Bates numbering: how to Bates stamp PDFs and keep productions consistent

What Bates numbering is

Bates numbering is sequential numbering applied to each page of the documents a party produces, so that every page carries a unique identifier. The Sedona Conference Glossary defines it in those terms and notes that the number is often combined with a prefix or suffix identifying the producing party, the litigation or other relevant information. The name comes from the Bates automatic numbering machine, a nineteenth-century hand stamp whose number advanced with each impression.

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In electronic discovery the number does more than mark the page. The Bates numbers of a document’s first and last pages become metadata fields — beginning and end document numbers — and page images are typically named after their Bates numbers so that review databases can match text, metadata and image.

Anatomy of a Bates number

Prefix

Identifies the producing party, sometimes also the matter or production volume: NGC for Northgate Components, HBL for Harbourline.

Separator

A hyphen, an underscore or nothing. One federal ESI protocol allows no special characters or spaces other than hyphens and underscores.

Number

Sequential and zero-padded to a fixed length, so that every number has the same width and sorts correctly.

Suffix

Optional, for example a volume marker. Confidentiality designations are usually a separate legend, not part of the number.

Choose the padding for the largest production the case could reach: six digits allow 999,999 pages, eight digits nearly a hundred million.

ESI protocols often fix the format. One stipulated order in the Northern District of California requires nine digits with zero-padding and a producing-party prefix followed by a single dash; a pretrial order in the Southern District of Florida requires ten digits and a constant prefix. Read your protocol before stamping a single page.

Where Bates numbers are used — and where page numbers are

United States. Bates numbers are the standard reference in document production. The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure do not prescribe them, but Rule 26(f)(3)(C) requires the parties’ discovery plan to address the form in which electronically stored information is produced, and Bates format is routinely agreed in an ESI protocol or stipulated order. Some courts also suggest Bates numbers for bulky trial exhibits.

England and Wales. Hearing bundles rely on page numbering rather than Bates numbers. The judiciary’s guidance on electronic bundles requires computer-generated page numbers that start at 1 and match the PDF’s own page numbering, and trial bundles are paginated continuously and indexed. See the guide to court bundles in England.

International arbitration. Documents in the record are identified by exhibit number and page within the exhibit. Parties may still agree production numbers for large document productions, but what the tribunal sees in the briefs is the exhibit number.

Page, exhibit and Bates numbers compared

The systems coexist. When a produced document later becomes an exhibit, keep its Bates numbers visible so that everyone can trace it back to the production, and put the exhibit label somewhere it does not cover them.

Where to put the stamp

• Bottom right is the usual default. The District of Arizona’s exhibit instructions, for example, suggest Bates numbers at the bottom right corner of bulky documents.
• Never cover content. Protocols typically require the number to be burned onto the page image without obscuring any information, oriented like most of the text on the page.
• Keep legends apart. The confidentiality designation goes in its own position; some protocols allow nothing on the page except the Bates number, the confidentiality notice and redactions.
• Leave room for later stamps. Exhibit labels and bundle page numbers come later; agree their positions with the team before the first production.
• Stamp copies, not originals. Keep the unstamped file; the stamped PDF is a production copy.
• Native files. Spreadsheets and media cannot carry a stamp. Protocols commonly name the native file after its Bates number and insert a placeholder or slip sheet bearing that number.

Consistency across productions

1. Fix the prefix, separator and padding before the first production and never change them mid-case.
2. Continue the sequence: the second production starts where the first ended. Keep a production log of each volume, its date and its Bates range.
3. Keep numbers unique across all productions in the case and sequential within each document.
4. Never reuse a number. If a document is reproduced — for instance with fewer redactions — follow the protocol for replacements; one protocol requires replacement media to cross-reference the Bates range it replaces.
5. Check each production before it leaves: no gaps you cannot explain, no duplicates, every page stamped.