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IN THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS
FRANKLIN COUNTY, OHIO
DEAN DENNIS and BOB BUERKLE, ) CASE NO. 21-cv-006832
individually and on behalf of those similarly )
situated, JUDGE SHERYL K. MUNSON
Plaintiffs,
STIPULATED PROTOCOL FOR
Vv. ELECTRONICALLY STORED
INFORMATION AND HARD COPY
STATE TEACHERS RETIREMENT
DOCUMENTS
BOARD,
Defendant.
Now come Plaintiffs Dean Dennis and Bob Buerkle on behalf of themselves and all others
similarly situated, and Defendant State Teachers Retirement Board (STRB) (collectively, the
Parties) and hereby agree to the following protocol for production of electronically stored
information and paper documents.
A. GENERAL AGREEMENTS
1 General
a. This Stipulated Protocol for Electronically Stored Information and Hard Copy
Documents (Protocol) governs the production of all Electronically Stored Information (ESI) and
paper (hardcopy) discovery in this matter (“Action”).
b The Parties agree that should a dispute arise out of the implementation of this
Protocol, the Parties shall meet and confer in an attempt to resolve the dispute. All disputes arising
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out of this Protocol shall be resolved with reference to the agreements contained herein and the
Ohio Rules of Civil Procedure
Cc. Nothing in this Protocol shall limit a Party’s right to object to any discovery request
pursuant to any applicable rule or law, or to modify this Protocol through agreement of the Parties
or through Court intervention.
d A Party producing documents or ESI will be referred to as the “Producing Party”
and a Party receiving documents or ESI will be referred to herein as the “Receiving Party
2 Proportionality of Discovery
a. Pursuant to Ohio Civil Rule 26(B)(1), the Parties agree that discovery in this Action
will be proportional to the needs of the case. To this end, the Parties will work together in good
faith to identify appropriate limits on discovery, as necessary. These limits may include the number
of custodians, discoverable data sources, the relevant time period, the permissible scope of requests
for production, and the permissible scope of requests for emails and other ESI. The Parties agree
that working in good faith means cooperating in good faith throughout this matter, including by
meeting and conferring over any disagreements as may arise during the course of discovery before
filing a motion to compel discovery. The Parties agree that whenever possible, requests for
production of ESI, including requests for emails, shall be reasonably targeted, clear, and as specific
as possible, rather than general discovery.
b Custodians
1 After receipt of a Party’s document requests, the Producing Party
shall provide a list of the Key Custodians to the requesting Party. The Parties shall meet and confer
to agree upon the identity of the Key Custodians. Absent good cause, and subject to further
agreement of the Parties, this list shall be the presumptive limit on ESI discovery. Should the
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Parties, through the discovery process, identify a legitimate need to conduct additional reasonable
and proportional discovery related to new Key Custodians, the Parties shall meet and confer on
additional discovery. If an agreement between the Parties is not reached regarding the identity of
the Key Custodians, the Parties will seek Court assistance to resolve the issue.
ii. The Parties agree to take reasonable steps to identify and search the
sources of potentially relevant and responsive information of each Key Custodian for collection
and search, including but not limited to hard copy files, texts, e-mail repositories and
corresponding attachments, hard drives (internal and external), cell phones, tablets, cloud-based
storage, local workstations, industry-specific databases, and folders within shared network drives
and network file servers in which each Key Custodian places or maintains documents.
Cc. Discovery Concerning Preservation and Collection Efforts. If, based upon good
faith, there is a reasonable dispute concerning the scope of a Party’s preservation or collection
efforts, the Parties agree to meet and confer on the basis for such discovery, including the need for
the requested discovery, relevance to claims or defenses of the action, proportionality of the
proposed discovery, and the suitability of alternative means for obtaining the information
d Non-Discoverable ESI. Pursuant to the proportionality standards under Ohio Civil
Rule 26(B)(1), and absent a Party’s specific written notice for good cause, the following categories
of ESI are presumed to be inaccessible and not discoverable:
1 ESI deleted in the normal course of business before the time a preservation
obligation in this matter came into effect;
il Backup data files that are (a) maintained in the normal course of business
for purposes of disaster recovery, including but not limited to backup tapes,
disks, SAN, and other forms of media, and (b) substantially duplicative of
data that are more accessible elsewhere;
iii. Deleted, slack, fragmented, or unallocated data only accessible by forensics;
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Iv. Random access memory (RAM), temporary files, or other ephemeral data
that are difficult to preserve without disabling the operating system;
On-line access data such as (without limitation) temporary internet files,
history files, cache files, and cookies;
vi Data in metadata fields frequently updated automatically, such as last-
opened or last-printed dates;
vii. Electronic data (e.g., call logs, email, calendars, contact data, notes, etc.)
sent to or from mobile devices (e.g. iPhone, iPad and Android devices),
provided that copies of all such electronic data are routinely saved
elsewhere (such as on a server, laptop, desktop computer or cloud storage);
viii Voicemail, including Telephone or VOIP voice messages, not retained in the
ordinary course of business or otherwise;
1x SAS program and data files (unless such program or data files are created
in connection with expert discovery);
Server, system, network, or software application logs;
XL. Data remaining from systems no longer in use that is unintelligible on the
systems in use;
xii. De-NISTing - Software files included on the National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST) Modern RDS (minimal) list obtained
from https://www.nist.gov/itl/ssd/software-quality-group/national-
software-reference-library-nsrl/nsrl-download/current-rds;
xiii Operating System files that do not store user-created content (e.g. CAT,
DLL, DMP, EXE, FON, PNF, OPS, SYS, etc.);
xiv Application source code, configuration, and other similar files necessary
for the function of an application that do not store user-created content
during ordinary use (e.g. BAK, BIN, CFG, DBF, DAT, JS, JSON, JAR,
LUA, MSB, RES, WINNT, YTR, etc.);
XV Structural files not material to individual file contents that do not contain
substantive content (e.g. .CSS, XSL, .XML, .DTD, etc.)
€. Disaster-Recovery Backup Data. Absent an agreement of the Parties or Court order,
no Party shall be required to modify or suspend procedures, including rotation of backup media,
used in the normal course of business to back up data and systems for disaster recovery purposes.
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3 No Designation of Discovery Requests
Productions of hardcopy documents and ESI in the reasonably usable form set out in this
Protocol, including Appendix A, need not be organized and labeled to correspond to the categories
in the requests. Should a Receiving Party make a reasonable request for identification by Bates
number of groups of Documents that the Producing Party can easily and readily identify, the
Producing Party shall cooperate and provide such information as soon as reasonably practicable
considering the scope of the request and the volume of Documents implicated.
4 502(D) Clawhack of Privileged Information
The production and clawback of privileged information is governed by a separate Order
under Evid. Rule 502(D) entered in this matter
B. ELECTRONICALLY STORED INFORMATION
1 Production in Reasonably Usable Form
a. Rolling Production. The Parties may produce ESI on a rolling basis
b Reasonably Usable Form. The Parties shall produce ESI in reasonably usable form.
