PDF as legal evidence: tips for correct preservation

2 min read·25 July 2026

PDF documents are increasingly submitted as evidence in courts or legal proceedings. Learn how to correctly create and preserve them.

When PDF serves as legal evidence

Situations where you want to preserve a PDF as legal evidence: email conversations as PDF (proof of correspondence), agreements and contracts (proof of consent), invoices (proof of payment or delivery), damage reports from inspections (proof of condition), and screenshots of websites or social media (proof of publications).

Preserve integrity: flatten and do not modify

An evidence document must never be modified after the date of the incident. Flatten the document immediately upon receipt or creation via the Flatten tool. Save the flattened version with the creation date in the filename. Also preserve the original non-flattened version if possible.

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Add a timestamp

A timestamp proves unequivocally that a document existed at a certain moment. Use a trusted timestamping service (e.g. DigiStamp, RFC 3161-compliant provider) for legally relevant documents. The timestamp is a cryptographic hash linked to the document and accepted by courts as evidence.

Preserve metadata as evidence

PDF metadata (creation date, modification date, software) can be evidence of when a document was created or changed. Use the Info tool on PDFrust to view and document metadata before saving the file. Never change the metadata of a document you want to preserve as evidence.

Secure and store

Evidence PDFs are stored in an immutable location: a read-only USB drive, blockchain-documented cloud storage (e.g. Everledger) or a physical print with court seal. For email: forward the original email as attachment to yourself and save the forward as PDF — this proves the send timestamp.