There’s a need to provide a safe road to public filing of redacted Excel spreadsheets, heavy-laden with “metadata, formulas, hidden worksheets, hidden rows or columns, comments, notes, named ranges, pivot tables, cached values, document properties, external links, macros, filters, and other embedded workbook features.” So opines Judge Kashi (“My or the High”) Way at p. 4 of Marc Worrall & Sue J. Worrall, et al., Docket No. 14793-22, filed 10/15/26.

This is Discovery Kerfuffle No. 4 that I’ve blogged in this ongoing drama.

A fight over the filing of redacted trial exhibits arises from IRS’ attempt to do so, claiming it has obliterated any PII or other matter shielded by Judge Way’s previous protective order. Marc’s & Sue’s nine (count ’em, nine) trusty attorneys  object, citing the Excel spreadsheets’ backchannel porosities, trapdoors, and hidden interstices as hereinabove set forth.

So Judge Way sets up a phoneathon. 

“We agree with petitioners that respondent’s broad assurances that the exhibits have been properly redacted are insufficient to establish that confidential information does not remain accessible through metadata, formulas, or other embedded features. We are especially cautious where, as here, many of the exhibits are Excel workbooks with complex file structures spanning thousands of pages. We would have expected, at minimum, exhibit-by-exhibit descriptions of what information was removed and a technical certification describing the steps taken to remove it. Even so, risks remain.” Order, at p.3.

So tech-savvy Judge Way finds an Adobe-lined path that satisfies everyone, IRS, Marc & Sue, and the third-parties subpoenaed into this slugfest.

“The Court proposed that respondent instead convert the relevant portions of the Excel files to PDF format and perform his proposed redactions directly on the PDFs to avoid the risk that confidential information remains embedded in the file structure. Both parties agreed that this was a workable solution.” Order, at p. 3.

I know the native-format crowd will yell that villainous PDF digg’d out of exhibits all that backchannel stuff they so need to eyeball. But parties and third-parties can still scope the stuff in secret, and the data they see in secret will reward them.