Use Case · Family Law

AI Bates stamping for family law discovery.

Bates stamping puts a unique sequential identifier — like SMITH-000001 — on every page of a discovery production. Originally a hand-stamped paging machine invented by Edwin Bates in 1891, today it's done digitally so opposing counsel and the court can cite the exact page being argued. BatesFlow stamps thousands of mixed PDFs in minutes — including OCR'd scans, photo evidence, and multi-document containers — and emits a Bates Index XLSX that maps every range back to the request it answers.

Try the live sandbox →Book a 15-minute demo

Updated May 8, 2026 · 1 min read · Use case

What you get

Three deliverables. One run.

PDF

Stamped PDFs

Every page in your production gets a unique sequential Bates number, baked into the PDF (not a metadata layer). Configurable prefix, padding, and corner.

XLSX

Bates Index

A spreadsheet mapping every Bates range to its document type, original filename, page count, and the discovery request it answers. Court-ready format.

DOCX

Rider

The numbered Response document with caption, General Objections, and per-request Bates range citations. Editable Word doc, in NY matrimonial format.

Why not just Acrobat?

Acrobat can stamp pages. It can't classify documents.

Adobe Acrobat Pro stamps Bates numbers — slowly, manually, one combined PDF at a time. It does not know that pages 14–28 are a brokerage statement, that the next 6 pages are a tax return, or that they belong to different requests. So you still have to combine, split, and re-combine PDFs by hand before stamping. Foxit, PDF-XChange, and Nitro all share this limitation. BatesFlow classifies first, then stamps — so the numbering reflects the production's actual document structure.

Stamp 8,000 pages in the time it takes to make coffee.

15-minute demo. Bring a real production package; we'll run it live and email you the stamped output.

Book a 15-min demo →Try the sandbox

Frequently asked

Questions lawyers ask.

What is Bates stamping in legal discovery?

Bates stamping is the practice of putting a unique sequential identifier — like SMITH-000001 — on every page of a discovery production. Originally a hand-stamped paging machine invented by Edwin Bates in 1891, today it's done digitally so opposing counsel and the court can cite a specific page across thousands.

Can BatesFlow continue an existing Bates sequence?

Yes. Pass the last-stamped Bates number from the prior production and the next production picks up where the previous one ended. Continuity across supplemental productions is enforced — there is no way to accidentally restart at 000001 mid-case.

What prefix and number format does it support?

Configurable. The default is CASE-NNNNNN (zero-padded six digits), which sorts correctly as a string and leaves room for productions up to 999,999 pages. Prefix, separator, padding, and starting number are all configurable per case.

Does it stamp confidentiality footers like "CONFIDENTIAL — ATTORNEY'S EYES ONLY"?

Yes. Confidentiality designations are applied per-document or per-range, and surface in both the stamped PDF and the Bates Index XLSX. Custom designations supported.