PDF exhibit tools for paralegals

The idea

Before every filing, a paralegal runs the same gauntlet: Bates-stamp a folder of documents, slap exhibit labels on, redact the account numbers, and merge everything into a bookmarked binder for e-filing. The tools for this are either Adobe Acrobat Pro at $24 per seat per month or a swivel-chair routine across three free websites, none of which do Bates numbering across a folder. Generic PDF tooling is proven paid demand — iLovePDF charges $9/mo — but it sells the wrong bundle for litigation.

The wedge is that these four operations belong together and share state: the file order that drives Bates numbers is the same order that drives exhibit labels and the binder bookmarks. Doing it all client-side with pdf-lib is both cheaper to run and the right pitch for legal — documents that never touch a server is a feature paralegals will repeat to the supervising attorney.

Who pays

Small litigation firms and solo attorneys without firmwide Acrobat licenses; the paralegal finds it, the office manager approves it. $19/mo flat for the firm undercuts a single Acrobat seat and beats iLovePDF on fit. Distribution: paralegal groups and subreddits, legal-tech newsletters, and SEO on searches like free Bates numbering tool, which has real volume and terrible current answers.

MVP scope

• Folder-drop with reorderable document list per matter
• Sequential Bates stamping across the set with exported Bates log CSV
• Exhibit label stamps with style presets
• True redaction that rasterizes and strips the text layer
• Merged binder with generated index and per-exhibit bookmarks
• Skip for v1: OCR, deposition transcript tools, cloud document storage, court-specific filing integrations

Build ExhibitPress, a browser-based PDF toolkit for litigation support. Stack: Next.js (App Router), pdf-lib for all PDF manipulation running client-side in the browser, Stripe for billing. Documents never leave the user's machine — process everything in-browser and say so prominently.

Core flow: 1) Paralegal drags in a folder of PDFs for a matter. 2) Bates numbering: choose prefix, start number, position, and font; the tool stamps sequentially across the entire set in file order (reorderable list), and exports a Bates log CSV mapping each filename to its number range. 3) Exhibit stamping: apply Exhibit A/B/C or numeric labels as stamps on page one of each document, with plaintiff/defendant style presets. 4) Redaction: draw boxes over content; on export, the tool rasterizes affected pages and removes the underlying text layer so redactions are true, not cosmetic overlays — this is the critical detail, verify text is unextractable. 5) Binder build: merge the set into one PDF with a generated index page and a bookmark per exhibit, ready for e-filing.

Pages: matters list, matter workspace with the document list and the four tools, settings, billing. Non-obvious details: process files with a web worker so 500-page sets do not freeze the tab; enforce court e-filing size limits by warning and offering per-exhibit split output. Pricing: 3 free documents, $19/mo per firm, unlimited documents and users.