From Blueprint to Browser: Managing Construction Drawings in eDiscovery with Page One

When it comes to construction litigation, few pieces of evidence carry as much weight as the drawings. Blueprints, shop drawings and redlines provide the visual roadmap of a project. They show what was designed, what was actually built, and where changes or disputes may have arisen along the way. Yet while these drawings are central to many construction disputes, they pose significant challenges in eDiscovery.

Unlike emails or spreadsheets, construction drawings often begin life as large-format paper documents. Even when they are digital, they may exist as CAD files, PDFs, or hybrid sets with handwritten markups. For litigation teams tasked with review and production, this creates a complex problem: how do you collect, preserve, review, and produce these documents in a way that is searchable, defensible, and cost-efficient?

At Page One, we specialize in helping legal teams navigate these challenges by leveraging RelativityOne, the industry’s most trusted cloud eDiscovery platform, along with best-in-class scanning from Page One, your RelativityOne Gold Partner.

Step 1: Scanning and Digitization

The first step in making drawings reviewable is high-quality scanning. Page One uses large-format scanners designed for architectural and engineering drawings. Key considerations include:

Once scanned, the images undergo OCR (optical character recognition). This process extracts any text embedded in the drawings (title blocks, notes, revision tags), making them searchable in RelativityOne. Additional information can be manually extracted.

Step 2: Importing into RelativityOne

After scanning, the drawings must be imported so they can be reviewed like any other document. Page One leverages RelativityOne’s scalable import tools to ensure data is easily loaded and quickly available for review.

Step 3: Review and Analysis in RelativityOne

Once in RelativityOne, construction drawings can be reviewed alongside emails, contracts, schedules, and financial records to allow legal teams to connect the dots across all evidence. Some practical applications include:

• Keyword and Metadata Searching
  – Please note that some scanned drawings may be lacking true metadata and OCR quality may not be able to be easily searchable.

• Annotations and Coding
  – Attorneys can highlight sections of a drawing and apply issue codes, privilege designations, or notes for experts.
  – This makes it easy to track how a drawing relates to a particular claim (e.g., a defect or delay).

• Cross-Document Analysis
  – RelativityOne’s analytics tools can connect drawings to related project emails, change orders, or meeting minutes.
  – This helps build a narrative around the drawing, showing not just what it depicts, but also how stakeholders communicated about it.

Step 4: Production for Litigation

Producing construction drawings in litigation requires careful planning. Courts and opposing counsel expect drawings to be delivered in a usable and consistent format. Page One helps ensure productions meet these standards by:

• Producing drawings in standardized PDF/TIFF formats that retain resolution and annotations.

• Providing associated metadata load files (where available), so opposing parties can search drawings by number, revision, or project identifier.

• Ensuring productions comply with agreed-upon eDiscovery Protocols or court orders.

Page One ensures your productions are delivered with accuracy and consistency.