Redacting a PDF for a federal civil filing

Updated September 5, 2026. Not legal advice; confirm the current rule, the local rules and any order in your case.

What Rule 5.2 says

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 5.2 applies to every electronic or paper filing in a federal civil case, by a party or a nonparty. Quoted from the rule text published by the Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School, read September 5, 2026:

Unless the court orders otherwise, in an electronic or paper filing with the court that contains an individual's social-security number, taxpayer-identification number, or birth date, the name of an individual known to be a minor, or a financial-account number, a party or nonparty making the filing may include only:

The filing may include only (Rule 5.2(a)):

1. the last four digits of the social-security number and taxpayer-identification number;
2. the year of the individual's birth;
3. the minor's initials; and
4. the last four digits of the financial-account number.

The rule binds the person filing. Nothing in Rule 5.2 makes the clerk check a filing, so a leak is the filer's problem from the moment it is docketed.

The rule sets a floor. A protective order in the case can add categories (Rule 5.2(e)), and many local rules and standing orders do. Read the rule, then the local rule, then the order.

Redaction under the rule is about what the public record shows. If the court needs the full number, Rule 5.2(f) and (g) give two ways to supply it under seal without putting it in the public file.

What is exempt

Rule 5.2(b): the redaction requirement does not apply to the following.

1. a financial-account number that identifies the property allegedly subject to forfeiture in a forfeiture proceeding;
2. the record of an administrative or agency proceeding;
3. the official record of a state-court proceeding;
4. the record of a court or tribunal, if that record was not subject to the redaction requirement when originally filed;
5. a filing covered by Rule 5.2(c) or (d); and
6. a pro se filing in an action brought under 28 U.S.C. §§2241, 2254, or 2255.

Sealing, protective orders and mistakes

Filings under seal (Rule 5.2(d))

The court may order that a filing be made under seal without redaction. The court may later unseal the filing or order the person who made the filing to file a redacted version for the public record.

Protective orders (Rule 5.2(e))

For good cause, the court may by order in a case: (1) require redaction of additional information; or (2) limit or prohibit a nonparty's remote electronic access to a document filed with the court.

An unredacted copy under seal (Rule 5.2(f))

A person making a redacted filing may also file an unredacted copy under seal. The court must retain the unredacted copy as part of the record.

A reference list (Rule 5.2(g))

A filing that contains redacted information may be filed together with a reference list that identifies each item of redacted information and specifies an appropriate identifier that uniquely corresponds to each item listed. The list must be filed under seal and may be amended as of right. Any reference in the case to a listed identifier will be construed to refer to the corresponding item of information.

Waiver (Rule 5.2(h))

A person waives the protection of Rule 5.2(a) as to the person's own information by filing it without redaction and not under seal.

What to search for in the PDF

The rule names categories; the PDF holds them as text, as form-field values, as comments and as pixels on scanned pages. Search all of those, not only the visible page.

Category	What may remain	Where to look
Social Security and taxpayer-identification numbers	the last four digits	nine-digit numbers in 000-00-0000 and 00-0000000 form, with and without separators; check the text layer, form fields and comments, not just the page image
Dates of birth	the year	dates near words such as DOB, born, date of birth and birthdate; medical and HR records carry them in headers on every page
Names of minors	the initials	names you know belong to minors; no pattern finds these, so search by name and check every hit
Financial-account numbers	the last four digits	card, bank, loan and brokerage account numbers, including those on statements, cheques and exhibits copied from discovery

How to redact so nothing leaks

1. OCR scanned pages first, so search finds every instance and no later OCR pass resurrects the text.
2. Search by pattern and by name, then review every hit. Accept or reject before applying anything.
3. Remove, then draw. True redaction deletes the text and image data, then marks the area. A box drawn over live text is not a redaction.
4. Scrub the rest of the file: metadata, comments, bookmarks, attachments, hidden layers, form fields.
5. Save as a new file, never an incremental save, so the earlier revision is gone.
6. Verify by extracting the text of the output and searching for every redacted term, then keep a redaction log.

The full method, with the places redacted information hides and how to verify by hand, is in How to redact a PDF properly.

How ExhibitSet handles it

ExhibitSet's search-and-redact ships with pattern presets for Social Security and taxpayer-identification numbers, dates of birth and financial-account numbers, finds matches in page text, form-field values and comments, and shows each hit for review. Applying removes the underlying text and image data; the output is then re-read and searched for every marked term, and the job refuses to report success if anything is still found. The redaction log records page, reason and area without the redacted text. Everything runs in your browser; no document, page or file name is uploaded.

Frequently asked questions

Does Rule 5.2 apply to exhibits attached to a filing?

Yes. The rule covers the filing, and an exhibit filed with it is part of that filing. Discovery documents produced to the other side are governed by the protective order and ESI protocol instead, but the moment one is attached to a motion it must meet Rule 5.2.

What if I file an unredacted number by mistake?

Rule 5.2(h) says a person waives the protection of the rule as to their own information by filing it without redaction. For someone else's information, contact the clerk promptly about restricting the document and file a redacted version; the procedure varies by district.

Is a black box drawn over the number enough?

No. A box drawn over live text leaves the text in the file, where it can be selected, extracted or found by search. True redaction removes the text and image data and is then verified by searching the output.