How to export emails for court or discovery
Your emails never leave your computer.
Short answer: Produce each email as its own PDF showing the sender, recipients and date exactly as sent; keep each attachment as the original file next to its email; list everything in an index; number every page (Bates numbering); and record a hash of every file so it can be shown that nothing changed. Emails2PDF Pro produces all five from an Outlook mailbox or a .pst or .mbox file, on your own computer. Check your court's rules or the agreed ESI protocol for the required format.
What a clean email production contains
- One PDF per email, with the header fields as sent: from, to, cc, date and subject.
- Attachments as original files, kept with the email they came from, not printed into the PDF.
- An index (spreadsheet) with one row per email: number, date, parties, subject, file name, attachment names, message ID.
- Bates numbers: a running number on every page across the whole production, so any page can be cited.
- A hash log: the SHA-256 of every file produced, so the recipient can verify that nothing was altered later.
How to do it with Emails2PDF
- Open emails2pdf.com/app. Connect the Outlook mailbox, or upload the .pst, .ost, .mbox, .eml or .msg files you were given.
- Pick the folder and the date range the request covers.
- Export. With Pro, the ZIP contains the PDFs with Bates numbers (prefix E2P-) on every page, the attachments in matching folders,
index.xlsxwith each email's Bates range, andhashes.csvwith the SHA-256 of every file.
The emails are converted in your browser; they are not uploaded to any server, which keeps privileged material on your own machine.
Questions
What is Bates numbering?
A unique running number stamped on every page of a document production (for example E2P-000001 to E2P-000842), so every page can be referred to precisely. Emails2PDF numbers the pages across all PDFs in the export and records each email's range in the index.
What is a hash log for?
A hash is a fingerprint of a file. The hash log lists the SHA-256 of every file in the export; recomputing it later proves the file is byte-for-byte the one that was produced.
Is PDF accepted for discovery?
Often, but it depends on the court and on what the parties agreed. Some productions require native files or images with load files. Check the ESI protocol or ask the requesting party; this guide is not legal advice.
Does exporting change the original emails?
No. Emails2PDF only reads the mailbox. The PDFs are renderings of the messages; the attachments are saved as the original files.