February 11, 2026: Overlay Metadata Using a Custom Unique Identifier, a New OCR Option That is Optimized for Handwriting, and More!

Expected AU release: February 10, 2026 ACT

Expected release for all other: February 11, 2026 PT

Knowledge Base updates: February 11, 2026 PT

With this release, we've added the ability to overlay using a custom unique identifier field, a new OCR option optimized for handwriting, and more - read on for more information about the features coming out this month! If you would like to learn more about the features in this release, join us for a live training session.

User-facing features in this release:

• Overlay metadata using a unique identifier other than Bates/Control number
• New Optical Character Recognition (OCR) option during reprocessing that is optimized for handwriting
• Search on extracted values
• Support Suggested Code in Assignment group inclusion criteria
• Granular API key permission management
• Replace document PDFs via API
• Sort the results table by the Coded under and Coded columns
• Sort by codes in production protocols
• New results table column: Coding History
• Improved wildcard search handling
• Reprocess non-Everlaw processed documents off the image
• New Match any option when filtering by label on the Storybuilder Evidence page
• Option to send a custom message when creating an assignment group
• Extraction fields and coding suggestions included in project templates
• Expand all subfolders option in the Data Visualizer File Path visualization
• New Legal Holds setting to notify admins of questionnaire responses
• Improved Case description for Everlaw AI
• Export document history in project export
• Insert multiple rows and columns in Storybuilder tables
• New Configure permission for Coding Suggestions
• Improve guidance for large document downloads
• The Search button on the Search page is always selectable
• More access to the Assigned search term for those with Create and Admin permissions on Assignment Groups
• Improved support for RPMSG files
• Warning: Deprecation of O365 Connector
• Visual improvements

Overlay metadata using a unique identifier other than Bates/Control number

You can now use a field other than a Bates/Control number as the unique identifier when doing a metadata overlay. This is useful in a few scenarios:

• You want to update natively uploaded data that has been assigned unique control numbers (#) on Everlaw, but the information for the update comes from a different system that doesn't use those identifiers
• You want to update processed data from sources outside of productions, where Bates numbers might not be included/provided

When you use a metadata field as your unique identifier, you match up the designated field within your load file with its corresponding field on Everlaw. This allows Everlaw to identify which documents in the database you are updating, based on match values between what's in your load file and what's on Everlaw. It's analogous to using Bates/Control #, but using the unique values from a different metadata field.

Learn more in our Overlaying Data article.

New Optical Character Recognition (OCR) option during reprocessing that is optimized for handwriting

When reprocessing documents, there is a new OCR option optimized to capture English handwriting. OCR that better captures the text of handwriting can make more of your data's content searchable and available for extractions, hit highlights, and text-based redaction.

The new option only works for English handwriting. For typed text, this OCR option only works for English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese.

This option should not be used on documents with non-English handwriting or typed text in any language other than those listed above.

Learn more in our Reprocessing Everlaw and Non-Everlaw Processed Documents article.

Search on extracted values

Everlaw now supports AI extraction fields as search terms. This allows users to leverage document extractions to more effectively and efficiently identify documents based on specific identifiable data.

Learn more in our Create and Use Custom Extractions article.

Support Suggested Code in Assignment group inclusion criteria

Users creating or modifying an assignment group can now build the Suggested Code search term into the assignment group's inclusion criteria.

Learn more in our Create and Use Custom Extractions article.

Granular API key permission management

Organization Admins can now manage API permissions at a more granular level, specifying which endpoints are available to any given API key. By limiting API key permissions, you can help ensure that third-party applications or partners only have access to the information and capabilities they need, rather than broad administrative access.

Learn more in our Organization Admin: Everlaw API article.

Replace document PDFs via API

Sometimes users need to replace the PDF files of documents they have already uploaded.

Organizations using Everlaw's API can now use it to replace a document's PDF file instead of via overlay. This gives your organization the flexibility to automate workflows for replacing document PDFs.

