Guide · keeping your files
Your case folder
The record lives here. The files live with you. Five minutes setting up one folder saves an afternoon of hunting later, when somebody finally asks for “the letter from last spring”.
The short version
- Make one folder for the case on your computer.
- Copy files into it. Don’t move or change them.
- Name each one with the date first:
2026-09-16_landlord-letter - Photos, screenshots and documents go into the record. A video stays with you — add a still of it instead.
That’s the whole thing. The rest of this page is the detail.
What to call each file
Most people never name a file on purpose, which is fine. This is the one habit worth picking up, and it comes in two stages: the name you give it at home, and the number the record adds later.
At home, before anything else
Two parts: the day it happened, then what it is. The date goes first so the folder sorts itself into the order things happened.
The day it happened — year, month, day — then what it is, in a few words.
After you add it to the record
Every item in the record has a number. Putting that number in front of the file name is what lets anyone you hand the folder to match a file to the item without asking you.
On your computer, right-click the file and choose Rename — F2 on Windows, Return on a Mac. The .pdf on the end stays as it is.
In a hurry? The number alone does the main job: 018_landlord-letter.pdf
018
18
Three digits, so 010 sorts after 009 instead of after 1.
2026-08-09
08-09-2026
08-09 is August 9 in the US and September 8 almost everywhere else. Year first means one thing, and it sorts by date.
landlord-letter
Landlord letter (final)!!
Hyphens instead of spaces, and no symbols. Some software trips over both. Keep the whole name under about 50 characters.
018_…
Exhibit A_…
Don't write "Exhibit". The item number is the record's own reference. Ask whoever you're sending it to what they accept.
What the folder looks like after a few weeks
Sorted by name, it falls into the same order as the record. Anyone you hand it to can match item 018 to its file without asking you.
Deposit not returned · 6 files
Files you added to the record are kept there as well as in your folder. Files you only listed stay with you — the record holds the name, the date and who has it.
What goes where
Photos and screenshots
Add them to the record
Drop them in. They’re printed in the case file. Screenshots, and anything sent through a messaging app, have lost the day they were taken, so you set it.
Videos
A still, then say you hold it
A video file can’t be added to the record. Pause on the moment that matters, take a screenshot and drop that in — that’s what prints. Then use I have it to record that the video exists and that it’s in your folder.
PDFs and documents
Either way round
Add it to the record and it’s kept, printed in the case file, and gets a fingerprint taken when it arrives. Or, if you’d rather not upload it, use I have it: the record lists its name and date and says you hold it, and the file never leaves your computer.
Emails
Forward it
Each case can have its own email address. Forward what they send you to it, and put it in the BCC field — never CC — on what you send them. The date comes from the message, not from you typing it. Mail from an address that isn’t on your list is sent back rather than filed.
What the fingerprint is
When you add a file to the record, the app works out a long code from the file’s exact contents. That code is its fingerprint. Change even one dot in the file and the code comes out completely different.
What it proves
This file has not changed since it reached us.
Anyone can check it themselves, without us. The case file prints the fingerprint for every file it lists, and the command to type — shasum -a 256 — on its last page.
What it doesn’t prove
It cannot show anything about the file before that — a phone often hands over its own copy of a photo rather than the one the camera made.
It says nothing about when a photo was taken, and nothing about whether what you wrote is right. A fingerprint proves a file has not changed since it reached us. It cannot speak to anything before that.
Photos
For a photo, the fingerprint is of the copy kept here. Where location data was found, it was taken out before the fingerprint, so that copy and the photo still on the phone are not the same file. The fingerprint matches what your export contains.
Files you only list
Something recorded with I have it has no fingerprint, because the file never reaches us. The record holds its name, its date and who has it.
Why it helps when you hand your case over
The person reading it can confirm for themselves that nothing was edited after it was recorded. That is the question they would otherwise have to ask you, and take your word for.
The habit that protects it
Keep the file you added exactly as it is. Share copies of it; don’t re-save or edit the one you added.
Take a still that carries its own date
A video doesn’t go in the record, but a picture of it does. Take that picture from your phone’s details screen and the day, the time and the file’s length come with it, all in the same shot.
iPhone · Photos
- Open the video and pause on the moment that matters.
- Swipe up, or tap ⓘ. The date, time, file name, length and size show under the picture.
- Take a screenshot: side button and volume up together.
- Drop the screenshot in and set the date to the one it shows.
Android · Google Photos
- Open the video and pause on the moment that matters.
- Swipe up, or tap ⋮ then Details.
- Take a screenshot: power and volume down together.
- Drop the screenshot in and set the date to the one it shows.
Then use I have it for the video itself, so the record knows it exists and where it is. More on finding the date a photo or video was taken →
Keep the original where it is
Messaging apps and email often strip the date out of a video. The copy in your photo library still has it. Copy it to your folder straight from the phone, not by sending it to yourself.
Leave the date alone
The details screen lets you change the date and time. Don’t, on anything that’s part of a case.
Keep the map out of the shot
If a map shows under the details, scroll so it isn’t in the screenshot. Say where it was in words instead.
The length and size help later
They let anyone match the still to the right video file, even among dozens of clips from the same night.
Where the folder starts depends on which end you’re on
It’s being raised against you
Start with what you already had
Before the letter arrived there was nothing to answer, so your best files were kept for another reason: a work calendar, the photo roll, old messages. Copy them in with their names as they are, then rename the copies. The dates on them are the point.
You’re raising it
Start the day it starts
Make the folder now, not when it’s bad enough. And take the photographs before anything is repaired, cleaned up or covered over. Those can’t be taken again.
When you hand it over
Give copies. Keep the originals.
Your folder is the original set. Send copies of it.
Need a different format? Make a copy.
If a clip has to become an .mp4, convert a copy and name it the same with _copy on the end. Leave the one in your folder untouched.
Ask what they accept
Courts and agencies set their own rules for file types, sizes and how things should be marked. Ask whoever you’re sending it to what they accept.
This guide is about keeping records. It is not legal advice.