Except as stated in paragraphs B(2) through B(4) below, or as agreed hereafter by the Parties, such
reasonably usable form shall be the single-page, black and white, Group IV TIFF-image format
with extracted or OCR text and associated metadata set out in Appendix A, which is incorporated
in full in this protocol. Each Group IV TIFF version of an electronic document will be created
directly from the corresponding native file. If the Receiving Party, for good cause explained in the
request, seeks production in native format of specifically identified ESI produced originally in
Group IV TIFF-image form, the Producing Party shall respond reasonably and in good faith to any
such request.
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Cc. Redactions. The producing Party may redact from any Group IV TIFF image,
metadata field, or native file, material (i) that is protected from disclosure by any applicable
privilege or immunity, (ii) governed by applicable privacy law or regulation, (iii) containing non-
responsive information, or (iv) that any Protective Order entered in this Action allows to be
redacted. In preparing document families for production, the Producing Party also may redact
entire attachments that are wholly non-responsive and may produce slipsheets in their place. The
basis for each redaction shall be annotated (i.e., Redacted for Privacy, Redacted as Privileged,
Redacted as Non-Responsive, etc.) on the redaction itself. Redactions made in accordance with
these provisions need not be included on a privilege log or redaction log. Following the production
of documents redacted for privilege, the parties may meet and confer on any reasonable requests
from the Receiving Party for privilege log entries related to individual documents redacted for
privilege that are so substantial they remove the context necessary to evaluate the asserted
privilege, if there is a legitimate and good faith basis for questioning the status of a document.
d Color. Where an original document contains color, the Parties will honor
reasonable requests for re-production of a color image of the document. Where a document is
produced in color, images may be produced as single page, JPEG images. Video files (e.g., .wma,
mov, .mpg, .wmv, .avi, .asf) and computer animation files (e.g., .avi, .gif, .mpg, .gif, mpg, .mpeg,
.wmv) shall be produced in color.
2. Previously_Produced_ ESI. If ESI discoverable in this proceeding was previously
produced in another legal proceeding, the Producing Party may elect to produce that ESI in the
form in which it was previously produced. Prior to production of previously produced ESI under
this provision, the Producing Party will advise the Receiving Party of the production and format,
and will meet and confer with the Receiving Party should there be any good faith concerns related
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to the prior production format. Should any disputes remain following the Parties’ good faith
efforts to meet-and-confer, either Party may seek assistance from the Court.
3 Electronic Spreadsheets and Multimedia File:
a. Except if redacted, Microsoft Excel files will be produced in native format with
related searchable text, metadata, and bibliographic information.
b Except if redacted, photographs, video and any other audio/visual multimedia files
will be produced in native format.
Cc. When producing documents in native format, the Producing Party shall (i) insert
into the production a “placeholder” file for the document to be produced elsewhere in native format
or (ii) include a Group IV TIFF image of the native document in the sequence of the production
indicating that the native file will be produced elsewhere in the production.
d Any produced native file will be named according to the first Bates number of the
corresponding electronic document (e.g., [Production Number Begin].xlsx).
€. No Party may request the production of documents in native format on a wholesale
basis.
4 Structured Data from Enterprise Databases, Database Management Systems and
other Structured Data
In instances in which discoverable electronically stored information in an enterprise
database or database management system (e.g., Oracle, SQL server, DB2) can be produced in an
already existing and reasonably available report, the Parties shall collect and produce, in the
reasonably usable Group IV TIFF-image form described in Appendix A, the discoverable material
in that report format. If an existing report form is not reasonably available, the Parties shall export
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from the original database discoverable information in a format compatible with Microsoft Excel
or Microsoft Access, and the information shall be produced in that native format.
5 Additional Procedures for Native Format Files
a. Procedures for assigning production numbers and confidentiality information to
files produced in native format are addressed in Appendix A, Paragraph A.17.
b Any Party seeking to use, in any proceeding in this Action, files produced in native
format shall do so subject to the following:
1 If the native file has been converted to Group IV TIFF-image or hardcopy,
the original production number and confidentiality designation shall be
stamped on each page of the resulting Group IV TIFF-image or hardcopy
document representing the original native-format file, with a suffix added
to the production number to identify the particular page in the file (e.g.,
XYZ00001_001)
i Tf the file will be used in its native format, the Party seeking to use the native
file shall first provide to other Parties, sufficiently in advance of such use
that the Producing Party can confirm that the file to be used is the same as
the file produced, both the production number and the MDS5 or SHA-1 hash
value of the file.
iti Use of a file in native format, or use of a Group IV TIFF-image or hardcopy
document representing the original native-format file shall constitute a
representation that the file being used is an accurate and complete depiction
of the original native-format file.
6 Use of Search Terms and Filters
a. To contain costs in the identification of relevant ESI for review and production, the
Parties agree to meet and confer to discuss the use of reasonable search terms, proximity filters,
file types among other possible filters, or the use of advanced search and retrieval technologies,
such as predictive coding or other technology-assisted review.
b In meeting and conferring on the use of search terms, the Producing Party shall first
disclose its search filters to the Receiving Party, and if the Receiving Party believes in good faith
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that use of the disclosed search filters may result in deficiencies in production, the Receiving Party
may make prompt, reasonable requests for different or additional searches/terms. The Producing
Party shall respond reasonably to such requests and meet and confer if necessary. Any proposed
search filters shall be tailored to the particular claims and defenses at issue and proportional to the
needs of the case, in accordance with the Ohio Civil Rules.
C. The fact that any electronic file has been identified in agreed-upon searches shall
not prevent any Party from withholding such file from production on the grounds that the file is
not responsive, protected from disclosure by applicable privilege or immunity, governed by the
applicable privacy laws or regulations, contains non-responsive information, or that any Protective
Order entered in this Action allows the file to be withheld.
d Nothing in this section shall limit a Party’s right to reasonably seek agreement from
the other Parties or a court ruling to modify previously agreed-upon search terms.
7 Email Threading
a. Email threads are email communications that contain prior or lesser-included email
communications that also may exist separately in the Party’s electronic files. A most inclusive
email is one that contains all of the prior or lesser-included emails, including attachments, for that
branch of the email thread. The Parties agree that removal of wholly-included, prior-in-time, or
lesser-included versions from potential production will reduce all Parties’ costs of document
review, production, and litigation-support hosting. Accordingly, each Party may produce or list on
any required privilege log, only the most inclusive email in an email thread.
b Following production of most inclusive email threads, and for good cause and
subject to the proportionality standard, a Receiving Party may make reasonable requests for
individual lesser-included emails. The Producing Party shall cooperate reasonably in responding
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to any such requests if the requested lesser-included emails otherwise would have been subject to
production.
8 De-Duplication
a. “Duplicate ESI” means files that are exact duplicates based on the files’ MD5 or
SHA-1 hash values. The Producing Party need produce only a single copy of responsive Duplicate
ESI. A Producing Party shall take reasonable steps to de-duplicate ESI globally (/.e., both within a
particular custodian’s files and across all custodians). Entire document families may constitute
Duplicate ESI. De-duplication shall not break apart families. When the same Duplicate ESI exists
in the files of multiple custodians, those persons shall be listed in the Custodian field identified in
Paragraph A.16(c) of Appendix A. De-duplication of hard-copy documents may not be set at a
threshold lower than 90%
Cc. DOCUMENTS THAT EXIST IN ONLY HARDCOPY (PAPER) FORM
A Party may produce documents that exist in the normal course of business only in
hardcopy form either (a) in their original hardcopy form or (b) scanned and produced, redacted as
necessary, in accordance with the procedures set out in Appendix A. Except as set forth above, the
scanning of original hardcopy documents does not otherwise require that the scanned images be
treated as ESI
The Parties will produce paper documents according to the following protocol:
1 Except as provided in Section C(2), all paper documents shall be produced as Group
IV TIFF images with related Optical Character Recognition (“OCR”) text files and a cross-
referenced load file, according to the specifications set forth in Appendix A.
