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But when one office became involved several years ago in a high-profile trial involving highly sensitive information, the defenders assigned to the case feared that the sheer volume of discovery in the case would give rise to an unprecedented challenge in document management. Those fears were confirmed when the first batch of discovery documents arrived in the form of more than 2,000 CD-ROMs.
Challenge: A Web-Based System
Those looking for a solution knew that they needed a Web-based system for managing the documents, something that would allow lawyers in multiple locations to share discovery and synchronize their work product. But they also knew that a Web-based repository would present critical security challenges. And, because the customer was part of the federal government, cost would be a major consideration.
The search team looked at several extranet vendors, and in the end selected Catalyst (then caseSHARE) to do the job. Their were two major factors for this choice. One was Catalyst's CEO, John Tredennick. A lawyer with more than two decades of litigation experience, Tredennick demonstrated that he had assembled a team who had a firm, hands-on grasp of case management and litigation strategy. Their deep understanding of the process gave the lawyers in the Federal Public Defenders office a high level of comfort.
Another factor was the way the system worked and, in particular, its use of Adobe Acrobat format for documents digitization. Other systems the search team had looked at employed graphic files to preserve the appearance of a document and married them to a separate database for storing and text. Searching for text within a document relied on a complex and not very accurate process of matching text to graphical coordinates. In contrast, only Catalyst's system combined image and text storage in a single PDF file, vastly enhancing the ability to accurately search for words and phrases within documents.
Other factors contributed to choosing Catalyst. High among them was the Catalyst system's ease of use. The search team found its menu system straightforward and simple to understand, a real benefit when a team needs to get up to speed quickly and start working productively.
Solution: Catalyst CR
Catalyst's system delivered the high level of security required for this case and provided the legal team with an efficient, safe way to manage the high-volume of documents associated with the case. At the same time, both the cost of the initial implementation and the money saved by instituting a new, cost-effective work process were aligned with federal government budgetary considerations.
While this case has finally gone to trial, the Federal Public Defenders Office has gone on to use the Catalyst system in other cases. In one particularly noteworthy situation in 2003, a U.S. district judge ordered the Federal Bureau of Prisons to provide a criminal defendant in detention with access to certain documents via the Catalyst system. A 114-count indictment charged the defendant with a complex, $92 million securities fraud. With documents in the case estimated at more than 1.5 million pages, the court ruled that the defendant's rights to due process of law and a speedy trial required the Bureau of Prisons to provide him access to Catalyst directly from his prison cell.
Epilogue: Court Orders BOP to Connect Prisoner
In complex criminal cases it can be especially important to have the defendant involved as counsel analyzes documents and works up the case. This usually presents no difficulty when the defendant is out on bail. However, when the defendant is incarcerated, it can be a different story.
Arguing that due process requires allowing a defendant to meaningfully participate in the defense, some courts are starting to order that those in jail be allowed to connect. The driving force is the large volume of documents that often accompanies criminal securities matters, in numbers more typical of a complex civil case. Clearly, defense counsel cannot carry a truckload of documents with him or her to the jail cell. Nor can the defendant come to counsel's office to review the files. If the two are going to collaborate in the defense, they need some way to connect.
For more on this issue, read Federal Judge Pechman's Findings in United States v. Kevin Lawrence ordering the Bureau of Prisons to connect Mr. Lawrence to a Catalyst (caseSHARE at that time) repository.
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