Free. Runs in your browser.
Redact a brief without guessing the rules
Pick the document role, the province, and the categories to apply. Get instructions, a checklist, and a log template.
Redaction and privilege checklist
Pick the document role, the province, and the categories you need to apply. Get instructions, a checklist, and a log template.
Categories to apply
Identifiers
Black out health numbers, full addresses, phone numbers, and account numbers. Leave a file reference so the page can still be cited.
- Search for health numbers, addresses, phone numbers, and emails.
- Replace each hit with a role label or a file reference.
- Check headers, footers, and referral stickers.
Solicitor-client privilege
Mark solicitor-client material and withhold it. If a page mixes facts and advice, produce the facts and log the withheld portion.
- Read the instructing letter for strategy, numbers, and advice.
- Withhold those passages from the examiner copy.
- Log the withheld pages in the redaction log.
Irrelevant clinical history
Unrelated sexual, psychiatric, or remote history does not go to an examiner unless the questions make it relevant. Log what you withheld and why.
- List the referral questions first.
- Mark history that does not answer those questions.
- Withhold or summarize, then record the reason.
Third-party information
Names and records of spouses, children, coworkers, and other patients come out unless that person is the examinee. Substitute a role label such as spouse or coworker.
- Search for other people's names in notes and labels.
- Redact third-party identifiers and their clinical detail.
- Keep the examinee's own history intact.
Redaction log template
| Date | Document | Page or Bates | Category | Reason | Method | Operator initials | Reviewer initials |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Empty rows. Download CSV and fill it as you redact. Do not paste identifiers into the log. | |||||||
How to use it
Four steps
- 1
Pick the document role
Claimant records, examiner report, instructing letter, or billing.
- 2
Pick the province and the categories
Identifiers, privilege, irrelevant history, third-party information, and minors.
- 3
Read the instructions
Each category gets a paragraph and an ordered list of steps.
- 4
Download the log
Use the CSV columns as you redact. Do not paste identifiers into the log.
Background
What the numbers mean
The brief that still has a spouse's health number
Someone will send the whole family-physician chart. It will include a child's visit, a spouse's medication, and a lawyer's email with a settlement number in the thread. If that bundle goes to the examiner, you have a privacy problem and a privilege problem on the same afternoon. Redaction is not decoration. It is the last chance to stop the wrong page leaving the office.
Privilege is not the same as embarrassment
Solicitor-client material is advice and strategy. It comes off the examiner copy, even when it sits next to a useful fact. Irrelevant clinical history is different. It comes off because the questions do not make it relevant, not because it is awkward. Third-party information comes off because it is not the examinee's. Write the reason in the log. A later challenge will ask for that reason, not for your memory of the day.
The log is the work product you keep
A black box on a PDF without a log is hard to defend. Record the date, the document, the page, the category, the reason, and who reviewed it. Describe the class of information. Do not paste the original words. If you paste the health number into the log, you have copied the thing you were trying to remove. This tool gives you the columns. You fill them as you go.
FAQ
Questions people ask
Does this redact my PDFs?
No. It writes the instructions, the checklist, and an empty log. You redact in your document software.
What goes in the log?
Date, document, page or Bates, category, reason, method, operator, and reviewer. Describe the class of information only.
Why does the document role matter?
An instructing letter is where privilege hides. A billing file is where account numbers hide. The steps change.
What about Quebec?
The identifier instructions mention Law 25. Confirm against counsel's rules for that file.
More tools
Related calculators
- Free tool
Records gap finder
List each expected source and the dates you hold. See what is missing, what is short, and a letter to request it.
Read - Free tool
Bates numbering generator
Paste your sources and page counts. Get the Bates range for each one, plus warnings for duplicates and overflow.
Read - Free tool
Consent form checker
Paste redacted consent language. Get an approximate reading grade, sentence length, and a clause checklist.
Read
Stop doing this by hand for every file
IMECore runs the same calculation on every case, and keeps the answer on the file.