WalkingPDF

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A Bates number that appears twice

A duplicate Bates number means two pages answer to the same citation. In a review platform the second one overwrites or collides with the first; on paper, a request to "turn to ABC000418" has two answers. It is one of the few production defects that is always wrong, because there is no protocol in which two pages may share a number.

How a set ends up with two of the same number

The first two look fine when you flip through the set. The stamps run in order, nothing is blank, and the only evidence is that a number you have already seen appears again sixty pages later.

  • Two batches were numbered separately and the second run started from the same number as the first - the usual case when a production is assembled by more than one person.
  • A page was rescanned and re-inserted without removing the original, so the corrected page and the original both carry the number.
  • A file was numbered, then re-numbered over an existing stamp without the old stamp being flattened, leaving both in the text layer and both legible.
  • A document was split into two files after numbering, and each half kept the range of the whole.

Why it is worse than a gap

A gap is usually legitimate - a page withheld for privilege, a number skipped by the stamper - and it can be explained in the transmittal. A duplicate cannot be explained, because it breaks the one property a production number is supposed to have: one page, one citation. It is also the failure that surfaces in the other side's review platform rather than in yours, which is the expensive order to discover it in.

Finding duplicates by hand, and where it stops working

The manual method fails in one specific way: a stamp that is drawn as an image, rotated, or printed in a font the extractor cannot read comes back blank, so both copies of the duplicate read as "no stamp" and the count finds nothing. That is why the check reads glyph positions as well as text.

  1. Export the numbers

    Read the stamp off every page into a spreadsheet - first page to last. For a set of any size this is the step that takes the afternoon.

  2. Sort and count

    Sort the column and count occurrences. Anything above one is a duplicate. This is the part that is easy; the reading is the part that is not.

  3. Open both pages

    A duplicate number is only actionable once you know which page is the original and which is the straggler, and that is a visual judgement, not a count.

What the check reports

The audit reads the stamp off every page of every file, groups them by prefix, and reports each number that occurs more than once with the pages it occurs on - for example ABC000418 on vol-02.pdf p.63 and vol-04.pdf p.12. The finding is a blocker, and it appears in the preview before you pay, because a set that fails this one should not be served at all.

Check this set for it now

Upload the PDFs you are about to serve, plus the DAT and OPT if you have them, or one ZIP of the folder. The verdict, the file list and the worst findings are free. You pay only if you want the certificate, the report and the findings CSV to hand to somebody else.

The verdict, the file list and the worst findings are free and stay free. The certificate, report, findings CSV, manifest and deficiency report unlock on payment, from $49 for a set up to 1,000 pages. The three sizes.

Frequently asked questions

Can two documents legitimately share a Bates number?

No. A Bates number identifies one page. A slip sheet carries the number of the native it stands in for, and that page is the one the number belongs to - if the native is also produced as an image under the same number, that is the duplicate, not an exception.

Does the check find a duplicate across two different files?

Yes. Every page in the set is read and the numbers are compared across the whole production, which is the only way the common case - two volumes numbered separately - can be found at all.

What if the duplicate is a page I meant to withdraw?

Then the set you are serving still has it. Withdraw the page, re-stamp from that point if your protocol requires continuity, and note the change in the transmittal. The check reports what is in the set, not what was intended.

Keep reading

hub What we check, and what each check means Seventy checks run against a production. Each one is a deterministic read of the files - the stamps on the pages, the structure of the PDF, the rows of the load file - and each returns a pass, a warning or a blocker with the file and page it came from. Nothing here is a model's opinion, and nothing here is claimed on the certificate unless it actually ran. guide How to find a missing Bates number before the set is served A Bates gap is a number that should exist in the sequence and does not. Most gaps are invisible on screen, because the pages either side of the hole look continuous. The reliable way to find one is to read the stamp off every page and compare what is there against the range each file claims to cover. guide Why Bates numbers land in the wrong order across files When you number a folder of PDFs in one pass, the numbering follows the order the files were added, which is usually alphabetical by filename - and neither the filename order nor the file-modified order is the order a production is served in. The sequence is still continuous, so nothing looks wrong until a receiving party reads the set. The check that catches it compares the Bates range of each file against the order the files are meant to appear. guide Continuing Bates numbers on a supplemental production The second production in a matter starts at the number after the last page of the first, with the same prefix and the same zero padding. Get that wrong in either direction and the set either overlaps numbers already used or leaves a gap that a receiving party will ask about in writing. Continuity is checkable arithmetic, and it is the one thing a rolling production cannot verify by eye. checker The stamp prints over the words A stamp placed on top of body text makes the words it covers unreadable in the copy that gets served, and a stamp placed too close to the paper edge is cropped by the printer or the scanner. Neither changes the file's numbering, so neither is caught by counting anything - it is a check of where the glyphs actually sit. checker Pages no search can reach A page with no text layer is a picture. It opens, it prints, it looks correct - and no keyword search in any review platform will ever return it. A production where some pages are searchable and some are not is worse than one where none are, because the reviewer has no reason to suspect the gap.