Anonymize bailiff documents for AI
To anonymize bailiff documents for AI, you handle deeds, official reports, enforceable titles and debt collection files that point to a person on every page: debtor, creditor, address for service, amount due. In France, the bailiff (huissier de justice) became the commissaire de justice in 2022: a judicial officer appointed by the state who serves legal documents, enforces court decisions and draws up official findings of fact. These files are covered by the professional secrecy of this public officer, and Biffer lets you prepare them before turning to an AI. Biffer processes them on the office's computer, with no connection, and replaces each identifier with a stable alias.
This page describes the files concerned, the duty of secrecy, the AI uses and the fields of the judicial officer profile.
Deeds, official reports, titles, collection files: a judicial officer's files
A judicial officer's office produces files whose form is highly codified and whose content is always named.
- Deeds of service (Word, PDF): deed number, addressee, address, method of delivery, minute number.
- Official reports of findings (constats): report number, requesting party, premises, people present, photographs described.
- Enforceable titles and orders to pay: title number, docket number of the judgment (numéro RG), creditor, debtor, statement of sums due.
- Debt collection files (Excel, CSV): debt number, payment schedules, IBAN for direct debits, the debtor's contact details.
- Seizure reports: inventory of assets, garnishee, bank accounts, vehicles with their plates.
Biffer processes PDF, Word, Excel, CSV and text files while preserving the formatting: the structure of a deed and the table of a statement of sums stay in place. Deeds scanned as images go through built-in optical character recognition, offline, then are redacted by blacking out the pixels, with no possible restoration. The PDF case is detailed on the page redact a PDF.
The judicial officer's professional secrecy
The commissaire de justice is a public and ministerial officer. Like the huissier de justice it has replaced since 1 July 2022, it is bound by professional secrecy, whose breach is punished under Article 226-13 of the French Criminal Code. This secrecy covers what the officer learns in the course of their duties: the debtor's situation, the premises inspected, the assets seized.
The GDPR adds to this obligation. A debt collection file contains financial data and sometimes sensitive data (a health condition cited to obtain more time, family situation), and the controller is expected to apply proportionate security measures. Two practical consequences.
- A docket number, a title number or a debt number makes it possible to find the file and the debtor: they are redacted just like names.
- Where processing happens matters. With offline software, the text stays in the office, from import to export.
Biffer prepares, you validate: the judicial officer reviews the preview and has the final word on what is shared.
AI use cases and the Biffer workflow
Once pseudonymized, an office's files lend themselves well to AI assistance for drafting and summarizing.
- Draft the body of an official report from notes taken on site.
- Summarize a twenty-page judgment to extract the operative part to be enforced.
- Rephrase a letter to the debtor in plain language.
- Analyze a CSV export of debts to sort files by age and amount.
The workflow is the same every time.
- You drop the file into Biffer with the judicial officer (bailiff) profile enabled.
- The local analysis highlights people, addresses, IBANs, license plates, deed, docket, enforceable title, debt, official report and minute numbers.
- You untick false positives (the name of the court, an article reference) and add what is missing, all occurrences at once.
- The document comes out with stable aliases (PERSONNE_001, ACTE_001 for a deed, CREANCE_002 for a debt; the alias labels are in French); in Word and PDF, redacted data is highlighted in black, an option enabled by default.
- The mapping table, encrypted (Argon2id and AES-256-GCM) or in plain text, restores the original values in the text produced by the AI.
The queue processes every file in a case with the same aliases from one to the next. Biffer is free for five files per month, after a one-time email confirmation in the software; beyond that, Biffer for Mac or Biffer for PC costs €10 excl. VAT (€12 incl. VAT) per computer, paid once: unlimited files, lifetime license tied to the computer, all redaction features included (see the pricing page). The steps are detailed on the features page.
The fields the judicial officer profile recognizes
The judicial officer profile adds deed and enforcement identifiers to the general detections. Here is the exact list, as it appears in the software.
| Field | Where you find it |
|---|---|
| Deed number | Services, register, notes at the foot of the deed |
| Numéro RG (docket number) | Judgments to be served, orders to pay, applications |
| Enforceable title number | Orders to pay, seizures, statements of sums due |
| Debt number | Collection files, payment schedules, exports |
| Official report number | Reports of findings, quotes, invoices for reports |
| Minute number | Court decisions, enforceable copies |
On top of these come the four fields shared by all professions (file number, reference, contract number, employee ID) and the general detections: people, emails, phone numbers, postal addresses, French company numbers (SIREN and SIRET), French social security number, IBAN, license plates, dates. For an identifier specific to your office, the custom keyword field described on the professions page does the rest. The lawyer profile can be added if needed. Biffer is published by Romain Rissoan, trainer, consultant and founder of OPCADIA, in Lyon.
Frequently asked questions
Are license plates in a seizure report redacted?
Yes. License plates are part of Biffer's general detections, active whatever the profile, in the current French SIV format as well as the older FNI format. In a vehicle seizure report or an accident report, each plate is replaced by a stable alias (PLAQUE_001), identical at every occurrence. A plate identifies the holder of the registration certificate as surely as a name, since a lookup in the vehicle register is enough to find them. If the analysis you ask of the AI concerns the vehicle itself, for example to write the description of a seized asset, the "keep" policy applies to the "plate" type without touching the other data.
Can all the documents in a debt collection file be processed at once?
Yes, with the queue. You drop the judgment, the order to pay, the letters and the debt export, then choose between reviewed processing, where you check the preview of each file, and automatic processing, which applies the detections to the whole series. Aliases stay consistent from one file to the next: the debtor gets the same alias in the judgment, the order to pay and the debt table, which lets you submit the whole file to the AI without losing the thread. For a first file, we recommend reviewed mode, long enough to confirm that your office's deed and title numbers are properly recognized.
What happens to an official report drafted by the AI with aliases?
The AI returns a text where people and places appear under their aliases (PERSONNE_001, ADRESSE_002). If you kept the mapping table at export, you load this text back into Biffer and the original values are restored, on your computer, with no connection. The report gets its real names back and can be integrated into the final deed, which you review and sign as usual: the AI provided drafting help, and you stay in charge of the deed. Without a table, the pseudonymization is irreversible, which may suit an internal summary. The table, encrypted or in plain text, stays on your disk, under your sole control.
Your business documents anonymized, ready to be published or handed to an AI tool.
Biffer runs on your computer without sending a single file. Free for five files a month, unlimited for €10 excl. VAT per computer.
100% offline · Free: 5 files a month · No file sent