WalkingPDF

guide

Privilege log template, and the columns a reviewing party needs

A privilege log needs six things for every withheld document: the Bates range it covers, the document type, its date, its author, its recipient, and the basis for withholding. A log missing any of them invites a challenge that has nothing to do with whether the document is actually privileged.

The six columns

A privilege log row, column by column
ColumnWhat goes in itWhat goes wrong
Bates BeginThe first number of the withheld document, exactly as it appears in the production's numbering.A range that does not match a hole in the set - the log claims pages that were served.
Bates EndThe last number. Equal to Begin for a one-page document.Left blank on multi-page documents, so nobody can tell how much is being withheld.
Document TypeEmail, memorandum, draft, spreadsheet, photograph - what the thing is."Document" on every row, which describes nothing.
DateThe date on the face of the document, in one format throughout.A different format per row, or a range where a date exists.
AuthorThe person who created it, as named on the document."Various", or the firm's name where the custodian is meant.
RecipientWho it was sent to, including copy recipients where they matter.Blank, which on an email log is the field a reviewer checks first.
BasisAttorney-client, work product, joint defence - the ground actually claimed."Privileged", which is a conclusion rather than a basis.

Column names vary by jurisdiction and by platform. BEGBATES, BegBates and Bates Begin are the same field; the check matches aliases rather than requiring one spelling.

Why the Bates range is the column that matters most

Five of the six columns are read by a person. The Bates range is the only one a machine can hold you to, because it is the only one that can be compared against the production itself. Every number in the range should be a page that was not served; every number outside it should be a page that was.

That comparison is where logs fail. A row that withholds 000042 to 000044 in a set where 000043 was served is not a formatting problem - it tells the other side either that your log is wrong or that you produced a privileged page, and both are worse than the gap you were explaining.

The three failures a receiving party finds first

  • A hole in the numbering with no row behind it. The set is missing pages and the log says nothing about them, so the only available reading is that they were lost.
  • A row claiming pages that are in the set. The log says withheld and the pages were served, which means the log was copied from an earlier production or edited after the fact.
  • One page claimed by two rows. Usually two documents merged into one range, and it makes the count of withheld documents impossible to state.

CSV, XLSX or PDF

Send a spreadsheet or a delimited text file. A log is a table, and a table in a PDF has no columns a program can read - only positions on a page. A tool that claims to parse one is guessing at where one column ends and the next begins, and a guess about which date belongs to which document is not a check.

The check reads CSV, TSV and XLSX, matches common column aliases, and skips a title row above the header. It refuses a PDF log rather than inventing column boundaries for it.

What a log cannot do

A complete log does not make a withholding correct. It records that a document was withheld and why somebody said so; whether the claim holds is a judgement about the document's content, and no mechanical check can make it. What the check can say is narrower and more useful: every hole in the numbering is accounted for, no row points at a page that was served, and no page is claimed twice.

Check the log against the set

Upload the production and attach the log beside it. Every hole is matched to a row, every row is checked against the pages that were actually produced, and the lines with a blank field are named by number rather than described.

The verdict, the file list and the worst findings are free and stay free. The certificate, report and findings CSV unlock on payment, from $49 for a set up to 1,000 pages. The three sizes.

Frequently asked questions

How many columns does a privilege log need?

Six fields per withheld document is the working minimum: Bates range, document type, date, author, recipient and basis. Some courts and protective orders add description, custodian or request number, and a log that omits a field the order names is deficient on its face.

Should the log be produced as a PDF or a spreadsheet?

A spreadsheet or CSV. The log is a table that someone has to reconcile against the production, and a PDF turns every column into a position on a page. Producing both, with the spreadsheet as the operative copy, is common and harmless.

Does a privilege log explain every gap in the numbering?

Only the gaps it names. If the set is missing four pages and the log covers two of them, the other two are still unexplained - which is why the check reports coverage per page rather than counting rows and declaring the log adequate.

What if the withheld pages were never numbered?

Then there is no range to log and the numbering has a hole with nothing behind it. The usual fix is a slip sheet in the set that states the withholding by number, so the sequence and the log agree with each other.

Keep reading

guide How to find a missing Bates number before the set is served A Bates gap is a number that should exist in the sequence and does not. Most gaps are invisible on screen, because the pages either side of the hole look continuous. The reliable way to find one is to read the stamp off every page and compare what is there against the range each file claims to cover. guide The production index columns that matter A production index is the map between Bates numbers and documents. The columns that matter are the ones a receiving party will use to load, search and object: Bates begin, Bates end, attachment begin and end, confidentiality, document date, document type, the original filename and the native path. Everything else is convenience. Get these wrong and the set loads with documents attached to the wrong parents. guide How to QC an incoming production A production you receive has to load, read and reconcile before anyone can review it. These twelve checks run in the order that surfaces the expensive failures first: does the load file import, does every row have an image, does the numbering hold, and is every page searchable. Run them before the review clock starts, not after. tool Check a PDF for production defects Upload one PDF and get a plain-language result for each production check: text layer, Bates gaps, duplicate Bates numbers, extractable stamp text, page size and rotation drift, redaction leakage, and whether the file opens at all. No account or email address is needed, and the uploaded file is checked in a temporary directory and discarded. guide Why Bates numbers land in the wrong order across files When you number a folder of PDFs in one pass, the numbering follows the order the files were added, which is usually alphabetical by filename - and neither the filename order nor the file-modified order is the order a production is served in. The sequence is still continuous, so nothing looks wrong until a receiving party reads the set. The check that catches it compares the Bates range of each file against the order the files are meant to appear. guide Why Bates numbers show up in keyword search A stamp is either an image drawn on the page or text added to the content stream. When it is text, it stays in the text layer, and every keyword search for that number or for a stray date inside it returns the page. Receiving parties use stamped numbers as identifiers, so a searchable stamp quietly pollutes their results - and in the worst case leaks a number into a privilege log as if it were document content.