. Setting up an email threading view lets you easily view the results of the structured analytics set.

1. Begin by going to the Workspace Admin tab and select 'View'.

2. Click on, 'New View'.

3. Create a new view with 'Document' selected as the object type.

4. On the Other tab, select 'Email Thread Group' as the Group Definition setting. Then select the fields created when the email threading analysis was run.

5. On the Conditions tab, add the Condition, 'Email Thread Group' field is set.

6. Sort by Email Thread Group, Indentation, Email Threading ID. The Indentation field should also be created with the structured analytics set.

7. Back on the Documents tab, with a folder selected, select the thread that you created.

8.

The black squares denote inclusive emails, or those with content not duplicated in other emails.