2. The Parties reserve the right to make responsive hard copy documents available for
inspection pursuant to Ohio Rule of Civil Produce 34
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D. CONFIDENTIALITY
The Parties incorporate the provisions of any discovery confidentiality order and/or
protective order concerning protection of confidential or otherwise sensitive information that may
be agreed to by the Parties and/or entered by the Court. For the avoidance of doubt, nothing in this
Stipulation shall supersede or alter any discovery confidentiality agreement and/or protective order
concerning protection of confidential or otherwise sensitive information that may be entered by
the Court.
E. COSTS OF PRODUCTION
Each Party shall bear its own costs of production, but no Party waives the right to seek
reimbursement in the future for costs of production, pursuant to the Ohio Rules of Civil Procedure,
other applicable rules, or other applicable case law.
F, CLAIMS OF PRIVILEGE
1 Privilege Log
a. Any document falling within the scope of any request for production or subpoena
that is withheld on the basis of a claim of attorney-client privilege, work product, or any other
claim of privilege or immunity from discovery is to be identified by the Producing Party in a
privilege log thirty (30) days after each production for which privilege is asserted
b For each document for which a Producing Party asserts that a privilege applies, the
Producing Party must include the following information
1 A document identification number and/or bates number,
i a statement of the ground(s) alleged for withholding such document;
iti the date of the document or communication;
Iv. the identity of its author and to whom it was sent or forwarded;
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an indication of all authors or recipients of the document who are attorneys
and/or legal staff; and
vi a description of the withheld document, communication, or tangible thing
in a manner that, without revealing information claimed privileged or
protected, will enable a party to assess the validity or efficacy of the
privilege claim.
C. Notwithstanding a claim of privilege, any document containing both privileged and
non-privileged matter must be produced with the purportedly privileged portion redacted, with the
redacted portion indicated on the document itself. As set forth above, redacted documents need not
be logged as long as the basis for the redaction is annotated on the redaction itself. For emails, the
bibliographic information (to/from/cc/bce/date sent/time sent/subject) will not be redacted unless
the information is itself privileged.
d Privileged communications between or among in-house counsel or outside counsel
related to this Action or the facts that give rise to this Action do not need to be identified on a
privilege log if those communications occurred on or after the filing of the complaint in this matter,
or in the previously filed complaint in Case No. 1:19-cv-386 filed in the United States District
Court for the Southern District of Ohio.
€. Following the receipt of a privilege log, a Receiving Party may identify, in writing,
the particular documents that it believes require further explanation within sixty (60) days of
receipt of the privilege log. Within thirty (30) days of such an identification, the Producing Party
must respond to the request. If a Party challenges a request for further information, the Parties shall
meet and confer to try to reach a mutually agreeable solution. If they cannot agree, the matter shall
be brought to the Court.
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/s/ Jettrey S. Goldenberg (via e-mail consent) /s/ Karl A. Bekeny
Jeffrey S. Goldenberg Karl A. Bekeny (0075332) (Trial Counsel)
Todd B. Naylor Benjamin C. Sassé (0072856)
GOLDENBERG SCHNEIDER, LPA Michael J. Ruttinger (0083580)
4445 Lake Forest Drive, Suite 490 Elisabeth C. Arko (0095895)
Cincinnati, OH 45242 Tucker Ellis LLP
Phone: 513.345.8291 950 Main Avenue Suite 1100
Fax: 513.345.8294 Cleveland, OH 44113-7213
jgoldenbere dd
x
gs-legal com Tel: 216.592.5000
Fax: 216.592.5009
tnsylor@es-legalcom
E-mail karl beken Dtuckerellis com
benjami se@tackerellis com
Stephen E. Imm
michael rutiinger@tuckerellis com
Matthew S. Okiishi
elisabeth arkaw@tuckerellis. com
FINNEY LAW FIRM, LLC
4270 Ivy Pointe Blvd., Suite 225
Scott J. Stitt (0073943)
Cincinnati, OH 45245 Tucker Ellis LLP
stephen @finneylawfirm com 175 S. Third Street, Suite 520
matt@tinneylawtirm.com Columbus, OH 43215-7101
Tel: 614.358.9717
Paul J. Minnillo Fax: 614.385.9712
MINNILLO LAW GROUP CO. LPA E-mail: scott. stitt(@tuckerellis
SCORE
UCKCTELS
SUT com
COBY
2712 Observatory Avenue
Cincinnati, OH 45208
Phone: 513.723.1600 Attorneys for Defendant the State Teachers
Fax: 513.723.1620 Retirement Board
im(@mig-ipa.com
David J. Butler
James D. Abrams
TAFT STETTINIUS & HOLLISTER, LLP
65 E. State Street, Suite 1000
Columbus, OH 43215
Phone: 614.221.2838
Fax: 614.221.2007
dbutier rattle eT
Attorneys for Plaintiffs Dean Dennis, Bob
Buerkle, and all others similarly situated.
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APPENDIX A
STIPULATION REGARDING ELECTRONICALLY STORED
INFORMATION AND HARD COPY PROTOCOL
Al Image Files. Files produced in *.tif image format will be single page black and
white *.tif files at 300 DPI, 8 % x 11 inch page size, Group IV compression. To the extent possible,
original orientation will be maintained (/.e., portrait-to-portrait and landscape-to-landscape). Each
* tif file will be assigned a unique name matching the production number of the corresponding
page. Such files will be grouped in folders of no more than 1,000 *.tif files each unless necessary
to prevent a file from splitting across folders. Files will not be split across folders and separate
folders will not be created for each file. Production (“Bates”) numbers shall be endorsed on the
lower right corner of all images. This number shall be a unique, consistently formatted identifier
that will:
a) be consistent across the production;
b) contain no special characters; and
°) be numerically sequential within a given file.
Bates numbers should be a combination of an alpha prefix along with a 6 digit number (e.g.,
ABC_000001). The number of digits in the numeric portion of the Bates number format should
not change in subsequent productions. Confidentiality designations, if any, will be endorsed on the
lower left corner of all images and shall not obscure any portion of the original file.
A. File Text. Except where ESI contains text that has been redacted under assertion of
privilege or other protection from disclosure, full extracted text will be provided in the format of
single * txt file for each file (i.e., not one *.txt file per *.tif image). Where ESI contains text that
has been redacted under assertion of privilege or other protection from disclosure, the redacted
A-l
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* tif image will be OCR’d and file-level OCR text will be provided in lieu of extracted text.
Searchable text will be produced as file-level multi-page UTF-8 text files with the text file named
to match the beginning production number of the file. The full path of the text file must be provided
in the * dat data load file.
A3. Unitization. A unitization file, in standard format (e.g., Concordance, Opticon,
Summation DII, or the like) showing the Bates number of each page, the appropriate unitization
of the documents, and the entire family range, will accompany each Group IV TIFF document.
