I want to string together many emails (several hundred) and print them out in order. But all I want is important stuff: date, who, subject, body.
I don’t want any HTML, any heavy header info, nothing. Just the part people care about. It needs to be readable.
I work with Mail and some Eudora. I can do parts of this, but not really all of it. If I solve one problem, it creates another. Basically, when I solve the database management aspects (the database of documents), the emails I get are brimming with HTMl and other crap.
So maybe all I need is a means to take an email and pull out just the readable data. automatically.
Help.
Oh, and IDEALLY… I could print them all out with just a break line between them. Meaning, instead of a new page after I print a 2 line email, it prints a heavy line or something and then the next email. Save a lot of paper.
I don’t know how to do what you are suggesting (and am not sure there is even a way to do it that isn’t more labor-intensive than its worth), but is there another to way to accomplish your ultimate goal here?
I deal with huge volumes of documents regularly, including emails, (I’m a litigator) and normally when dealing with something like this, it’s easier to make a giant pdf or some other sort of electronic document that can be put on CD and given to the person who needs it. Is there a particular reason all these emails have to be physically printed?
You tell me…it’s for a lawsuit! I am a pro per litigant, and I’m in trial next week (for the third day of the second half of a bifurcated trial.)
I also need this for my appeal brief, which is due in just a few weeks. (I’m appealing the first phase.)
And I am becoming an Acrobat maven as a result of putting together my appeal. Helluva program. I’m hoping I can get good enough with it to submit an electronic version of my appeal brief, searchable and linked. Good stuff.
Beowulf: got there before you did! DAMN close, a little tweaking and I think I’ll get almost everything I want.
I was afraid you’d say that. Well, in that case it really depends on what you’re trying to do with the documents and what the rules are in your jurisdiction.
If it’s just for discovery, I’d try to work out an arrangement with the other side to hand 'em over on disc.
If you’re planning on introducing every single email into evidence at the trial, I’d rethink your strategy (I mean this light-heartedly), but if you really have to do it, I’d see if you can accomplish the same thing a different way (such as a request to admit that all the emails are authentic etc.). How you do that will depend on the specifics of your jurisdiction.
If you really do need to have a printed copy of each email, you might take a look at copy services that cater to the legal profession in your area. They may be pricey, but the might offer a solution that saves you enough time/hassle to make it worth your while.
Also, it may be acceptable in your court to introduce the documents electronically through the use of a projector or another method (some courts, more high tech than those here in Chicago, are actually wired up with monitors so you can hook a laptop in and display a document to everyone in the court room).
Best advice I can give is to familiarize yourself with the rules of evidence for your court and see if there isn’t another way to accomplish what you’re trying to do. About the only time I see lawyers enter huge numbers of documents in a trial is for dramatic effect in front of a jury, usually when trying to show how much research their expert witness has done.
Yeah, lawyers always are. I’ve had two, but I’m doing a far more effective job than either one, for a variety of reasons. For what it’s worth, I’ve worked with or consulted five attorneys, and every single one of them told me I have a gift for this and I should go to law school when it’s all over. And I’m planning to do that.
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No, it’s really more for me than for submission. I’ll only be submitting parts.
I’ve been doing that. OY. The whole foundation issue…it’s a bitch when you can’t state what a thing is when you give it to the witness…damn!
Re introducing documents into evidence…get your hands on a book called Trial Techniques by Mauet. It’ll help guide you through all those tricky moments.
Like you said, it can be easy to stumble when introducing documents but you can pretty much just memorize about a four or five question sequence that never really changes from document to document, and as long as you follow that script, you’ll never have a problem.
I still pull out my copy of Mauet and review it before every trial/evidentiary hearing.