Learn more in our Organization Admin: Everlaw API article.

Sort the results table by the Coded under, Coded, Binders, and coding category columns

Users can now sort the results table individually or by any combination of the Coded under, Coded, Binders, and any coding category (e.g. Responsiveness) columns.

To do this, select the column's Modify the table sort button. Then select the sort order you want to use.

Sort by codes in production protocols

Users can now sort by coding categories and codes in production protocols. This eliminates the need for multi-production workarounds to produce code-sorted productions.

Learn more in our Create a Production Protocol article.

New results table column: Coding History

A Coding History column is now available in the results table. This column shows all code changes made to the document including the:

• User who added/removed the code
• Timestamp
• Action (i.e. add/remove)
• Coding category: Code

This information helps organizations track how codes are being applied during review, directly from the results table.

Learn more in our View Document Coding History article.

Improved wildcard search handling

We have improved wildcard search handling to allow more complex wildcard searches. Now, when running Contents queries with multiple wildcard terms, you are less likely to encounter the Error adding search term error due to too many potential hits. This is useful for those building Search Term Reports and on the Search page.

Reprocess non-Everlaw processed documents off the image

When you reprocess non-Everlaw processed documents, there is now an option to Ignore natives. This overrides the behavior to reprocess documents off their native, if available, and instead will reprocess off the image file.

This new option addresses the issue that reprocessing from the native can result in losing the Bates stamp on the reprocessed image.

Reprocessing non-Everlaw processed documents is particularly useful when your images do not have a text layer (often for images received as TIFFs) and you want to reprocess them to embed a text layer that makes hit highlights and text-based highlights and redaction work. If you select the Ignore natives checkbox when you reprocess, you can preserve the Bates stamp on documents that have native files included when you reprocess to embed text.

Learn more in our Reprocessing Everlaw and Non-Everlaw Processed Documents article.

New Match any option when filtering by label on the Storybuilder Evidence page

When you filter by label on the Storybuilder Evidence page, you now have the option to select Match any or Match all:

• Match any is new functionality that connects your selected labels with an "OR" connection. Rather than needing to meet all your selected labels, your evidence is filtered to those items meeting any one of the selected filters.
• Match all mirrors the previous default functionality: evidence must have all the labels applied to meet the filter criteria, connecting your selected labels with an "AND" connection

This new option adds flexibility to how you filter your evidence, so you can narrow your Evidence page to precisely the set you are interested in.

Learn more in our Storybuilder Evidence Page

Option to send a custom message when creating an assignment group

Users can now customize the message they send to reviewers when they create an assignment group. This allows users to include important information and context along with the assignment, instead via a separate communication tool.

Learn more in our Create Assignment Groups article.

Extraction fields and coding suggestions included in project templates

Two Everlaw AI configurations are now included in a project template, available whenever an admin creates a new project or database:

• Visible extraction fields
• Coding suggestions

For those leveraging these tools on Everlaw, templating their configuration across databases and projects saves setup time so your new case is ready to go faster.

Learn more in our Projects article.

Expand all subfolders option in the Data Visualizer File Path visualization

When using the File Path visualization in Data Visualizer, you can now expand all the sub-folders within an outer folder at once. The option appears whenever you hover to the side of an outer folder. Select Expand all sub-folders button to see the whole folder structure (up to the first 1,000 folders) within it.

Learn more in our Data Visualizer article.

New Legal Holds setting to notify admins of questionnaire responses

Admins can now receive an email notification each time a custodian for a legal hold notice submits a questionnaire response. The email includes a link that will take the user to the questionnaire responses tab of the hold to export and view the response. This makes it easier for admins to stay up to date on questionnaire responses and removes the burden to proactively check for new responses on the Legal Holds page.

Improved Case description for Everlaw AI

We have unified the case description used for Coding Suggestions and Deep Dive, as a way to reduce Everlaw AI configuration complexity. The description for both features is now housed on the Project Management > Project Settings > Everlaw AI > Case Description page, which is where the description for Deep Dive was already housed.

