Paralegals · FRCP 5.2
Redact exhibits and productions before filing, and hand back a file you can prove
Medical records for a demand package, bank statements for discovery, motion exhibits with a client’s Social Security number on page 14 — detected for you, approved by you or the attorney, removed from the file, then re-scanned before it leaves your desk.
Redaction is treated as a clerical task until it fails, and when it fails it fails publicly. RedactWorks turns it into a review instead of an afternoon: every identifier is highlighted over still-visible text, nothing is removed until someone approves, the approved text is deleted from the PDF rather than covered, and the finished file is re-scanned so you can say it was checked — not just that you were careful.
Start with 3 documents free, no card. Recurring work runs on the $14.99/month plan (150 documents); a $1.99 3-pack covers the occasional job. No install, no Acrobat license.
See it on a sample — no signup, no upload
The AI has already scanned this synthetic medical-records excerpt from a personal-injury demand package. Every free tool makes you the detector — you draw the boxes and hope you didn’t miss one. Here the finding is done; your job is the decision.
Patient Jordan A. Pemberton, DOB 03/14/1981, MRN 4415-882, presented on March 20 following a rear-end collision. Insurance member ID XKP-7734-2255.
Emergency contact Maria Pemberton, (555) 014-2291. Diagnosis and treatment plan follow. Copy to counsel at m.pemberton@example.com.
The AI found 7 items — the decision is yours. Click any highlight to keep it visible; nothing is redacted until you approve.
Verified. 7 items permanently removed — the text is deleted, not covered — hidden data stripped, and the finished file re-scanned to prove it. Kept visible: none.
Now try your own fileSynthetic sample — every name and number is invented. The AI can highlight, but it can’t redact: only your approval applies a black box.
What the federal rule puts on the filer
Civil Rule 5.2(a) (and its mirrors, Criminal Rule 49.1 and Bankruptcy Rule 9037) says a filing that contains any of these may include only the truncated form. Court clerks’ own guidance is consistent: the filer, not the clerk, is responsible for checking.
| Identifier | What may remain | Where paralegals meet it |
|---|---|---|
| Social Security or taxpayer ID number | Last four digits | Tax returns, pay records, older medical and insurance forms |
| Birth date | The year | Medical records, intake sheets, insurance claims |
| Name of a minor | Initials | Family and PI matters, school and medical records |
| Financial-account number | Last four digits | Bank and credit-card statements, loan files, discovery productions |
Criminal Rule 49.1 adds a fifth: a home address, reduced to city and state. State rules and protective orders often go further — medical, privileged and confidential business content — and detection covers those categories too. You decide what stays.
Why the black box fails, in the judiciary’s own words
In 2024 the Federal Judicial Center sampled 4.68 million PACER documents and found 22,391 unredacted Social Security numbers. Its description of the most common failure:
“The party who filed the document attempted to redact the SSNs by covering them with a black box. The SSNs can be made visible, however, simply by selecting and deleting the box or by highlighting the page and copying and pasting the text behind it into a word processor. These 6,198 improperly redacted SSNs account for 28% of the SSNs identified in this study.”Federal Judicial Center, Unredacted Social Security Numbers in Federal Court PACER Documents (April 2024).
RedactWorks does not draw boxes over text. It removes the characters from the PDF’s text layer, strips the metadata, form fields, comments and attachments that can carry the same identifiers, and re-extracts the text from the finished file to confirm the approved items are gone. If one survives, the file is not released.
Documents this is built for
- Medical records and bills for demand packages. Patient identifiers, MRNs, insurance IDs and dates of birth across long, scanned record sets.
- Discovery productions and motion exhibits. Bank and credit-card statements, employment and tax records, contracts with account numbers, client intake.
- Anything that arrived as paper. Scanned PDFs and phone photos are OCR’d before detection, so a picture of a printed page taken on your phone is redacted like any other upload.
Each document runs up to 50 pages. Your original upload is never modified; the redacted file is a separate copy, and the original can be deleted on your command when the job is done.
How verified redaction works
- Detect. Upload the file and detection runs automatically — names, Social Security numbers, account numbers, addresses, dates, medical identifiers, and the other details that re-identify a person in context. High-risk categories (SSN, financial, medical) stay locked on.
- Review and approve. Every finding is a checkbox over still-visible text. Uncheck what should stay, add anything missed. The attorney can review the same screen before anyone approves.
- Redact and verify. Approved text is permanently removed and hidden data stripped — then the finished file is re-scanned, and delivery is blocked if any approved item survives.
Start redacting — verified output
Start with 3 documents free, no card. Recurring work runs on the $14.99/month plan (150 documents); a $1.99 3-pack covers the occasional job.
Common questions
Do I need Adobe Acrobat?
No. RedactWorks runs in the browser and in the iPhone and Android apps. There is nothing to install and no Acrobat license to keep current. Upload the PDF, Word file, image or scan; download the redacted PDF.
Can the attorney review before I approve?
Yes. The highlight stage shows every proposed redaction over still-visible text, so you can prepare and the attorney can look at the same screen before anything is removed. Nothing is redacted or released until someone approves.
Is drawing a black box real redaction?
No. The box only covers the text; the characters stay in the file and come back with select-and-paste. RedactWorks removes the text itself, strips hidden data, and re-scans the output to confirm the approved items are gone.
What happens to the client’s file afterward?
Your original is never modified and is never used to train any AI model. When the job is done, one click permanently deletes the original and every working copy. The redacted, identifier-free output is kept for up to a year so you can re-download it, or you can delete that too. Details are on the trust page.
What does it cost?
Three documents are free with no card. After that it is $14.99/month for 150 documents, or a $1.99 pack of three. Each document can run up to 50 pages.