Reference
Every Bates number is three parts: a prefix, a separator, and a zero-padded counter. Once you can read those parts, you can read any production label and cite any page precisely.
SMITH-000123
| Part | Name | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| SMITH | Prefix | Identifies the producing party, matter, or custodian. Fixed for the life of the matter. |
| - | Separator | A hyphen, a space, or nothing. Pick one and never mix them. |
| 000123 | Padded counter | The 123rd page of the sequence, padded to six digits so labels sort correctly. |
Padding exists so labels sort in the order the pages were produced. Sort the unpadded set ACME-2, ACME-10, ACME-1 alphanumerically and you get 1, 10, 2. Pad them to ACME-000001, ACME-000002, ACME-000010 and every file system, review platform, and spreadsheet puts them in the right order.
Choose the width once. Changing padding mid-matter produces two labels for what looks like the same page and is one of the most common reasons a production has to be redone.
A gap in the sequence is meaningful. If SMITH-000124 is missing from a production, opposing counsel will read it as a withheld document and expect a privilege log entry or a slip sheet explaining it.
A Bates number is a unique sequential identifier printed on a single page of a document production. It usually combines a prefix identifying the producing party or matter with a zero-padded counter, for example SMITH-000123, so any page can be cited without ambiguity.
The prefix identifies the source: the producing party, the case, or sometimes a custodian or media set. SMITH, ACME, DEF, and P are all common. The prefix is chosen at the start of a matter and must not change between productions.
Padding keeps every label the same width so files and pages sort correctly in alphanumeric systems. Without it, page 10 sorts before page 2. Six or seven digits is the usual choice because it covers a production up to a million pages.
Pick a width that comfortably exceeds the largest production you expect, then never change it. Six digits handles 999,999 pages and is the most common default; large document cases often use seven or eight.
A range such as SMITH-000123 to SMITH-000127 covers five consecutive pages, inclusive of both endpoints. Shorthand forms like SMITH-000123-27 mean the same thing, with the trailing digits replacing the full second label.
Suffixes appear occasionally for confidentiality tiers or replacement pages, for example SMITH-000123-C or SMITH-000123.001. They complicate sorting and citation, so use them only when a protocol requires it.
Any of the three is acceptable. What matters is that you use one separator consistently across the entire matter, because mixed separators break sorting and make automated range matching unreliable.
Choose a prefix, separator, padding width, and start number, then stamp your whole production in the browser. Nothing is uploaded.
