For lawyers
PDF tools for lawyers
The tools a legal practice needs most are the ones where a mistake is a disclosure: redaction that removes text rather than covering it, metadata that gets cleared before filing, and a way to prove an exhibit has not changed. All three run in your browser, so privileged material never reaches a server.
By Suprabhat Updated How we write these
What tends to go wrong
- Redactions that were drawn rather than applied are the single most reported PDF failure in legal filings — the text sits under the black box and copies straight out.
- Client documents uploaded to a processing service leave a copy on infrastructure you have not vetted and cannot audit, which is difficult to reconcile with a duty of confidentiality.
- Document properties carry the name of whoever exported the file, the software, and the editing timeline — none of it visible on the page, all of it disclosed with the file.
- An exhibit that cannot be shown to be unchanged is an exhibit worth arguing about.
The workflow
Every one of these works today, and runs on your own device.
- 1
Redact so it survives opposing counsel
Characters inside each box are deleted from the file and the space is covered. Then test it the way the other side will: open the saved copy, select across the black area, paste into a text editor, and search for the name you removed. Nothing comes back because nothing is there.
Redact PDF - 2
Sweep a long bundle for what you missed
On a 300-page disclosure bundle, drawing every box by hand is where errors come from. This finds emails, phone numbers, card and ID numbers across every page in one pass. Run it after your own boxes, as a second pair of eyes, not instead of them.
Auto-Redact Personal Info - 3
Check a file before it is filed or served
Reports hidden text, embedded scripts, author fields and personal data still in the document. Worth running on anything that came from a client, where you did not control how it was produced.
PDF Privacy Scanner - 4
Clear the properties before it leaves
The author field usually holds a real name from the machine that made the file, alongside the production software and revision dates. None of that is on the page, and all of it travels with the attachment.
Remove PDF Metadata - 5
Fingerprint exhibits so you can prove they are unchanged
A SHA-256 taken when you receive a document, recorded in your file note, lets you demonstrate later that the copy in the bundle is byte-for-byte the one served. Any alteration produces a completely different value.
PDF Checksum - 6
Fix signatures and form entries in place
A drawn signature or a completed form field is an object floating above the page until it is flattened — it can be moved, edited or deleted by the recipient. Flattening makes the executed version final.
Flatten PDF
What this site cannot do for a legal workflow
Being specific about the gaps is more useful than a feature list.
For the rest — confidentiality, redaction, metadata, verification — running everything on your own machine is not a compromise. It is the stronger position.
- Bates numbering is not here. Use your document management system or Acrobat; there is no browser tool on this site that stamps sequential numbers.
- OCR is not live yet, so a scanned exhibit cannot be made searchable here. Redaction of a scan still works — you are covering an image — but you cannot search it first, which makes a careful visual pass essential.
- Nothing here is a certified e-signature. Flattening a drawn signature fixes its appearance; it is not a qualified electronic signature and carries no certificate.
- No audit trail. Because nothing is uploaded, there is no server-side log of who processed what. If your practice requires that record, it has to come from your own systems.
Redaction removes what is on the page. If a name also sits in the document properties, clear those separately — the two are stored in different places.
Questions
Is it safe to put privileged client documents through this?
The file never leaves your browser tab — there is no upload endpoint to send it to, which you can confirm yourself in the browser network panel while a document is processing. That is a stronger guarantee than a retention policy, because it does not depend on anyone keeping a promise.
Does redaction here defeat text extraction and search indexing?
Yes, because the characters are removed from the file rather than hidden. Anything that reads the text layer — copy and paste, a search index, a script, e-discovery software — finds nothing under the box.
Can I redact a scanned exhibit?
Yes. A scan is an image, so a redaction box covers pixels and the area is painted out of the page. The caution is that you cannot search a scan to find what needs covering, so every page needs reading.
How do I show an exhibit has not been altered?
Take a SHA-256 of the file when you receive it and record the value. Producing the same value later demonstrates the file is byte-identical. Note that re-saving a PDF, even with no visible edit, changes the value — so fingerprint the copy you were given, not one you exported.
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