The Inventory Entry and Its Source Reference

A matter inventory is the running list of documents in a case: one entry per document, each with a short description and a pointer back to where it came from. A production is a set of documents delivered in discovery, usually labeled by volume, such as PROD001, PROD002 and PROD003.

A common habit goes like this. PROD003 arrives, so you give the AI everything, old and new, and ask for a fresh summary. It feels thorough, but it puts work you already finished at risk:

• Silent rewording. An entry you reviewed last month comes back with different wording, and nothing tells you it changed.
• Dropped entries. A document summarized in PROD001 may be left out of the new output.
• Reordering. Entries shift position or get new numbers, so earlier source references and notes may no longer match.

The result is that reviewed work has to be checked again from scratch, and nobody can be sure the inventory still matches what the attorney already relied on.

An incremental inventory treats every entry as a fixed record. Once an entry is written and checked, it stays as it is. New productions add entries. They do not regenerate old ones.

Think of it like a ledger rather than a whiteboard. On a whiteboard you erase and rewrite. In a ledger you add new lines below the old ones, and the old lines keep their numbers.

Here is the arithmetic, assuming one entry per document. Say each production has 100 documents and PROD004 has just arrived. If you re-run everything, the AI regenerates 400 entries, and 300 of them were already reviewed. If you work incrementally, the AI produces 100 new entries, and those are the only ones you need to check.

The gap grows with every production. Use the sliders to see how quickly it adds up.

Every entry uses the same fixed fields, so entries from different productions line up and can be compared. These are the core fields:

1. Entry ID, a permanent number such as INV-0147
2. Production volume or set, such as PROD003
3. Bates or control number range, such as ABC-004510 to ABC-004514
4. Document date
5. Document type, such as email, invoice or contract
6. Author or sender
7. Recipients
8. Title or subject
9. Short factual summary
10. People and entities named
11. Key passages with pinpoint cites, meaning the exact page or paragraph for each passage

A Bates number is the unique number stamped on each page of a production. A control number is an identifier assigned when pages are not stamped, such as native files.

For example, an email in PROD003 might be INV-0147, ABC-004510 to ABC-004514, dated 12 March, from a logistics manager to two buyers, subject "Shipment status."

The core fields describe the document. The administrative fields describe the entry: when it was added, where it came from, and how far it has been checked. These are what let an inventory grow without confusion.

• Date added: the day the entry went into the inventory.
• Batch or production it arrived in: this can differ from the production volume field if documents arrive in stages or are re-produced.
• Duplicate status: whether the document is new, a duplicate or a near-duplicate of an existing entry. The next lesson covers how to decide.
• Open questions: anything unclear, such as "date not stated; attachment missing."
• Verification status: whether someone has checked the entry against the source, for example "not yet checked" or "checked against source."

Take INV-0147. Its administrative fields might read: added 2 May, arrived in PROD003, new, open question "second recipient identified only by initials," verification status not yet checked. Anyone opening the inventory can see that this entry still needs review before it is relied on.

A source reference tells a reviewer exactly where to find the support for an entry. It needs three parts:

1. The production volume, such as PROD003
2. The Bates or control number of the document, such as ABC-004512
3. The page or paragraph for any point you quote or summarize

Put together: PROD003, ABC-004512 at p. 3.

Compare that with references that cannot be checked:

• "The March emails" does not identify a production or a document.
• "ABC-004500 to ABC-004620" names a range of over 100 pages but gives no page for the point.
• "Smith email re shipment" may match several documents.

A reviewer, the attorney or you six months from now should be able to take the reference and land on the right page in under a minute. If you can't do that with a reference, rewrite it before the entry is shared.

Some documents leave fields out. An email printout may lack a date line, or a memo may be unsigned. When the source does not state a field, write not stated. Do not fill it in.

AI tools tend to fill gaps. If an unsigned memo sits between two documents written by the same manager, the AI may list that manager as the author. If a letter has no date, it may borrow the date from the email it was attached to.

A guessed field is harder to catch later than a blank. "Not stated" tells a reviewer to look closer. A plausible name or date looks finished, so nobody questions it. Then it can end up in a chronology or a draft as if it were fact.

When you mark a field not stated, add a line to open questions if the answer matters, for example: "Author not stated; memo found in R. Diaz's custodial files." That records what you know without turning it into a claim about who wrote the memo.

The summary field reports what the document says. It does not report what the document proves or what it means for the case. Deciding what evidence means stays with the attorney.

The difference is often one phrase:

• Write: "The email states the shipment was late."
• Not: "The shipment was late."

The second version turns one person's statement into an established fact. If the other side disputes the delay, the inventory now takes a position the record may not support.

Watch for words that add conclusions: admits, confirms, proves, acknowledges fault, knew. "The buyer admits the goods were defective" is a reading of the document. "The buyer writes that 'several units did not meet spec' (p. 2)" is what it says.

When you review an entry, check for three problems together: a source reference that is vague, a field that was guessed, and a summary that states a meaning rather than describing what is written.