The unitization of the document and any attachments shall be maintained as it existed in the
original when creating the image file. The relationship of documents in a document collection
(e.g., cover letter and enclosures, email and attachments, binder containing multiple documents,
or other documents where a parent-child relationship exists between the documents) shall be
maintained through the scanning or conversion process. If more than one level of parent-child
relationship exists, documents will be kept in order, but will be treated as children of the initial
parent document. Such information shall be produced in the load file, in a manner to enable the
parent-child relationship among documents in a document collection to be reconstituted by the
Receiving Party in commercially available document management software such as Concordance.
A4 Word Processing Files. Word processing files, including without limitation
Microsoft Word files (*.doc and *.docx), will be produced in *.tif format, with tracked changes,
comments and hidden text showing.
AS. Presentation Files. Presentation files, including without limitation Microsoft
PowerPoint files (*.ppt and *.pptx), will be produced in * .tifimage format, with comments, hidden
slides, speakers’ notes, and similar data in such files.
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AO. Spreadsheet or Worksheet Files. To the extent that spreadsheet files, including
without limitation Microsoft Excel files (*.xls or *.xlsx), are produced in *.tif image format, such
* tif images will display hidden rows, columns, and worksheets, if any, in such files.
AT Parent-Child Relationships. Parent-child relationships (e.g. the associations
between emails and their attachments) will be preserved. Email and other ESI attachments will be
produced as independent files immediately following the parent email or ESI record. Parent-child
relationships will be identified in the data load file pursuant to paragraph A.16 below.
A8 Dynamic Fields. Files containing dynamic fields such as file names, dates, and
times will be produced showing the field code (e.g., “[FILENAME]” or “[AUTODATE]”), rather
than the values for such fields existing at the time the file is processed.
AD. English Language. To the extent any data exists in more than one language, the data
will be produced in English, if available. If no English version of a file is available, the Producing
Party shall not have an obligation to produce an English translation of the data.
A10 Embedded Objects. Some Microsoft Office and .RTF files may contain embedded
objects. Such objects typically are the following file types: Microsoft Excel, Word, PowerPoint,
Project, Outlook, and Access, and PDF. Objects with those identified file types shall not be
extracted as separate files or produced as attachments to the file in which they were embedded
Following production of documents containing embedded objects, the Parties may meet and confer
on reasonable requests to produce certain embedded objects on a file by file basis.
All Compressed Files. Compressed file types (i.e., .CAB, .GZ, .TAR. .Z, .ZIP) shall be
decompressed in a reiterative manner to ensure that a zip within a zip is decompressed into the
lowest possible compression resulting in individual files.
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A122 Encrypted Files. The Producing Party will take reasonable steps, prior to
production, to unencrypt any discoverable electronically stored information that exists in
encrypted format (e.g., because password-protected) and that can be reasonably unencrypted. This
provision does not require a forensic level tool or password cracking software to be utilized to
decrypt a document. The Parties agree to meet and confer in good faith to discuss any encrypted
file that could not be unencrypted under this provision.
A.13. Fixed Notes. For documents that contain fixed notes (e.g., “post-it notes”), the
pages will be scanned or converted both with and without notes and those pages will be treated as
part of the same document. If the burden on the Producing Party associated with production of
documents with fixed notes becomes unreasonable, the Parties agree to meet and confer on the
requirements of this subparagraph
Al4 Scanned Hardcopy Documents:
a) In scanning hardcopy documents, multiple distinct documents should not
be merged into a single record, and single documents should not be split
into multiple records (7.e., hard copy documents should be logically
unitized).
b) OCR for scanned images of hard copy documents should be performed on
a document level and provided in document-level *.txt files named to match
the production number of the first page of the document to which the OCR
text corresponds. OCR text should not be delivered in the data load file or
any other delimited text file.
c) In the case of an organized compilation of separate hardcopy documents—
for example, a binder containing several separate documents behind
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numbered tabs—the document behind each tab should be scanned
separately, but the relationship among the documents in the binder should
be reflected in proper coding of the family fields set out below.
A.15. Production Numbering.
In following the requirements of Paragraph A.1, the Producing Party shall take reasonable
steps to ensure that attachments to documents or electronic files are assigned production numbers
that directly follow the production numbers on the documents or files to which they were attached.
If a production number or set of production numbers is skipped, the skipped number or set of
numbers will be noted. In addition, wherever possible, each *.tif image will have its assigned
production number electronically “burned” onto the image
A.16 Data and Image Load Files.
a) Load Files Required. Unless otherwise agreed, each production will include
a data load file in Concordance (*.dat) format and an image load file in
Opticon (*.opt) format
b) Load File Formats.
Load file names should contain the volume name of the production
media. Additional descriptive information may be provided after the
volume name. For example, either ABCO001.dat or
ABCO001_metadata.dat would be acceptable
il Unless other delimiters are specified, any fielded data provided in a
load file should use Concordance default delimiters. Semicolon (;)
should be used as multi-entry separator.
iti Any delimited text file containing fielded data should contain in the
first line a list of the fields provided in the order in which they are
organized in the file.
°) Fields to be Included in Data Load File. For all documents or electronic files
produced, the following metadata fields for each document or electronic
A-5
Franklin County Ohio Clerk of Courts of the Common Pleas- 2022 Oct 06 10:38 AM-21CV006832
0G110 - $3
file, if available at the time of collection and processing and unless such
metadata fields are protected from disclosure by attorney-client privilege or
work-product immunity or otherwise prohibited from disclosure by law or
regulation, including any applicable privacy regulation or law, will be
provided in the data load file pursuant to subparagraph (a), above, except to
the extent that a document or electronic file has been produced with
redactions. The term “Scanned Docs” refers to documents that are in hard
copy form at the time of collection and have been scanned into *.tif images
The term “Email and E-Docs” refers to files that are in electronic form at
the time of their collection.
