Documents

A legal document record has a title, revision, content hash, privilege state and approving person. It links to a matter and can carry the file itself. This gives reviewers a way to distinguish a revised text from an earlier version even when the displayed title stays the same. Before a decision, the supervising attorney should be clear which revision and content were reviewed.

Privilege review uses the recorded states unreviewed, privileged and not privileged. A coordinator preparing a production should not infer that a document may be shared merely because it is attached. The recipient, authorization reference, production date and production hash belong to a separate production record linked to both the matter and the document.

• Version identity. Preserve the document revision and content hash when a file or text changes.
• Privilege review. Make the recorded privilege state visible before a document is considered for production.
• Production trail. Link each recipient and authorization reference to the document actually produced.

Choose how source files are stored and who may add a revised document. Decide how the approving person’s name is entered and checked. Define the organization’s privilege review policy and the authorization needed to produce a document to a recipient. The team should agree whether the stored file or an external document system is the operative source, and how hashes are compared when importing records.

Separate internal access to a document from permission to produce it. An attachment on a matter can carry evidence, while a production record identifies a deliberate release to a named recipient. Agree how mistaken or changed productions are documented so an old production record is not overwritten. Access checks should cover direct file opening as well as list screens.

Suppose the team revises a memorandum supporting a board resolution. The coordinator records the new revision and content hash under the same matter. The supervising attorney reviews its privilege state and approves the relevant version. If the organization later sends the document to a recipient, the coordinator records the recipient, authorization reference and production hash against that exact document.

An auditor examining the matter can see the reviewed document and the separate production event. If an earlier revision had different content, the production should still identify the version actually sent. That distinction helps the team explain what was approved, what was shared and when it happened.

• Documents awaiting privilege review — Find documents still marked unreviewed.
• Review outcomes — Check the matter revision decision beside the document history.

Follow review and closure and evidence reconciliation.