ORDER AND ORDER OF
MARILYN D. GO, Magistrate Judge.
The parties have jointly moved for a protective order of confidentiality to protect certain information that may be produced in discovery and submitted a proposed stipulated protective order (the "Proposed Protective Order.") See ct. doc. 22. This Court finds, given the nature of the claims asserted herein, that certain documents produced in discovery may contain confidential private information for which special protection from public disclosure and from use for any purpose other than litigating this action would be warranted. Accordingly, this Court orders as follows:
I. The Proposed Protective Order, to which the parties have stipulated and which is annexed hereto as Exhibit 1, is approved and incorporated herein, except as modified below.
II. The parties may designate additional documents and information as "Confidential Materials" under paragraph 2 only if the document is entitled to confidential treatment under applicable legal principles, such as personnel and disciplinary records; private personal, medical, mental health, or financial information; information required by law to be maintained in confidence by any person; and information protected from disclosure by government regulations may be so designated. Thus, records or information which are publicly available or do not fall within the preceding categories described may not be designated as confidential. In addition, this Order protects all copies, abstracts, charts, summaries, and notes made from material properly designated as Confidential. Nothing in this Order shall be construed as conferring blanket protection on all disclosures or responses to discovery or as constituting a determination of the relevance or admissibility of any discovery materials.
III. Notwithstanding the provisions of this Protective Order, the parties are advised that if they seek to seal documents as to matters not related to discovery, such as dispositive motions or trial materials, the Court may revisit the provisions of this protective order in order to tailor more narrowly the appropriate scope of sealing and redacting of information in light of the right of the public to inspect judicial documents under both the First Amendment and under common law.
IV. The parties must comply with procedures of the Clerk's Office and this Court's Chambers Rules as to documents to be filed under seal or filed with redactions.1 This process requires that a party seeking to seal a document must first file a Motion for Leave to e-file a sealed document, with the proposed sealed documents attached to the motion. The ECF system will notify the party when the motion is granted and provide instructions for filing the sealed document, using both the appropriate event for the motion and the sealed document event. If leave to file under seal is granted and if the document contains relevant information that is not confidential, the filing party will be required to file publicly a copy of the sealed document with the confidential information redacted.
V. The parties must use best efforts to minimize the number and extent of documents filed under seal. Prior to seeking leave to file a document containing Confidential Materials under seal, a party must determine whether the material that gives rise to a "Confidential" designation is relevant and necessary to the filing and whether redaction of the confidential materials may eliminate the need for sealing the document. If the material that is confidential is not relevant to the filing and there is no need to seal the remainder of the document, the document should be filed unsealed, with the confidential information redacted.
If the parties intend to file documents that include Confidential Material in connection with a motion, they must, if possible, propose a schedule for briefing of a motion which includes a short delay in filing submissions so the parties will have time to confer on minimizing the volume of documents that a party will seek to file under seal or to avoid having to file a motion to seal.
VI. If the information that is confidential is relevant to the filing, the document containing such information may be filed under seal, with the following limitations:
(A) If the document containing confidential materials is a document prepared or caused to be prepared by a party for this litigation, such as an affidavit, memorandum of law or deposition transcript, the parties must publicly file the document with the confidential materials redacted.
(B) If the confidential material constitutes a small portion of a document, the parties must publicly file the document with the confidential materials redacted.
VII. The parties should make best efforts to file sealed documents electronically. If a party has to file a hard copy, any such submission must be accompanied by a cover sheet in accordance with the form "Notice Regarding the filing of Exhibits in Paper Form," in the CM/ECF User's Guide. The Notice must also be filed electronically. Any sealing envelope should clearly describe the document to be sealed and identify the document number on the docket sheet that corresponds to such sealed document. Each envelope submitted for sealing may contain only one document or portions of one filing (such as multiple exhibits annexed to a document filed).
VIII. A party submitting a document under seal or filing a document with redacted information must provide the District Judge and/or Magistrate Judge to be handling the application or motion at issue with a complete and un-redacted copy of the submission that is marked to indicate that the document is filed under seal, if applicable, and what portions of the submission are confidential. The first page of the document must clearly indicate that the document or portions thereof are filed under seal or with redactions and the assigned ECF document number.
IX. Any Confidential Material which is publicly disclosed by the affected persons shall, upon disclosure, automatically cease to be confidential or highly confidential information entitled to protection by this Order. Such public disclosure includes a filing with any governmental agency or department of any document containing confidential material which is subject to access by the public.
SO ORDERED.
