For professionals · Attorneys
Redact court filings fast, as the rules require
Court rules make the filer responsible for redacting personal identifiers. Cover finds and removes them for you, and the text underneath is gone.
Fed. R. Civ. P. 5.2, Crim. R. 49.1 and Bankr. R. 9037 allow only:
- Last 4 of an SSN or tax ID
- Last 4 of an account number
- Year of birth
- A minor's initials
- City and state of a home (criminal)
How it works
Drag it in. It comes back redacted.
Drag the declaration into Cover. The redacted copy is ready to file, or to hand to an Ai tool.
Animation: Declaration.pdf is dragged into Cover, which replaces each private detail on the page with a label (ADDR_1, NAME_1, NAME_2, PHONE_1). The redacted copy is dragged into an Ai chat with a question, and the Ai answers using the labels.
The declaration as the Ai receives it, Declaration-redacted.pdf: DECLARATION IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO SEAL Halvorsen Coatings, Inc. v. Brightline Polymer Labs, LLC 1. I, [NAME_1] , direct process engineering at Halvorsen Coatings, Inc. 2. Former employee [NAME_2] copied the CX-40 batch records to a personal drive. 3. He can be reached at [PHONE_1] and lives at [ADDR_1] . 4. He later shared these records with Brightline Polymer Labs. I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct.
Question: Summarize what this declaration claims.
The Ai's answer: [NAME_1] says [NAME_2], a former employee, copied the CX-40 batch records to a personal drive and shared them with a competitor, and asks the court to keep the records sealed.
Try it on your own document: drop a PDF into Cover for Web and see what it redacts.
Time saved
Redact in less than half the time
Cover pays for itself after about 3 hours of a paralegal's redacting, or about 1 hour of yours.
Watch the real recordings: Cover vs drawing every box in Acrobat Pro
For the court
Label each redaction for the court
Protective orders and opposing counsel often ask for each redaction to show its reason.
An animation of Cover redacting a sample court filing: a declaration in support of a motion to seal in a commercial dispute over a coating formula.
Cover finds the personal identifiers in the filing and redacts them, and each redaction carries a label: NAME_1 for the declarant, NAME_2 for a former employee who is named twice, PHONE_1 and ADDR_1.
A paralegal then names the redactions for the court. Hovering a redaction shows a pencil; clicking it opens the label card, and choosing PII renames the former employee's redaction, and the other mention follows. The paralegal drags across the curing temperature and time to redact that passage by hand, clicks its pencil and types Trade secret, so the redaction reads TRADE_SECRET.
The filing is saved with a report. The saved filing and its Redaction certificate appear side by side: on the filing, every redaction shows its label, so a judge can see at a glance why each one is there; the certificate lists every redaction by page with its description, its type and whether Cover found it or a person placed it.
- Cover finds and redacts the identifiers.
- Name each redaction for the court, like PII or Trade secret.
- Save the redacted filing with its report.
- The court sees why each redaction is there.
Real redaction
A redaction, not a piece of tape
In December 2025, text under black boxes in a Justice Department release of the Epstein files could be selected and copied right out.
Two copies of the same line, Payee: Epstein estate, are each covered by a black redaction. Both redactions peel back from the corner and then come off. On the left, a box drawn in a PDF editor: the words are still there underneath, and the verdict reads Failed redaction. On the right, a Cover redaction: there is nothing underneath, and the verdict reads Real redaction.
Cover checks its work, so what it redacts is actually removed.
Benchmark
Fewer wrong redactions to fix before you file
In the same documents, Apple Intelligence, a local Ai model, wrongly redacted 129 things, and each one has to be redone from the original.
Same 18 PDFs: Cover caught 100% of 149 private details, 0 leaked, 12 over-redacted, 3.2 s per PDF. Apple Intelligence caught 50%, 76 leaked, 129 over-redacted, 4.6 s per PDF.
See how Cover's redaction engine hides your personal information vs the best local Ai engines
Questions
Does Cover help me meet Rule 5.2?
Yes. It finds and removes the identifiers Rule 5.2 covers, and you check every page and decide what to file. (Rule 5.2 is the federal civil rule that limits the personal identifiers a court filing may show, and makes the filer responsible for redacting them.)
Does Cover help me meet California Rule 1.201?
Yes. Rule 1.201 lets a filing show no more than the last four digits of a Social Security number or a financial account number. When Cover finds one, it removes the whole number, which the rule allows, and you check every page before you file. (Rule 1.201 is the California Rules of Court rule that makes the filer responsible for redacting these numbers.)
Is anything uploaded?
No. The PDF is never uploaded, and the redaction runs offline. Personal identifiers are removed before anything goes to Ai, and you check every page.
Does it handle scanned exhibits?
Yes, in the Mac app, which reads scanned pages with OCR. In a browser, Cover handles text PDFs. Check handwritten pages in the editor.
Can I use Ai on client files?
Yes, with the client's names and numbers taken out. Run the file through Cover, then give the redacted copy to your Ai tool. (ABA Formal Opinion 512 is the American Bar Association's 2024 guidance that client information shouldn't go into a self-learning Ai tool without the client's informed consent.)
Does redacting replace my client's consent to use Ai?
No. Whether you still need the client's consent is your judgment.
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