What is an e-discovery load file?
A load file is the index that ties a document production together. When one side produces documents in litigation, they don't just hand over a folder of TIFFs and PDFs — they include a load file that tells the receiving party's review software what each document is, where its pages live, and how the documents relate to each other. Without it, a production is an undifferentiated pile of images. With it, a review tool can rebuild the document set, its metadata and its families.
There are two kinds of load file, and most productions ship one of each. Metadata load files carry one row per document with named fields — BEGBATES and ENDBATES (the first and last Bates numbers), PAGECOUNT, CUSTODIAN, dates, and often the extracted TEXT. The two common formats are the Concordance DAT, which uses non-printing delimiters (¶ for fields, þ as the text qualifier), and CSV, its plain comma-separated cousin. Image load files carry one row per page and point the review tool at the actual image files. The two common formats there are the Opticon OPT (seven comma-separated columns, a "Y" flag marking each document's first page) and the IPRO LFP (line-oriented IM records with a "D" document flag).
Two concepts connect them. Bates numbers are the unique page identifiers — a fixed prefix plus a zero-padded counter, like ABC0001 — and a document spans the inclusive range from its BEGBATES to its ENDBATES. Document families capture relationships: an email and its attachments share a BEGATTACH value (equal to the parent's BEGBATES), so a review tool keeps them together. Converting between formats means expanding a Bates range into individual page rows when you go from metadata to images, or collapsing a run of pages back into a Bates range when you go the other way — while never breaking the families.
This tool converts between all four formats in your browser, so you can take whatever a vendor sent and produce whatever your review platform needs, without uploading a privileged production index to anyone's server.
Open the converter — free, no upload
The pieces, in order
- Bates number: a page's unique ID — prefix plus padded counter (ABC0001).
- Document: spans BEGBATES to ENDBATES; PAGECOUNT is how many pages that is.
- Metadata load file (DAT, CSV): one row per document, named fields.
- Image load file (OPT, LFP): one row per page, pointing at image files.
- Family: documents sharing a BEGATTACH value — a parent and its attachments.
Questions
What's the difference between a DAT and an OPT?
A DAT is metadata — one row per document with fields like custodian and text. An OPT is an image cross-reference — one row per page pointing at TIFFs. A production usually includes both; they describe the same documents from different angles.
What is a Bates number?
A unique, sequential identifier stamped on every produced page: a fixed alpha prefix and a zero-padded number (ABC0001, SMITH-000123). A document's BEGBATES and ENDBATES mark its first and last page.
How are attachments kept with their email?
Through document families. Every document in a family shares a BEGATTACH value equal to the parent's BEGBATES. Review tools group on that field so the parent email and its attachments stay together. The converter preserves these fields across formats.
Do I need expensive software to convert load files?
No. The desktop suites cost over a thousand dollars, but the conversions themselves are deterministic text processing. This tool does them in your browser, free for small files and $49 one-time for unlimited.