Reference
Exhibit stickers are the small adhesive labels that turn a document into Exhibit 7. They still show up on conference room tables every day, but most exhibit sets are now marked digitally so the label travels with the PDF instead of with the paper.
A sticker has to identify the document without ambiguity once it is in the record. The usual fields are:
Stock deposition stickers run about 1-5/8 by 1 inch, small enough to sit in a page corner without covering text. Color coding is a local habit, not a rule: yellow for plaintiff and blue for defense is common in many venues, white and red often carry joint and court exhibits. Ask the reporter or read the standing order before you commit a box of labels to a convention nobody else in the room uses.
Numbering follows the same caution. Some courts letter plaintiff exhibits and number defense exhibits, others number everything sequentially across the case, and a few require exhibit numbers to be reserved in the pretrial order weeks ahead.
| Aspect | Physical sticker | Digital stamp |
|---|---|---|
| Applied by | Court reporter or examining attorney in the room. | Whoever prepares the exhibit set, before the proceeding. |
| Travels with the file | No. Scans of the marked page must be made afterward. | Yes. The mark is burned into the PDF every participant opens. |
| Renumbering | Peel, relabel, or restart with a fresh sticker. | Change the label and restamp the set in one pass. |
| Remote proceedings | Unworkable without shipping paper in advance. | Standard practice for video depositions. |
| Consistency | Handwritten fields vary by who fills them in. | Identical typeface, placement, and wording across the set. |
The digital version is not a different mark, it is the same label rendered into the page. That matters when the exhibit is shared by screen or e-filed, because the marked page the witness sees is identical to the one in the record.
Exhibit stickers are adhesive labels placed on the first page of a document to identify it as a specific exhibit at a deposition, hearing, or trial. A typical sticker carries the word Exhibit, the exhibit number or letter, and blank lines for the case, the witness, the date, and the reporter's initials.
The most common sizes are 1-5/8 by 1 inch and 1-1/2 by 1 inch, small enough to sit in a page corner without covering text. Deposition stickers with witness and date lines tend to run slightly larger than plain numbered stickers.
Color is a local convention rather than a rule. Many practices use yellow for plaintiff exhibits, blue for defense, and white or red for joint and court exhibits. Confirm the convention with the court reporter or the standing order before the proceeding, because nothing about the color is standardized nationally.
Usually the court reporter or the examining attorney, immediately before the exhibit is handed to the witness. In remote depositions the equivalent step happens in advance: exhibits are stamped digitally and loaded into the exhibit-sharing platform.
Yes. Remote depositions and e-filed exhibit sets are marked with a digital exhibit stamp burned into the PDF. The stamp carries the same information as the adhesive sticker and travels with the file, so every participant sees an identical marked page.
No. A Bates number appears on every page of a production and is what the record cites. An exhibit sticker identifies one document as an exhibit at one proceeding and normally sits only on the first page. Most exhibits carry both marks.
Lower-right on the first page is the default, with the Bates number moved or left clear so the two marks do not collide. Some courts prefer the upper-right corner. Neither mark may cover original text, signatures, or handwriting.
Set an exhibit label, a confidentiality designation, and a Bates sequence, then stamp the whole set. Files are processed on your device and never uploaded.
