When productions need cite-ready Bates stamps
Litigation teams live inside citations: an email references “ABC000981,” a transcript cites “XYZ‑013422,” and everyone assumes those stamps survive scanning, splitting, and midnight merges before filing. Bates numbering exists so opposing counsel, regulators, and your own privilege logs can point to one authoritative slice of paper reality—even when the underlying TIFF stack felt chaotic at intake. The operational hazards are familiar: numbering before versus after splitting volumes can silently fork sequences; privilege pulls create intentional gaps that still must be explained; noisy scans or skewed gutters swallow digits if stamps hug the trim margin. Ai2Done gives you a browser-native workflow with visible progress so you can pilot prefixes, zero-padding, and footer placement on representative pages before committing to the full bundle. Treat Bates stamps like infrastructure: document prefix schemes, starting integers, and any carve-outs for sealed exhibits so future team members do not reverse-engineer your numbering archaeology six months later. After export, verify continuity across exhibit dividers, witness-section fronts, and attachment boundaries—the seams are where sequences accidentally restart.
Bates numbering in three steps
- Lock production strategy—merged master versus volumes—and match prefixes with printed seals if applicable.
- Upload the PDF, configure Bates prefix/padding/placement, and pilot on a tight page range.
- Produce the full run; spot-check witness fronts and exhibit splits; update privilege indexes accordingly.