Field Sample Data Scanned Docs Email and E-Docs Comment
PRODBEG ABC00000001 ‘Yes Yes Beginning production number
PRODEND ABC00000008 Yes Yes Ending production number
PRODATTCOUNT 3 N/A Yes Number of attachments to a
document
PRODBEGATT ABC00000009 Yes Yes Beginning production number
of parent in a family
PRODENDATT ABC00001005 Yes Yes Ending production number of
last page of the last attachment
ina family
ALL CUSTODIANS Smith, John Yes Yes Custodian(s) that possessed the
document or electronic file—
multiple custodians separated
by semicolon
NATIVEFILE Natives\001\001\ABC NIA Yes Path and file name for native
0000000 1.xIs file on production media
FILEDESC Microsoft Office 2007 N/A Yes Description of the type file for
Document
Preview
Franklin County Ohio Clerk of Courts of the Common Pleas- 2022 Oct 06 10:38 AM-21CV006832 0G110 - sl IN THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS FRANKLIN COUNTY, OHIO DEAN DENNIS and BOB BUERKLE, ) CASE NO. 21-cv-006832 individually and on behalf of those similarly ) situated, JUDGE SHERYL K. MUNSON Plaintiffs, STIPULATED PROTOCOL FOR Vv. ELECTRONICALLY STORED INFORMATION AND HARD COPY STATE TEACHERS RETIREMENT DOCUMENTS BOARD, Defendant. Now come Plaintiffs Dean Dennis and Bob Buerkle on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated, and Defendant State Teachers Retirement Board (STRB) (collectively, the Parties) and hereby agree to the following protocol for production of electronically stored information and paper documents. A. GENERAL AGREEMENTS 1 General a. This Stipulated Protocol for Electronically Stored Information and Hard Copy Documents (Protocol) governs the production of all Electronically Stored Information (ESI) and paper (hardcopy) discovery in this matter (“Action”). b The Parties agree that should a dispute arise out of the implementation of this Protocol, the Parties shall meet and confer in an attempt to resolve the dispute. All disputes arising Franklin County Ohio Clerk of Courts of the Common Pleas- 2022 Oct 06 10:38 AM-21CV006832 0G110 - sl out of this Protocol shall be resolved with reference to the agreements contained herein and the Ohio Rules of Civil Procedure Cc. Nothing in this Protocol shall limit a Party’s right to object to any discovery request pursuant to any applicable rule or law, or to modify this Protocol through agreement of the Parties or through Court intervention. d A Party producing documents or ESI will be referred to as the “Producing Party” and a Party receiving documents or ESI will be referred to herein as the “Receiving Party 2 Proportionality of Discovery a. Pursuant to Ohio Civil Rule 26(B)(1), the Parties agree that discovery in this Action will be proportional to the needs of the case. To this end, the Parties will work together in good faith to identify appropriate limits on discovery, as necessary. These limits may include the number of custodians, discoverable data sources, the relevant time period, the permissible scope of requests for production, and the permissible scope of requests for emails and other ESI. The Parties agree that working in good faith means cooperating in good faith throughout this matter, including by meeting and conferring over any disagreements as may arise during the course of discovery before filing a motion to compel discovery. The Parties agree that whenever possible, requests for production of ESI, including requests for emails, shall be reasonably targeted, clear, and as specific as possible, rather than general discovery. b Custodians 1 After receipt of a Party’s document requests, the Producing Party shall provide a list of the Key Custodians to the requesting Party. The Parties shall meet and confer to agree upon the identity of the Key Custodians. Absent good cause, and subject to further agreement of the Parties, this list shall be the presumptive limit on ESI discovery. Should the Franklin County Ohio Clerk of Courts of the Common Pleas- 2022 Oct 06 10:38 AM-21CV006832 0G110 - s2 Parties, through the discovery process, identify a legitimate need to conduct additional reasonable and proportional discovery related to new Key Custodians, the Parties shall meet and confer on additional discovery. If an agreement between the Parties is not reached regarding the identity of the Key Custodians, the Parties will seek Court assistance to resolve the issue. ii. The Parties agree to take reasonable steps to identify and search the sources of potentially relevant and responsive information of each Key Custodian for collection and search, including but not limited to hard copy files, texts, e-mail repositories and corresponding attachments, hard drives (internal and external), cell phones, tablets, cloud-based storage, local workstations, industry-specific databases, and folders within shared network drives and network file servers in which each Key Custodian places or maintains documents. Cc. Discovery Concerning Preservation and Collection Efforts. If, based upon good faith, there is a reasonable dispute concerning the scope of a Party’s preservation or collection efforts, the Parties agree to meet and confer on the basis for such discovery, including the need for the requested discovery, relevance to claims or defenses of the action, proportionality of the proposed discovery, and the suitability of alternative means for obtaining the information d Non-Discoverable ESI. Pursuant to the proportionality standards under Ohio Civil Rule 26(B)(1), and absent a Party’s specific written notice for good cause, the following categories of ESI are presumed to be inaccessible and not discoverable: 1 ESI deleted in the normal course of business before the time a preservation obligation in this matter came into effect; il Backup data files that are (a) maintained in the normal course of business for purposes of disaster recovery, including but not limited to backup tapes, disks, SAN, and other forms of media, and (b) substantially duplicative of data that are more accessible elsewhere; iii. Deleted, slack, fragmented, or unallocated data only accessible by forensics; Franklin County Ohio Clerk of Courts of the Common Pleas- 2022 Oct 06 10:38 AM-21CV006832 0G110 - s2 Iv. Random access memory (RAM), temporary files, or other ephemeral data that are difficult to preserve without disabling the operating system; On-line access data such as (without limitation) temporary internet files, history files, cache files, and cookies; vi Data in metadata fields frequently updated automatically, such as last- opened or last-printed dates; vii. Electronic data (e.g., call logs, email, calendars, contact data, notes, etc.) sent to or from mobile devices (e.g. iPhone, iPad and Android devices), provided that copies of all such electronic data are routinely saved elsewhere (such as on a server, laptop, desktop computer or cloud storage); viii Voicemail, including Telephone or VOIP voice messages, not retained in the ordinary course of business or otherwise; 1x SAS program and data files (unless such program or data files are created in connection with expert discovery); Server, system, network, or software application logs; XL. Data remaining from systems no longer in use that is unintelligible on the systems in use; xii. De-NISTing - Software files included on the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Modern RDS (minimal) list obtained from https://www.nist.gov/itl/ssd/software-quality-group/national- software-reference-library-nsrl/nsrl-download/current-rds; xiii Operating System files that do not store user-created content (e.g. CAT, DLL, DMP, EXE, FON, PNF, OPS, SYS, etc.); xiv Application source code, configuration, and other similar files necessary for the function of an application that do not store user-created content during ordinary use (e.g. BAK, BIN, CFG, DBF, DAT, JS, JSON, JAR, LUA, MSB, RES, WINNT, YTR, etc.); XV Structural files not material to individual file contents that do not contain substantive content (e.g. .CSS, XSL, .XML, .DTD, etc.) €. Disaster-Recovery Backup Data. Absent an agreement of the Parties or Court order, no Party shall be required to modify or suspend procedures, including rotation of backup media, used in the normal course of business to back up data and systems for disaster recovery purposes. Franklin County Ohio Clerk of Courts of the Common Pleas- 2022 Oct 06 10:38 AM-21CV006832 0G110 - s2 3 No Designation of Discovery Requests Productions of hardcopy documents and ESI in the reasonably usable form set out in this Protocol, including Appendix A, need not be organized and labeled to correspond to the categories in the requests. Should a Receiving Party make a reasonable request for identification by Bates number of groups of Documents that the Producing Party can easily and readily identify, the Producing Party shall cooperate and provide such information as soon as reasonably practicable considering the scope of the request and the volume of Documents implicated. 