MICHAEL F. URBANSKI, District Judge.
Before the court is plaintiff Phyllis Norris' ("Norris") Motion for Reconsideration, ECF No. 119, of the magistrate judge's order determining certain documents disclosed by Excel Industries Inc. ("Excel") as confidential under the protective order entered in this case. The matter has been fully briefed, and the parties did not request oral argument on the motion. For the reasons that follow, plaintiff's motion is
In November 2014, defendant Excel Industries, Inc. filed a Motion for Non-Sharing Protective Order, ECF No. 35. Norris did not file an opposition. Non-dispositive motions in this case were referred to United States Magistrate Judge James G. Welsh under 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1)(A). The magistrate judge held a hearing on the motion and entered a protective order, ECF No. 40, allowing the parties to designate discovery materials as "CONFIDENTIAL" or "CONFIDENTIAL — HEIGHTENED PROTECTION" if the materials met certain criteria. Under the protective order, materials labeled "CONFIDENTIAL" include materials that are "confidential, proprietary and/or constitute[] a trade secret and which implicates common law and/or statutory business or privacy interests of the producing party" and "confidential research, development, or commercial information." ECF No. 40 at *2 (internal quotation marks omitted). In order to designate materials as confidential, the designating party must have a good faith belief that the materials are, in fact, confidential as defined by the protective order. The non-designating party may then challenge the confidentiality of discovery material, and the designating party bears the burden of showing "good cause exists" for the material to be treated as confidential.
Months later, Norris objected to Excel's designation of various documents and answers to interrogatories as confidential. Excel filed a motion asking the court to determine the confidentiality of the challenged documents, the parties briefed the issue, and the magistrate judge held a hearing on the motion. The magistrate judge granted Excel's motion finding that "Excel has established good cause to support the confidential designations challenged by Plaintiff pursuant to the Protective Order in this matter." ECF No. 101 at *1. Norris asks the court to reconsider the magistrate judge's ruling.
Norris objects to the magistrate judge's ruling on a number of grounds. First, Norris argues that the magistrate judge "never made the requisite `good cause' determination with respect to any categories of documents" in the umbrella protective order. ECF No. 119 at *7. Second, Norris claims that the other similar incidents information designated as confidential by Excel does not fit into any of the protected categories. Finally, Norris asserts that the magistrate judge failed to require Excel to establish good cause for its designations as set forth in the protective order and applied the wrong legal standard in his ruling on Excel's motion to determine the confidentiality of the documents. In opposition, Excel argues that the magistrate judge did find good cause for the categories in the umbrella protective order, and the magistrate judge thoughtfully considered the challenged documents, the categories in the umbrella protective order, and controlling case law before finding that Excel had established good cause for its designations.
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 72(a) permits a party to submit objections to a magistrate judge's ruling on a nondispositive matter within fourteen days of the order. A magistrate judge's nondispositive ruling will be set aside only if it is "clearly erroneous or contrary to law." Fed. R. Civ. P. 72(a);
To the extent that Norris argues the magistrate judge never made a finding that good cause exists to protect each category of information, such argument is untimely and waived. Rule 72 permits a party to object to a magistrate judge's nondispositive ruling within fourteen days of entry of the order. Fed. R. Civ. P. 72(a). The magistrate judge entered the protective order in this case on November 14, 2014. While Norris raised the issue before the magistrate judge after Excel filed its motion for determination of confidentiality, she did not note any objection to the protective order until she filed her present motion for reconsideration on May 29, 2015. Accordingly, Norris' failure to timely object to the protective order waived her right of review of the magistrate judge's finding of good cause for the protective order's designated categories.
Rule 26(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure permits the court to issue a protective order upon a showing of good cause. An umbrella protective order identifies categories of documents subject to protection and may be utilized when parties to litigation anticipate discovery to be voluminous. Accordingly, the umbrella protective order has "become a common feature of complex litigation in the federal courts" and is meant to "`expedite production, reduce costs, and avoid the burden on the court of document-by-document adjudication.'"
The protective order entered in this case is an umbrella protective order that identifies specific categories of information which may be designated as confidential. Under the protective order, "information that is confidential, proprietary and/or constitutes a trade secret and which implicates common law and/or statutory business or privacy interests of the producing party" may be designated as confidential. Other information subject to the protective order includes "confidential research, development, or commercial information." ECF No. 40 at *2. The protective order also describes another category of information subject to protection: certain financial information which carried even narrower disclosure guidelines.
The magistrate judge's finding of good cause to support Excel's confidential designations was not clearly erroneous or contrary to law. The issue was extensively briefed and argued, and the magistrate judge plainly concluded that Excel had "established good cause to support the confidential designations challenged by plaintiff pursuant to the Protective Order entered in this matter." ECF No. 101 at *1. None of Norris' arguments persuade the court that this determination was clearly erroneous or contrary to law.
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Norris also argues that the magistrate judge ignored the express terms of the protective order because paragraph 11 of the order required the magistrate judge to find good cause existed for Excel's designation by a showing of specific prejudice or harm. This argument too is unavailing.
Paragraph 11 of the protective order provides that a designating party must file a motion requesting the court to determine whether any disputed material "should be subject to the terms of this Protective Order." ECF No. 40 at *6. The order explains further: "In connection with a motion filed under this provision, the party designating the information as `CONFIDENTIAL' or `CONFIDENTIAL — HEIGHTENED PROTECTION' shall bear the burden of establishing that good cause exists for the disputed information to be treated as designated."
Finally, Norris objects to the magistrate judge's determination that information regarding other similar incidents disclosed by Excel in its supplemental answers to interrogatories should remain confidential under the protective order. The crux of Norris' argument in her motion to reconsider is much the same as it was before the magistrate judge, namely that the public has an interest in these other similar incidents. The public interest inquiry, however, is an inherent aspect of the court's initial good cause determination for entering a protective order.
For the foregoing reasons, Norris's objections to the magistrate judge's order are without merit, and the court finds no other indication that the magistrate judge's nondispositive ruling was clearly erroneous or contrary to law. As such, Norris's Motion for Reconsideration, ECF No. 119, is
The Clerk is directed to send copies of this Memorandum Opinion to counsel of record.