Laura O'Gorman

Electronic Casebooks 

There are myriad ways to compile an electronic casebook, with an evolving range of software that could be used (such as Bundledocs, using templates they have developed to comply with the New Zealand protocols), or external providers who can undertake the task for you (such as SLS or Yallop & Co).

For those wanting to do the work themselves using Adobe Pro or similar, I have uploaded to YouTube a number of videos showing the steps for constructing an electronic casebook (all relating to the Senior Courts Civil Electronic Document Protocol).  

Automated hyperlinking has the biggest impact in terms of achieving efficiencies, so I have included the detail of what I do below.  I am aware that some people have used an AutoBookmark plugin by Evermap, but I have no experience with that option myself.

Automated index hyperlinking 

This site has an excellent stand-alone tool for hyperlinking documents in bulk using a spreadsheet, which is what I use: http://try67.blogspot.com/2012/03/acrobat-create-custom-links-from-text.html. 

The table of contents can be hyperlinked by simply running the tool, filling in the path to the document you want to hyperlink, and then filling in the path to this generic csv file (which finds all matches for xx.xxxx or xxx.xxxx and links to a file with the corresponding name).

The whole process is shown in this video:

Automated pinpoint hyperlinking

For pinpoint hyperlinking, I have developed my own master template (see below), which is populated to list all the casebook pages, and has formulae to build the relevant hyperlink reference for each page. Once created, this spreadsheet can then be applied to hyperlink automatically any pdfs you may create in the case (the index, submissions, cross-examination notes, chronologies, key document diagrams etc). 

I have demonstrated the process in a video here:

Instructions for using generic pinpoint builder 

1. Using the above generic pinpoint builder*, in column B (list of docs), cut and paste the Electronic Casebook filename docids (select them all at once and copy the filenames with <ctrl-c>, then paste the names into column B of your spreadsheet, then find and replace “.pdf” with “”).
2. In column A (full list of pages), build a full listing of all the case bundle pages using just the beginning and end numbers of each bundle.  Use “fill":  In column A row 2, enter the starting page number for the first bundle. With the cursor on that cell, go to Home → Fill → Series → (Column, Linear, Step value .0001, then enter the Stop value to match the end page of the volume including the prefix).  Then in the next cell at the bottom of that generated list, enter the starting page number for the next bundle etc, and repeat this "fill" process for all bundles.
3. Check the numbers in columns A and B all have four decimal places (custom format to "00.0000" or "000.0000" if necessary).  

* If you need to copy the pre-filled formulae to more rows, then column C needs to be entered with <ctrl-shift-enter> (because it is an array).

Your master spreadsheet should look like this:

Create your pinpoint hyperlinking csv file

Cut and paste the data from Column A and G of the master spreadsheet into the second "list to use" sheet (use special paste, values). Make sure the docids are still 4 decimals places (custom format the columns if required). Copy this spreadsheet to a new book and save it as a csv file.

Your final hyperlinking csv file for executing in Gilad's app should look like this:

Other papers and presentations

• Seminar on E-discovery (Bankside Chambers, May 2020)
• Justice Miller, Justice Jagose, Bronwyn McKinlay, Laura O'Gorman,"Civil Electronic Casebooks - Senior Courts" (New Zealand Law Society Seminar, October 2019)
• Panel presenter on "Technology for law, ADR, and practice" at LawFest 2018 Conference (Auckland, 8 March 2018)
• Panel presenter on "E-discovery 101" at LawFest 2017 Conference (Auckland, 17 May 2017)
• Panel speaker on "Privilege and its impact on discovery/production" at IPBA Conference (Auckland, 8 April 2017)
• Friar, King and O’Gorman, “New Discovery Rules” (New Zealand Law Society Seminar, October 2011)
• O’Gorman and Ayers, “Electronic Discovery” (New Zealand Law Society Seminar, March and April 2009)

© Copyright Laura O'Gorman