4 502(D) Clawhack of Privileged Information The production and clawback of privileged information is governed by a separate Order under Evid. Rule 502(D) entered in this matter B. ELECTRONICALLY STORED INFORMATION 1 Production in Reasonably Usable Form a. Rolling Production. The Parties may produce ESI on a rolling basis b Reasonably Usable Form. The Parties shall produce ESI in reasonably usable form. Except as stated in paragraphs B(2) through B(4) below, or as agreed hereafter by the Parties, such reasonably usable form shall be the single-page, black and white, Group IV TIFF-image format with extracted or OCR text and associated metadata set out in Appendix A, which is incorporated in full in this protocol. Each Group IV TIFF version of an electronic document will be created directly from the corresponding native file. If the Receiving Party, for good cause explained in the request, seeks production in native format of specifically identified ESI produced originally in Group IV TIFF-image form, the Producing Party shall respond reasonably and in good faith to any such request. Franklin County Ohio Clerk of Courts of the Common Pleas- 2022 Oct 06 10:38 AM-21CV006832 0G110 - s2 Cc. Redactions. The producing Party may redact from any Group IV TIFF image, metadata field, or native file, material (i) that is protected from disclosure by any applicable privilege or immunity, (ii) governed by applicable privacy law or regulation, (iii) containing non- responsive information, or (iv) that any Protective Order entered in this Action allows to be redacted. In preparing document families for production, the Producing Party also may redact entire attachments that are wholly non-responsive and may produce slipsheets in their place. The basis for each redaction shall be annotated (i.e., Redacted for Privacy, Redacted as Privileged, Redacted as Non-Responsive, etc.) on the redaction itself. Redactions made in accordance with these provisions need not be included on a privilege log or redaction log. Following the production of documents redacted for privilege, the parties may meet and confer on any reasonable requests from the Receiving Party for privilege log entries related to individual documents redacted for privilege that are so substantial they remove the context necessary to evaluate the asserted privilege, if there is a legitimate and good faith basis for questioning the status of a document. d Color. Where an original document contains color, the Parties will honor reasonable requests for re-production of a color image of the document. Where a document is produced in color, images may be produced as single page, JPEG images. Video files (e.g., .wma, mov, .mpg, .wmv, .avi, .asf) and computer animation files (e.g., .avi, .gif, .mpg, .gif, mpg, .mpeg, .wmv) shall be produced in color. 2. Previously_Produced_ ESI. If ESI discoverable in this proceeding was previously produced in another legal proceeding, the Producing Party may elect to produce that ESI in the form in which it was previously produced. Prior to production of previously produced ESI under this provision, the Producing Party will advise the Receiving Party of the production and format, and will meet and confer with the Receiving Party should there be any good faith concerns related Franklin County Ohio Clerk of Courts of the Common Pleas- 2022 Oct 06 10:38 AM-21CV006832 0G110 - s2 to the prior production format. Should any disputes remain following the Parties’ good faith efforts to meet-and-confer, either Party may seek assistance from the Court. 3 Electronic Spreadsheets and Multimedia File: a. Except if redacted, Microsoft Excel files will be produced in native format with related searchable text, metadata, and bibliographic information. b Except if redacted, photographs, video and any other audio/visual multimedia files will be produced in native format. Cc. When producing documents in native format, the Producing Party shall (i) insert into the production a “placeholder” file for the document to be produced elsewhere in native format or (ii) include a Group IV TIFF image of the native document in the sequence of the production indicating that the native file will be produced elsewhere in the production. d Any produced native file will be named according to the first Bates number of the corresponding electronic document (e.g., [Production Number Begin].xlsx). €. No Party may request the production of documents in native format on a wholesale basis. 4 Structured Data from Enterprise Databases, Database Management Systems and other Structured Data In instances in which discoverable electronically stored information in an enterprise database or database management system (e.g., Oracle, SQL server, DB2) can be produced in an already existing and reasonably available report, the Parties shall collect and produce, in the reasonably usable Group IV TIFF-image form described in Appendix A, the discoverable material in that report format. If an existing report form is not reasonably available, the Parties shall export Franklin County Ohio Clerk of Courts of the Common Pleas- 2022 Oct 06 10:38 AM-21CV006832 0G110 - s2 from the original database discoverable information in a format compatible with Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Access, and the information shall be produced in that native format. 5 Additional Procedures for Native Format Files a. Procedures for assigning production numbers and confidentiality information to files produced in native format are addressed in Appendix A, Paragraph A.17. b Any Party seeking to use, in any proceeding in this Action, files produced in native format shall do so subject to the following: 1 If the native file has been converted to Group IV TIFF-image or hardcopy, the original production number and confidentiality designation shall be stamped on each page of the resulting Group IV TIFF-image or hardcopy document representing the original native-format file, with a suffix added to the production number to identify the particular page in the file (e.g., XYZ00001_001) i Tf the file will be used in its native format, the Party seeking to use the native file shall first provide to other Parties, sufficiently in advance of such use that the Producing Party can confirm that the file to be used is the same as the file produced, both the production number and the MDS5 or SHA-1 hash value of the file. iti Use of a file in native format, or use of a Group IV TIFF-image or hardcopy document representing the original native-format file shall constitute a representation that the file being used is an accurate and complete depiction of the original native-format file. 6 Use of Search Terms and Filters a. To contain costs in the identification of relevant ESI for review and production, the Parties agree to meet and confer to discuss the use of reasonable search terms, proximity filters, file types among other possible filters, or the use of advanced search and retrieval technologies, such as predictive coding or other technology-assisted review. b In meeting and conferring on the use of search terms, the Producing Party shall first disclose its search filters to the Receiving Party, and if the Receiving Party believes in good faith Franklin County Ohio Clerk of Courts of the Common Pleas- 2022 Oct 06 10:38 AM-21CV006832 0G110 - s2 that use of the disclosed search filters may result in deficiencies in production, the Receiving Party may make prompt, reasonable requests for different or additional searches/terms. The Producing Party shall respond reasonably to such requests and meet and confer if necessary. Any proposed search filters shall be tailored to the particular claims and defenses at issue and proportional to the needs of the case, in accordance with the Ohio Civil Rules. C. The fact that any electronic file has been identified in agreed-upon searches shall not prevent any Party from withholding such file from production on the grounds that the file is not responsive, protected from disclosure by applicable privilege or immunity, governed by the applicable privacy laws or regulations, contains non-responsive information, or that any Protective Order entered in this Action allows the file to be withheld. d Nothing in this section shall limit a Party’s right to reasonably seek agreement from the other Parties or a court ruling to modify previously agreed-upon search terms. 7 Email Threading a. Email threads are email communications that contain prior or lesser-included email communications that also may exist separately in the Party’s electronic files. A most inclusive email is one that contains all of the prior or lesser-included emails, including attachments, for that branch of the email thread. The Parties agree that removal of wholly-included, prior-in-time, or lesser-included versions from potential production will reduce all Parties’ costs of document review, production, and litigation-support hosting. Accordingly, each Party may produce or list on any required privilege log, only the most inclusive email in an email thread. b Following production of most inclusive email threads, and for good cause and subject to the proportionality standard, a Receiving Party may make reasonable requests for individual lesser-included emails. The Producing Party shall cooperate reasonably in responding Franklin County Ohio Clerk of Courts of the Common Pleas- 2022 Oct 06 10:38 AM-21CV006832 0G110 - s2 to any such requests if the requested lesser-included emails otherwise would have been subject to production. 