ORDER

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. 12-1. 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 Material" under paragraph 2(b) 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:

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 an filing with any governmental agency or department of any document containing confidential material which is subject to access by the public.

SO ORDERED.

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

WHEREAS, defendants 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 between the attorney for plaintiff and defendants, as follows:

1. As used herein, "Action" shall mean the pending action between plaintiff and defendants captioned Kevin Ellis v. City of New York, et al., 14-cv-7203 (RRM) (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 obtained by plaintiff pursuant to the New York Freedom of Information Law ("FOIL") or are otherwise publicly available.

3. Plaintiff's attorney shall not use the Confidential Materials for any purpose other than for the preparation or presentation of plaintiff's case in this action.

4. Plaintiff's attorney shall not disclose the Confidential Materials to any person not a member of the staff of their law office, except under the following conditions:

4. Deposition testimony concerning any Confidential Materials that reveals the contents of such materials shall be deemed confidential, and the transcript of such testimony, together with any exhibits referred to therein, shall be separately bound, with a cover page prominently marked "CONFIDENTIAL." Such portion of the transcript shall be deemed to be Confidential Materials within the meaning of this Stipulation and Protective Order.

5. The parties agree that, if any papers that incorporate Confidential Materials or reveal the contents thereof, are to be filed with the Court, the parties shall make a joint application to the Court for permission to file those papers under seal. Upon receipt of permission, the parties shall follow the District Court protocol for filing under seal.

6. Within 30 days after the termination of this case, including any appeals, the Confidential Materials, including all copies, notes, and other materials containing or referring to information derived therefrom, shall be returned to defendants' attorneys or, upon their consent, destroyed, and all persons who possessed such materials shall verify their return or destruction by affidavit furnished to defendants' attorneys.

7. This stipulation shall be binding upon the parties immediately upon signature, and shall be submitted to the Court for entry as an Order.

8. Nothing in this Stipulation and Protective Order shall be construed to limit defendants' use of the Confidential Materials in any manner.

9. Plaintiff's counsel shall keep confidential for "attorney's-eyes-only" the address, telephone number, social security number, date of birth, and other personal information regarding witnesses identified by the production of documents or otherwise identified in the course of this litigation. Such information shall be used only by the attorney or his law firm or agents for the purpose of communication with witnesses or the service of subpoenas, and shall not be disclosed to plaintiffs, their family members, or other persons, and such information shall not be included in documents publicly filed with the Court.

SO ORDERED.

EXHIBIT A

The undersigned hereby acknowledges that he has read the Confidentiality Stipulation and Order entered in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York dated August 19, 2015, in the action entitled Kevin Ellis v. City of New York. et al., 14-cv-7203 (RRM) (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.