When Do I Need to Redact Information in a Legal Document?

A legal redaction in a document involves removal of certain private information contained in documents subject to compulsory discovery in a legal proceedings. This may be non-public information or privileged communications. While data redaction within produced documents generally occur at the discovery stage of criminal or civil litigation, the legal rules may more broadly relate to the law's protection of certain privacy rights and may apply in every stage of a legal proceeding.

Non-public Information

The specific rules governing legal redaction requirements for non-public information are contained in the rules of civil procedure and criminal procedure in federal and state jurisdictions. For example, subject to certain nuances, Rule 5.2 of the U.S. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure provides protection for the following information: 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. This rule requires that this non-public data be removed from documents produced in a legal proceeding in federal civil proceedings.

Privileged Communications

Court documents are generally opened to the public, except those under seal.  Privileged communications contained in these documents must generally be removed. A privileged communication is a legal right against compulsory discovery of protected communications between certain parties. For example, this may be a communication between an attorney and her client or a protected marital communication contained in an otherwise discoverable document.

Nuances of Redaction

While redaction involves the removal of existing data, its flip-side application means that the same redacted data cannot be introduced in a legal proceeding by a party or non-party to the lawsuit. For example, in a juvenile court proceeding, this would mean that a minor child's full name is generally not used in court filings -- only the initials of the first and last name of the minor. As a result, the header of a juvenile court document may read: "In Re: J. R., a minor child."

As you can see, there are a number of considerations when determining what information should be redacted from a legal document. This will depend entirely on the type of legal document you are working with and the content of the legal document. This article provides a general overview for those faced with redacting a legal document. The laws of a particular state or jurisdiction may impact these requirements and this may require seeking local legal counsel.