The new Case description field includes a rich-text editor to improve formatting, and expands the total character count from 4,096 to 16,384.

Learn more in our Everlaw AI Case Description article.

Export document history in project export

When exporting a project from Everlaw, either from the Organization home or Database Settings page, users now have the option to include Document history with the export. Previously, a document's history could only be viewed in the review window's History tab and could not be exported at all.

Including this information in the export provides a log of the historic actions taken on a document, which is important to audit the actions taken on a document throughout the lifecycle of a project.

Learn more in our Exporting to ZIP article.

Insert multiple rows and columns in Storybuilder tables

Users can now insert multiple rows and/or columns into existing tables in Storybuilder Depositions and Drafts. Previously only one row or column could be inserted at a time.

New Configure permission for Coding Suggestions

Project Admins can now assign user groups Configure permissions for Coding Suggestions. Users belonging to user groups with this permission level assigned can configure coding suggestion prompts via Admin Settings, as well as take all other actions on Coding Suggestions (generate, edit, etc.)

Improve guidance for large document downloads

Users attempting to download large documents (100+ pages) from the review window will now be shown a dialog informing them of the review window's large document download limits. They will be prompted to initiate an export instead.

The Search button on the Search page is always selectable

The Search button on Everlaw's Search page is now enabled by default. This means that if you enter a value into the default Content search you won't have to select outside of it to run the search.

More access to the Assigned search term for those with Create and Admin permissions on Assignment Groups

We've updated how the Assigned search term works to better align with permissions for Assignment groups.

With this release:

• Users who have Admin permission for Assignment Groups, but who are not Project Admins, now have full access to the Assigned search term. This includes the list of all users in the USERS section, which was not previously available for this permission level
• Users who have Create permission for Assignment Groups have access to all the assignment groups they create, and users within those groups, when using the Assigned search term

Improved support for RPMSG files

RPMSG files are encrypted emails from Outlook, which typically come wrapped in a parent email and extracted as an attachment. With this release, when an RPMSG is uploaded to Everlaw, the detected RPMSG is typed as an email and flagged as encrypted, which makes it searchable using the Encrypted flag in the Upload search term.

Warning: Deprecation of O365 Connector

The Microsoft O365 Connector will be deprecated after March 11, 2026. To continue collecting Microsoft data via cloud connection, set up a connection to Microsoft Purview.

Visual improvements

• The side panel on the Document Analytics > Search Term Reports page has a new look.

The new version of the panel also includes a three-dot menu with a selection of available actions (e.g. copy, export, share).

• The side panel on the Project Management > Assignment Groups page has a new look.

The new version of the panel also includes a three-dot menu with a selection of available actions (e.g. message assignees, share).

• Header rows in Storybuilder tablesnow freeze on the page during scrolling, until the entire table has been scrolled through. This helps track which cell values belong to which columns from a topical perspective.

• The Storybuilder table three-dot menu now displays visual icons next to each menu item.

• We have removed the Abort button from the production card during a production modification. This makes it clearer that there is no way to stop or undo a modification once it has started. You are still able to abort a production during its initial run; that behavior is unchanged.

• We moved the scrollbar in the Coding Suggestion View configuration history dialog to improve readability for long lists of changes.

• We added a tooltip to freeform codes in the review window to improve visibility of long freeform text.

• We have made the issue date and acknowledgement date for Legal Holds notices easier to access. Previously, you had to navigate to the Hold notice page > Custodians tab > Communication History to find this information. Now you can hover on the hold notice or acknowledgement status to see its most recent date.

• The page for a given assignment group is now paginated in sets of 100 individual assignment cards. When you have a large assignment group, you now navigate through it by page, rather than by scrolling. The sorting and filtering options function as previously.

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Do you have feedback about:

• this release document? Submit your feedback
• the features in this release? Email [email protected]