Legal · Philterd

State Court Filings Baseline Redaction

A starting policy for state-court PII redaction — covers the most-common state requirements; tune for your specific jurisdiction.

View policy → Download JSON → View source on GitHub

v1.0.0 Updated 2026-05-22 Philter >=3.0.0 By Philterd

state courtcourt filingsprivacyPIIbaseline

The policy

The full state-court-filings-baseline.json file — the same content you’d get by downloading. Copy any part of it, or use the buttons in the hero to grab the whole file.

{
  "name": "state-court-filings-baseline",
  "config": {
    "splitting": {
      "enabled": false,
      "threshold": 4000
    }
  },
  "ignored": [],
  "identifiers": {
    "ssn": {
      "ssnFilterStrategies": [
        {"strategy": "MASK", "maskCharacter": "x", "maskLength": "SAME", "leaveCharacters": 4}
      ]
    },
    "date": {
      "onlyValidDates": true,
      "dateFilterStrategies": [
        {"strategy": "TRUNCATE", "truncateDigits": 4, "redactionFormat": "%Y", "conditions": "context == \"birth\""}
      ]
    },
    "personsName": {
      "personsFilterStrategies": [
        {"strategy": "ABBREVIATE", "abbreviateFormat": "INITIALS", "conditions": "context == \"minor\""}
      ]
    },
    "phoneNumber": {
      "phoneNumberFilterStrategies": [
        {"strategy": "REDACT", "redactionFormat": "{{{REDACTED-phone-number}}}", "conditions": "context == \"witness\" or context == \"victim\""}
      ]
    },
    "driversLicense": {
      "driversLicenseFilterStrategies": [
        {"strategy": "MASK", "maskCharacter": "x", "maskLength": "SAME", "leaveCharacters": 0}
      ]
    },
    "streetAddress": {
      "streetAddressFilterStrategies": [
        {"strategy": "REDACT", "redactionFormat": "{{{REDACTED-address}}}", "conditions": "context == \"witness\" or context == \"victim\""}
      ]
    },
    "identifiers": [
      {
        "id": "tin",
        "pattern": "\\b\\d{2}[-\\s]?\\d{7}\\b",
        "identifierFilterStrategies": [
          {"strategy": "MASK", "maskCharacter": "x", "maskLength": "SAME", "leaveCharacters": 4}
        ]
      },
      {
        "id": "financial-account",
        "pattern": "\\b(?:ACCT|ACCOUNT)[\\s:#]*\\d{6,}\\b",
        "caseSensitive": false,
        "identifierFilterStrategies": [
          {"strategy": "MASK", "maskCharacter": "x", "maskLength": "SAME", "leaveCharacters": 4}
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

Example

Input

Plaintiff Mary Roe (DL D1234567, SSN 999-88-7777, born 1978-11-03). Witness John Q. Smith resides at 4521 Maple Avenue and can be reached at (555) 234-9876. Minor child: Alex Roe. Account 9876543210.

Output

Plaintiff Mary Roe (DL xxxxxxxx, SSN xxxxxxx7777, born 1978). Witness John Q. Smith resides at {{{REDACTED-address}}} and can be reached at {{{REDACTED-phone-number}}}. Minor child: A.R. Account xxxxxx3210.

Entities this policy acts on

SSNTINACCOUNTBIRTHDATEMINOR_NAMEDRIVERS_LICENSEWITNESS_ADDRESSWITNESS_PHONE

What this policy does

A baseline redaction policy covering the PII categories most commonly required to be redacted across U.S. state-court rules. Unlike the federal rules (FRCP 5.2, FRBP 9037), state rules vary substantially — there is no single national standard. This policy implements the most-common state-court requirements as the starting point; the sidecar notes call out the jurisdictional variation you’ll need to research and tune for.

Original PII	Redaction in filing
Social Security number	last 4 digits
Taxpayer identification number	last 4 digits
Date of birth	year only
Name of a minor	initials only
Financial account number	last 4 digits
Driver’s license number	fully masked
Witness/victim home address	fully redacted (context-gated)
Witness/victim phone number	fully redacted (context-gated)

When to use this

Civil complaints, answers, and motions filed in state district / superior / circuit courts.
Family-law filings (divorce, custody, support) where minor names and adult addresses commonly require redaction.
State-court probate filings with financial-account details.
Civil-protection-order filings where petitioner/witness contact information is typically protected.
Any state-court filing where you want a starting baseline before tuning for the specific jurisdiction’s rule.

Do not use this policy as a final filing-ready output without verifying against your jurisdiction’s specific court rules. State rules diverge meaningfully; some require less redaction than this baseline (which is over-protective), and some require more (which means tuning is required).

Why this is a “baseline” and not a final policy

State-court PII rules vary across at least these axes:

What gets redacted at all. Some states track FRCP 5.2 closely; others add categories (driver’s license, vehicle plates, biometric identifiers); a few are more permissive (only SSN and minor names).
What format is preserved. Some states require last-4 of an account number; others require full redaction; a few allow first-4-and-last-4.
What contexts trigger redaction. Witness and victim contact information is typically protected in domestic-violence and child-protection matters but not in routine civil cases. The context conditions in this policy give you the hook to tune that behavior; the default protects witness/victim contact info conservatively.
What records are sealed entirely. Most states have separate rules for fully-sealed filings (juvenile delinquency, mental-health commitment, certain protective orders) that aren’t a redaction problem so much as a routing problem. This policy doesn’t address the routing.

When to customize

Drop categories your state doesn’t require. If you’re filing in a jurisdiction with a permissive rule, removing the streetAddress, phoneNumber, or driversLicense blocks reduces over-redaction.
Add categories your state requires. Common additions: vehicle license plates, financial account routing numbers, biometric identifiers, alien registration numbers.
Tighten or loosen the context gates. The witness/victim context gates may be too broad in routine civil filings (where witness contact info is regularly disclosed) or too narrow in DV/family-law filings (where adult parties’ contact info also needs protection).
Account number format. The default \bACCT[\s:#]*\d{6,}\b is illustrative. Replace with the specific patterns your case-management system uses.
Minor name detection. If your filings have a structured field for minor parties or children, add a custom section filter to redact the entire section content rather than relying on context detection.

Compliance notes

This policy is a starting point, not a certified-compliant configuration for any specific jurisdiction. You must consult your court’s rules of civil / criminal / family / probate procedure before relying on this policy for filed documents.
Many state courts publish guidance on PII redaction in their local rules or in administrative orders separate from the rules of procedure. Check both.
Several states have separate electronic-filing standards that govern PII handling for documents submitted via the court’s e-filing system; those standards sometimes differ from the paper-filing rules.
The redaction here is technical, not legal. Attorneys remain responsible for the accuracy and completeness of their filings, including verifying that the redaction satisfies the applicable rule.

References

National Center for State Courts — Privacy and Access to Court Records
FRCP 5.2 — Privacy Protection For Filings Made with the Court (federal civil baseline that many states track)
For state-specific rules, consult the court’s rules of civil procedure and any local rules of the specific court of filing.

Use this policy

Download and load into your running Philter instance:

# Download the policy
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/philterd/pii-redaction-policies/main/policies/philterd/legal/state-court-filings-baseline.json

# Upload to your Philter instance
curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/api/policies \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     --data @state-court-filings-baseline.json

# Redact text using the policy
curl http://localhost:8080/api/filter?p=state-court-filings-baseline \
     --data "your text here" \
     -H "Content-Type: text/plain"

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