8 De-Duplication a. “Duplicate ESI” means files that are exact duplicates based on the files’ MD5 or SHA-1 hash values. The Producing Party need produce only a single copy of responsive Duplicate ESI. A Producing Party shall take reasonable steps to de-duplicate ESI globally (/.e., both within a particular custodian’s files and across all custodians). Entire document families may constitute Duplicate ESI. De-duplication shall not break apart families. When the same Duplicate ESI exists in the files of multiple custodians, those persons shall be listed in the Custodian field identified in Paragraph A.16(c) of Appendix A. De-duplication of hard-copy documents may not be set at a threshold lower than 90% Cc. DOCUMENTS THAT EXIST IN ONLY HARDCOPY (PAPER) FORM A Party may produce documents that exist in the normal course of business only in hardcopy form either (a) in their original hardcopy form or (b) scanned and produced, redacted as necessary, in accordance with the procedures set out in Appendix A. Except as set forth above, the scanning of original hardcopy documents does not otherwise require that the scanned images be treated as ESI The Parties will produce paper documents according to the following protocol: 1 Except as provided in Section C(2), all paper documents shall be produced as Group IV TIFF images with related Optical Character Recognition (“OCR”) text files and a cross- referenced load file, according to the specifications set forth in Appendix A. 2. The Parties reserve the right to make responsive hard copy documents available for inspection pursuant to Ohio Rule of Civil Produce 34 10 Franklin County Ohio Clerk of Courts of the Common Pleas- 2022 Oct 06 10:38 AM-21CV006832 0G110 - s2 D. CONFIDENTIALITY The Parties incorporate the provisions of any discovery confidentiality order and/or protective order concerning protection of confidential or otherwise sensitive information that may be agreed to by the Parties and/or entered by the Court. For the avoidance of doubt, nothing in this Stipulation shall supersede or alter any discovery confidentiality agreement and/or protective order concerning protection of confidential or otherwise sensitive information that may be entered by the Court. E. COSTS OF PRODUCTION Each Party shall bear its own costs of production, but no Party waives the right to seek reimbursement in the future for costs of production, pursuant to the Ohio Rules of Civil Procedure, other applicable rules, or other applicable case law. F, CLAIMS OF PRIVILEGE 1 Privilege Log a. Any document falling within the scope of any request for production or subpoena that is withheld on the basis of a claim of attorney-client privilege, work product, or any other claim of privilege or immunity from discovery is to be identified by the Producing Party in a privilege log thirty (30) days after each production for which privilege is asserted b For each document for which a Producing Party asserts that a privilege applies, the Producing Party must include the following information 1 A document identification number and/or bates number, i a statement of the ground(s) alleged for withholding such document; iti the date of the document or communication; Iv. the identity of its author and to whom it was sent or forwarded; 11 Franklin County Ohio Clerk of Courts of the Common Pleas- 2022 Oct 06 10:38 AM-21CV006832 0G110 - s2 an indication of all authors or recipients of the document who are attorneys and/or legal staff; and vi a description of the withheld document, communication, or tangible thing in a manner that, without revealing information claimed privileged or protected, will enable a party to assess the validity or efficacy of the privilege claim. C. Notwithstanding a claim of privilege, any document containing both privileged and non-privileged matter must be produced with the purportedly privileged portion redacted, with the redacted portion indicated on the document itself. As set forth above, redacted documents need not be logged as long as the basis for the redaction is annotated on the redaction itself. For emails, the bibliographic information (to/from/cc/bce/date sent/time sent/subject) will not be redacted unless the information is itself privileged. d Privileged communications between or among in-house counsel or outside counsel related to this Action or the facts that give rise to this Action do not need to be identified on a privilege log if those communications occurred on or after the filing of the complaint in this matter, or in the previously filed complaint in Case No. 1:19-cv-386 filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. €. Following the receipt of a privilege log, a Receiving Party may identify, in writing, the particular documents that it believes require further explanation within sixty (60) days of receipt of the privilege log. Within thirty (30) days of such an identification, the Producing Party must respond to the request. If a Party challenges a request for further information, the Parties shall meet and confer to try to reach a mutually agreeable solution. If they cannot agree, the matter shall be brought to the Court. 12 Franklin County Ohio Clerk of Courts of the Common Pleas- 2022 Oct 06 10:38 AM-21CV006832 0G110 - s3 /s/ Jettrey S. Goldenberg (via e-mail consent) /s/ Karl A. Bekeny Jeffrey S. Goldenberg Karl A. Bekeny (0075332) (Trial Counsel) Todd B. Naylor Benjamin C. Sassé (0072856) GOLDENBERG SCHNEIDER, LPA Michael J. Ruttinger (0083580) 4445 Lake Forest Drive, Suite 490 Elisabeth C. Arko (0095895) Cincinnati, OH 45242 Tucker Ellis LLP Phone: 513.345.8291 950 Main Avenue Suite 1100 Fax: 513.345.8294 Cleveland, OH 44113-7213 jgoldenbere dd x gs-legal com Tel: 216.592.5000 Fax: 216.592.5009 tnsylor@es-legalcom E-mail karl beken Dtuckerellis com benjami se@tackerellis com Stephen E. Imm michael rutiinger@tuckerellis com Matthew S. Okiishi elisabeth arkaw@tuckerellis. com FINNEY LAW FIRM, LLC 4270 Ivy Pointe Blvd., Suite 225 Scott J. Stitt (0073943) Cincinnati, OH 45245 Tucker Ellis LLP stephen @finneylawfirm com 175 S. Third Street, Suite 520 matt@tinneylawtirm.com Columbus, OH 43215-7101 Tel: 614.358.9717 Paul J. Minnillo Fax: 614.385.9712 MINNILLO LAW GROUP CO. LPA E-mail: scott. stitt(@tuckerellis SCORE UCKCTELS SUT com COBY 2712 Observatory Avenue Cincinnati, OH 45208 Phone: 513.723.1600 Attorneys for Defendant the State Teachers Fax: 513.723.1620 Retirement Board im(@mig-ipa.com David J. Butler James D. Abrams TAFT STETTINIUS & HOLLISTER, LLP 65 E. State Street, Suite 1000 Columbus, OH 43215 Phone: 614.221.2838 Fax: 614.221.2007 dbutier rattle eT Attorneys for Plaintiffs Dean Dennis, Bob Buerkle, and all others similarly situated. 13 Franklin County Ohio Clerk of Courts of the Common Pleas- 2022 Oct 06 10:38 AM-21CV006832 0G110 - s3 APPENDIX A STIPULATION REGARDING ELECTRONICALLY STORED INFORMATION AND HARD COPY PROTOCOL Al Image Files. Files produced in *.tif image format will be single page black and white *.tif files at 300 DPI, 8 % x 11 inch page size, Group IV compression. To the extent possible, original orientation will be maintained (/.e., portrait-to-portrait and landscape-to-landscape). Each * tif file will be assigned a unique name matching the production number of the corresponding page. Such files will be grouped in folders of no more than 1,000 *.tif files each unless necessary to prevent a file from splitting across folders. Files will not be split across folders and separate folders will not be created for each file. Production (“Bates”) numbers shall be endorsed on the lower right corner of all images. This number shall be a unique, consistently formatted identifier that will: a) be consistent across the production; b) contain no special characters; and °) be numerically sequential within a given file. Bates numbers should be a combination of an alpha prefix along with a 6 digit number (e.g., ABC_000001). The number of digits in the numeric portion of the Bates number format should not change in subsequent productions. Confidentiality designations, if any, will be endorsed on the lower left corner of all images and shall not obscure any portion of the original file. A. File Text. Except where ESI contains text that has been redacted under assertion of privilege or other protection from disclosure, full extracted text will be provided in the format of single * txt file for each file (i.e., not one *.txt file per *.tif image). Where ESI contains text that has been redacted under assertion of privilege or other protection from disclosure, the redacted A-l Franklin County Ohio Clerk of Courts of the Common Pleas- 2022 Oct 06 10:38 AM-21CV006832 0G110 - s3 * tif image will be OCR’d and file-level OCR text will be provided in lieu of extracted text. Searchable text will be produced as file-level multi-page UTF-8 text files with the text file named to match the beginning production number of the file. The full path of the text file must be provided in the * dat data load file. A3. Unitization. A unitization file, in standard format (e.g., Concordance, Opticon, Summation DII, or the like) showing the Bates number of each page, the appropriate unitization of the documents, and the entire family range, will accompany each Group IV TIFF document. The unitization of the document and any attachments shall be maintained as it existed in the original when creating the image file. The relationship of documents in a document collection (e.g., cover letter and enclosures, email and attachments, binder containing multiple documents, or other documents where a parent-child relationship exists between the documents) shall be maintained through the scanning or conversion process. If more than one level of parent-child relationship exists, documents will be kept in order, but will be treated as children of the initial parent document. Such information shall be produced in the load file, in a manner to enable the parent-child relationship among documents in a document collection to be reconstituted by the Receiving Party in commercially available document management software such as Concordance. A4 Word Processing Files. Word processing files, including without limitation Microsoft Word files (*.doc and *.docx), will be produced in *.tif format, with tracked changes, comments and hidden text showing. AS. Presentation Files. Presentation files, including without limitation Microsoft PowerPoint files (*.ppt and *.pptx), will be produced in * .tifimage format, with comments, hidden slides, speakers’ notes, and similar data in such files. A-2 Franklin County Ohio Clerk of Courts of the Common Pleas- 2022 Oct 06 10:38 AM-21CV006832 0G110 - s3 AO. Spreadsheet or Worksheet Files. To the extent that spreadsheet files, including without limitation Microsoft Excel files (*.xls or *.xlsx), are produced in *.tif image format, such * tif images will display hidden rows, columns, and worksheets, if any, in such files. AT Parent-Child Relationships. Parent-child relationships (e.g. the associations between emails and their attachments) will be preserved. Email and other ESI attachments will be produced as independent files immediately following the parent email or ESI record. Parent-child relationships will be identified in the data load file pursuant to paragraph A.16 below. A8 Dynamic Fields. Files containing dynamic fields such as file names, dates, and times will be produced showing the field code (e.g., “[FILENAME]” or “[AUTODATE]”), rather than the values for such fields existing at the time the file is processed. AD. English Language. To the extent any data exists in more than one language, the data will be produced in English, if available. If no English version of a file is available, the Producing Party shall not have an obligation to produce an English translation of the data. A10 Embedded Objects. Some Microsoft Office and .RTF files may contain embedded objects. Such objects typically are the following file types: Microsoft Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Project, Outlook, and Access, and PDF. Objects with those identified file types shall not be extracted as separate files or produced as attachments to the file in which they were embedded Following production of documents containing embedded objects, the Parties may meet and confer on reasonable requests to produce certain embedded objects on a file by file basis. All Compressed Files. Compressed file types (i.e., .CAB, .GZ, .TAR. .Z, .ZIP) shall be decompressed in a reiterative manner to ensure that a zip within a zip is decompressed into the lowest possible compression resulting in individual files. A-3 Franklin County Ohio Clerk of Courts of the Common Pleas- 2022 Oct 06 10:38 AM-21CV006832 0G110 - s3 A122 Encrypted Files. The Producing Party will take reasonable steps, prior to production, to unencrypt any discoverable electronically stored information that exists in encrypted format (e.g., because password-protected) and that can be reasonably unencrypted. This provision does not require a forensic level tool or password cracking software to be utilized to decrypt a document. The Parties agree to meet and confer in good faith to discuss any encrypted file that could not be unencrypted under this provision. A.13. Fixed Notes. For documents that contain fixed notes (e.g., “post-it notes”), the pages will be scanned or converted both with and without notes and those pages will be treated as part of the same document. If the burden on the Producing Party associated with production of documents with fixed notes becomes unreasonable, the Parties agree to meet and confer on the requirements of this subparagraph Al4 Scanned Hardcopy Documents: a) In scanning hardcopy documents, multiple distinct documents should not be merged into a single record, and single documents should not be split into multiple records (7.e., hard copy documents should be logically unitized). b) OCR for scanned images of hard copy documents should be performed on a document level and provided in document-level *.txt files named to match the production number of the first page of the document to which the OCR text corresponds. OCR text should not be delivered in the data load file or any other delimited text file. c) In the case of an organized compilation of separate hardcopy documents— for example, a binder containing several separate documents behind A4 Franklin County Ohio Clerk of Courts of the Common Pleas- 2022 Oct 06 10:38 AM-21CV006832 0G110 - s3 numbered tabs—the document behind each tab should be scanned separately, but the relationship among the documents in the binder should be reflected in proper coding of the family fields set out below. A.15. Production Numbering. In following the requirements of Paragraph A.1, the Producing Party shall take reasonable steps to ensure that attachments to documents or electronic files are assigned production numbers that directly follow the production numbers on the documents or files to which they were attached. If a production number or set of production numbers is skipped, the skipped number or set of numbers will be noted. In addition, wherever possible, each *.tif image will have its assigned production number electronically “burned” onto the image A.16 Data and Image Load Files. a) Load Files Required. Unless otherwise agreed, each production will include a data load file in Concordance (*.dat) format and an image load file in Opticon (*.opt) format b) Load File Formats. Load file names should contain the volume name of the production media. Additional descriptive information may be provided after the volume name. For example, either ABCO001.dat or ABCO001_metadata.dat would be acceptable il Unless other delimiters are specified, any fielded data provided in a load file should use Concordance default delimiters. Semicolon (;) should be used as multi-entry separator. iti Any delimited text file containing fielded data should contain in the first line a list of the fields provided in the order in which they are organized in the file. °) Fields to be Included in Data Load File. For all documents or electronic files produced, the following metadata fields for each document or electronic A-5 Franklin County Ohio Clerk of Courts of the Common Pleas- 2022 Oct 06 10:38 AM-21CV006832 0G110 - $3 file, if available at the time of collection and processing and unless such metadata fields are protected from disclosure by attorney-client privilege or work-product immunity or otherwise prohibited from disclosure by law or regulation, including any applicable privacy regulation or law, will be provided in the data load file pursuant to subparagraph (a), above, except to the extent that a document or electronic file has been produced with redactions. The term “Scanned Docs” refers to documents that are in hard copy form at the time of collection and have been scanned into *.tif images The term “Email and E-Docs” refers to files that are in electronic form at the time of their collection. Field Sample Data Scanned Docs Email and E-Docs Comment PRODBEG ABC00000001 ‘Yes Yes Beginning production number PRODEND ABC00000008 Yes Yes Ending production number PRODATTCOUNT 3 N/A Yes Number of attachments to a document PRODBEGATT ABC00000009 Yes Yes Beginning production number of parent in a family PRODENDATT ABC00001005 Yes Yes Ending production number of last page of the last attachment ina family ALL CUSTODIANS Smith, John Yes Yes Custodian(s) that possessed the document or electronic file— multiple custodians separated by semicolon NATIVEFILE Natives\001\001\ABC NIA Yes Path and file name for native 0000000 1.xIs file on production media FILEDESC Microsoft Office 2007 N/A Yes Description of the type file for Document