What is Bates Numbering?

Sequential identifiers (e.g., ACME000001) stamped on every page of a PDF — standard practice in legal e-discovery.

Bates numbering assigns a unique, sortable label to each page of a document set so lawyers, paralegals, and courts can reference exact pages unambiguously. Modern e-discovery tools stamp Bates numbers in batch across thousands of files and preserve them through redaction and conversion.

Also known as

  • Bates stamping
  • Bates labels

Related terms

  • PDF Redaction — Permanently removing sensitive text or images from a PDF — not just covering them with a black box.

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Category: Workflow