Certification Regarding Redaction of Personal Identifiers

A certification regarding redaction of personal identifiers is the written statement a filer gives the court to confirm that every personal identifier required to be redacted has been removed or truncated before the document enters the public docket. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 5.2, Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 49.1, and Federal Rule of Bankruptcy Procedure 9037 impose the redaction duty, but the format of the certification itself is set by each court’s local rules or by prompts in the CM/ECF electronic filing system.¹

What You Are Certifying You Removed

Before you can sign a certification, you need to know exactly what the rules require you to redact. The same four categories apply in civil, criminal, and bankruptcy filings:¹

Social Security numbers and taxpayer identification numbers: only the last four digits may appear.
Financial account numbers, including bank accounts and credit cards: only the last four digits may appear.
Dates of birth: only the year.
Names of minors: initials only.

Criminal filings add one more. Under Rule 49.1, home addresses must be redacted down to the city and state.² If you are filing in a criminal case and your certification does not account for addresses, you have not fully complied.

Why the Certification Exists

The clerk does not screen your filing for stray identifiers. The redaction duty sits entirely with the attorney, party, or nonparty who files the document.¹ The certification is how the court shifts that responsibility onto the record. By signing it, you are telling the judge that you have read your own filing, found every protected identifier, and either removed it or cut it down to the format the rule allows.

How the Certification Is Submitted

The exact mechanics vary. Some districts require a standalone certification form filed as its own docket entry alongside the underlying document. Others fold the certification into CM/ECF itself, so you complete it by checking a box or making a declaration during electronic upload. A few treat the signature block on the filing as the certification. Check the local rules and the CM/ECF prompts for the court where you are filing before you assume any one format applies.

When Redaction Is Not Required

Rule 5.2(b) lists filings that are exempt from the redaction requirement:¹

Financial account numbers that identify property in a forfeiture proceeding.
The record of an administrative or agency proceeding.
Official court records of a state court proceeding.
Records from another court or tribunal that were not subject to redaction when originally filed.
Pro se filings in habeas and post-conviction cases under 28 U.S.C. Sections 2241, 2254, and 2255.

Bankruptcy filings follow a nearly identical list under Rule 9037(b), with one addition: filings governed by Section 110 of the Bankruptcy Code, which regulates bankruptcy petition preparers, are also exempt.³ If your filing fits one of these categories, no redaction is required and no certification of redaction is needed for the exempt content.

When the Court Still Needs the Full Information

Redaction protects the public record, but the judge may need the complete data to decide the case. Rule 5.2 gives you two tools.

The first is a sealed unredacted copy. Rule 5.2(f) lets you file the redacted version on the public docket and submit a complete, unredacted version under seal. No motion or showing of good cause is required; the sealed copy becomes part of the record and is available to the court while the public sees only the redacted version.¹

The second is a reference list under Rule 5.2(g). You file a sealed document that maps each redacted identifier to its complete form, and every reference in subsequent filings to the truncated identifier is treated as a reference to the full version on the list. The list may be amended as of right.¹ One list can cover a case with dozens of account numbers across many filings, which is cleaner than sealing each document separately.

Waiver and Fixing a Document You Already Filed

If you file your own personal identifiers without redacting them and without filing under seal, you waive the rule’s protection as to your own information. You cannot waive anyone else’s.¹ An accidental disclosure is not automatically permanent; the committee notes to Rule 5.2 contemplate that a filer who makes a mistake may seek relief from the court.

Bankruptcy has an explicit fix. Rule 9037(h) lets a filer move to redact an already-filed document by identifying the proposed redactions, serving the motion on the debtor, the debtor’s attorney, and the U.S. Trustee, and attaching the proposed redacted version. The motion must be filed within 90 days of the original filing, though the court may extend or shorten that period for cause.⁴

Civil and criminal cases have no equivalent federal rule. In practice, filers contact the clerk’s office or file a motion asking the court to restrict access to the unredacted document and accept a corrected version. Move quickly. The longer the unredacted filing sits on the public docket, the more likely someone downloads it.

Extra Protection Beyond the Default Rules

Some case types and some documents need more than the standard categories cover.

Social Security benefit appeals and immigration cases are limited under Rule 5.2(c). Parties and their attorneys get full remote electronic access, but anyone else can only view the docket sheet and the court’s opinions and orders online; the rest of the file requires an in-person trip to the courthouse.¹

Under Rule 5.2(e), a court can order redaction of information beyond the default categories, or limit nonparty remote access to a specific document, on a showing of good cause. This is the route for trade secrets, medical information outside what the rule already protects, and witness or party safety concerns.¹

For material too sensitive even for sealed CM/ECF filing, some courts run separate highly sensitive document procedures that require physical delivery instead of electronic filing. These protocols vary by district, so if your case involves classified material, certain law enforcement information, or similarly sensitive records, call the clerk’s office before you file.

1
Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 5.2 – Privacy Protection for Filings Made With the Court
2
Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure Rule 49.1 – Privacy Protection for Filings Made With the Court
3
Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure Rule 9037 – Protecting Privacy for Filings
4
United States Courts. Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure