Bates Stamping (aka Bates numbering or Bates coding) allows PDF documents in a Case to be organized or indexed with unique identifiers on each page. This feature is used by law firms to format pages of documents for easier reference. For example, your firm may be collecting a large number of medical documents for use in a Case and label documents accordingly (e.g., [First Party Name] – "MD" – [Case Number] – [Starting Number]).
Users can enter the Bates Stamp text, position, digits, starting number, prefix, suffix, and whether to include the date before or after. A preview of the stamp will be displayed.
Bates Stamping can only be applied to PDFs in the PDF Editor and can allow four or five digits. Additional customization enhancements will be available in a future release.
NOTE: Your firm must have Neos Premium to edit or remove Bates Stamping on a PDF in the PDF Editor.
Documents that have Bates Stamping applied, are distinguished on the Documents Tab list view with a stamp icon.
The Bates Stamping identifier is also present inside the PDF Editor.
Apply/Edit Bates Stamping
To apply or edit Bates Stamping:
Open the PDF Editor for the desired document.
Click the meatball menu (three dots) on the top left of the Edit PDF tab.
Click the Edit Bates Stamp option to add or modify a Bates stamp.
Enter the following details on the Apply Bates Stamping window.
NOTE: Any changes made will remove the previous stamp and apply the updated format to all pages.
Text – Enter up to 25 characters. This field is required.
Position – Choose the position to apply the stamp (e.g., Footer | Right = bottom right of page, Header | Left = Top left of page, etc.).
Digits – Each page in the PDF will have an incremental ID number based on the Starting # and specified digit count. The selected digit will determine the max number of spaces that will be assigned. Using the default above as an example, if the starting # is "1", the first page will include "0001". Starting # is required.
Prefix – Choose which Case information should display at the beginning of the Bates stamp (Case Name, Case #, First Party Full Name, First Party Name ID). This field is required and will default to Case Name.
Suffix – Choose which Case information should display at the end of the Bates stamp (Case Name, Case #, First Party Full Name, First Party Name ID). This field is required and will default to Case Name.
NOTE: If the Case Name field on the Case Tab is blank, this data will not be entered in the Bates stamp.
Include Date – Select the checkbox if you want the current date (based on the Staff's timezone) to be applied at the beginning or the end of the Bates stamp.
Preview – Refer to the Preview section at the bottom of the window for an idea of how the Bates stamp will be shown based on your selections.
5. Click the Save button to apply Bates Stamping to all pages within the PDF. The Save or Save As button on the far right of the PDF Editor must be clicked in order for changes to be retained when returning to the Documents Tab.
The following Bates Stamping text specifications will be applied:
Font: Arial
Weight: Regular
Color: Black
Font Size: 10pt
Refer to the following example:
Remove Bates Stamping
When a PDF has Bates Stamping applied, click the three dots button on the top left and select the Remove Bates Stamp option. This option will be disabled when Bates stamping does not exist in the PDF.
NOTE: Bates stamping cannot be removed manually. If a page of the PDF is removed, the applied bates stamping does not renumber. For example, if page 3 shown above is deleted, the PDF will show "-0002" for page 2, then "0004" for the next page, which is now page 3 in the sequence.
Click the Remove button to confirm the Bates stamp removal from all pages in the current PDF.
The Bates stamp will be immediately removed from the PDF. Click the Save button in the PDF Editor to have the changes reflected on the Documents Tab.