STIPULATION AND ORDER OF CONFIDENTIALITY
WHEREAS, defendants the City of New York, Nikolas Stefopoulos, Yael Magori, Americo Michel, and Scott Zeitler intend to produce certain documents pursuant to Rule 26 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure that they deem to be confidential or otherwise inappropriate for public disclosure; and
WHEREAS, defendants will only produce these documents if appropriate protection for their confidentiality is assured; and
WHEREAS, good cause exists for the entry of an order pursuant to Rule 26(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure;
NOW, THEREFORE, IT IS HEREBY STIPULATED AND AGREED, by and among the attorneys for plaintiffs and defendants, as follows:
1. As used herein, "Action" shall mean the pending action between plaintiffs and defendants captioned Gcto LaFortune et al. v. City of New York et al., 16 CV 0112 (ARR) (MDG);
2. "Confidential Materials" shall mean (a) New York City Police Department ("NYPD") personnel and disciplinary-related records and information, and records of investigations regarding the conduct of Members of the Service of the NYPD conducted by the NYPD, the Civilian Complaint Review Board, or other agencies and (b) other documents and information that may in good faith, during the pendency of this litigation, be designated "Confidential Material" by the defendants or the Court, except that such documents and information shall not be designated "Confidential Materials" to the extent that they are otherwise publicly available.
3. Plaintiffs and plaintiffs' counsel shall not use Confidential Materials produced in discovery in this Action for any purpose other than the evaluation, preparation, presentation or settlement of claims or defenses in the Action.
4. Plaintiffs' attorney shall not disclose the Confidential Materials to any person other than a party, an attorney of record for that party, or any member of the staff of that attorney's office, except under the following conditions:
a. Disclosure may be made for the purpose of preparing or presenting a party's claims or defenses in the Action.
b. Disclosure may also be made to an expert or consultant who has been retained or specially employed by a party's attorneys in anticipation of litigation or preparation for trial of the Action, to a witness at a deposition or in preparation for testimony at a deposition or trial, or to the Court.
c. Before any disclosure is made to a person listed in subparagraph (b) above (other than to the Court), plaintiffs' attorney shall provide each such person with a copy of this Stipulation and Order of Confidentiality, and such person shall consent in writing, in the form annexed hereto as Exhibit A, not to use the Confidential Materials for any purpose other than in connection with the prosecution, defense, or settlement of the Action and not to make further disclosure of the Confidential Materials, except in testimony taken in the Action. Plaintiffs' attorney shall retain the signed consent and furnish a copy to defendants' attorney upon request at a deposition or immediately before trial, although the name of an expert that plaintiffs does not intend to call as a trial witness may be redacted from such a consent before it is produced.
5. Defendants or their counsel may designate deposition exhibits or portions of deposition transcripts as Confidential either by: (a) indicating on the record during the deposition that a question relates to Confidential Materials, in which event the reporter will bind the transcript of the designated testimony in a separate volume and mark it as "Confidential Information Governed by Protective Order;" or (b) notifying the reporter and all counsel of record, in writing, within 30 days after a deposition has concluded (during which time the entire deposition will be considered "Confidential"), of the specific pages and lines of the transcript that are to be designated "Confidential," in which event all counsel receiving the transcript will be responsible for marking the copies of the designated transcript in their possession or under their control as directed by defendants or their counsel.
6. If plaintiffs' attorney objects to the designation of any Confidential Materials as confidential, plaintiffs' counsel shall state such objection in writing to counsel for defendants, and counsel shall in good faith attempt to resolve such conflict. If the conflict cannot be resolved among counsel, plaintiffs' attorney shall, within 45 days of the initial objection, request that the Court remove the designation. Any such materials or information shall be treated as Confidential until the parties resolve the conflict or the Court issues its ruling regarding the conflict.
7. Any party seeking to file papers with the Court that incorporate Confidential Materials or reveal the contents thereof shall first make an application to the Court for permission to file under seal the specific portions of those papers disclosing Confidential Materials and shall indicate whether any other party objects to that request. No materials shall be filed under seal unless the Court has issued an order approving the filing, in which event the filing shall follow the District Court rules applicable to filing under seal.
8. Nothing in this Stipulation shall be construed to limit defendants' use of their own Confidential Materials in any manner,
9. This Stipulation shall be binding upon the parties immediately upon signature and shall be submitted to the Court for entry as an Order.
10. This Stipulation will survive the termination of the litigation and will continue to be binding upon all persons to whom Confidential Materials are produced or disclosed. All documents or information that have been deemed confidential pursuant to this order, including all copies and non-conforming copies thereof, shall remain confidential for all time. Once the Action has been resolved, including all appeals, the Confidential Materials, including all copies and non-conforming copies thereof, shall not be used by plaintiffs, or anyone receiving confidential documents pursuant to paragraph 4 herein, for any purpose without prior Court approval.
11. The Court will retain jurisdiction over all persons subject to this Stipulation to the extent necessary to enforce any obligations arising hereunder or to impose sanctions for any contempt thereof. Additionally, the Court reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to modify this Stipulation and Order of Confidentiality at any time.
SO ORDERED:
EXHIBIT A
12. The undersigned hereby acknowledges that (s)he has read the Stipulation and Order of Confidentiality entered in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York dated __________, in the action entitled Geo LaFortune et al. v. City of New York et al., 16 CV 0112 (ARR) (MDG); and understands the terms thereof. The undersigned agrees not to use the Confidential Materials defined therein for any purpose other than in connection with the prosecution of this case, and will not further disclose the Confidential Materials except in testimony taken in this case.
