MICHAEL R. WILNER, Magistrate Judge.
The Court finds that the parties to this case may be required to disclose trade secrets, confidential financial information, or confidential commercial information, the unauthorized use or disclosure of which is likely to cause harm to the party producing such information or contravene an obligation of confidentiality to a third person or to a court. Accordingly, the Court enters the following Protective Order ("Order") pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(c)(1).
Disclosure and discovery activity in this action are likely to involve production of certain confidential, proprietary, private or trade secret information for which special protection from disclosure would be warranted. Accordingly, the parties hereby stipulate to and petition the Court to enter the following Stipulated Protective Order Governing Confidential Materials. The parties acknowledge that this Order does not confer blanket protections on all disclosures or responses to discovery and that the protection it affords extends only to the limited information or items that are entitled to treatment as confidential under applicable state or federal law. The parties further acknowledge, as set forth in Section IX below, that this Stipulated Protective Order creates no entitlement to file confidential information under seal; the parties shall follow the applicable rules when seeking permission from the Court to file material under seal.
Notwithstanding anything in this Stipulated Protective Order, the parties agree that the Disclosure of Discovery Material, as defined in Section I(B) below, shall not be used by the Receiving Party, as defined in Section I(C) below, for any purpose other than for prosecuting or defending this action, unless otherwise agreed to by the parties.
The protections conferred by this Stipulated Protective Order cover not only Protected Material, but also any information copied or extracted therefrom, as well as all copies, excerpts, summaries, or compilations thereof, plus testimony, conversations, or presentations by Parties or counsel in any settings that the Designating Party believes in good faith might reveal Protected Material. All notes, memoranda, reports, and other written communications that reveal or discuss information contained in Protected Materials shall be given the same protections under this Stipulated Protective Order as though they were designated as Protected Material.
This Stipulated Protective Order shall not apply to testimony or presentations at Court hearings or other Court proceedings. The Parties shall take up matters of confidentiality with the Court or judicial officer conducting such proceeding at the appropriate time in an effort to protect the material that is the subject of this Stipulated Protective Order, subject to such Court or judicial officer's determination regarding how to treat such material at such proceeding.
Even after the termination of this litigation—whether by settlement, discontinuance, dismissal, severance, judgment or other disposition—the confidentiality obligations imposed by this Stipulated Protective Order shall remain in effect until a Designating Party agrees otherwise in writing or a court order otherwise directs.
1.
A Party or non-party that makes original documents or materials available for inspection need not designate them for protection until after the inspecting Party has indicated which material it would like copied and produced. During the inspection and before the designation, all of the material made available for inspection shall be deemed "CONFIDENTIAL." After the inspecting Party has identified the documents it wants copied and produced, the Producing Party must determine which documents, or portions thereof, qualify for protection under this Stipulated Protective Order, and before producing the specified documents, the Producing Party must affix the "CONFIDENTIAL" and/or "ATTORNEYS' EYES ONLY" legend at the top or bottom of each page that contains Protected Material. If only a portion of a document or portions of the material on a page qualifies for protection, the Designating Party must clearly identify the protected portion(s).
2.
3.
The Producing Party shall promptly notify the Receiving Party in writing of any claim of privilege with respect to Disclosed Information upon discovering the inadvertent disclosure. Promptly upon notification, and in no event no later than five (5) business days after receiving notice, the Receiving Party shall return and/or destroy all copies of the Disclosed Information identified in the notice, and shall certify in writing that it has done so. In so doing, the Receiving Party shall not waive or prejudice any challenge it may have to the alleged privileged status of the Disclosed Information. Where recovery and return/destruction of Disclosed Information results in material costs, the Receiving Party may apply to the Court to seek recovery of said costs. If, after undertaking an appropriate meet-and-confer process, the parties are unable to resolve any dispute they have concerning the Disclosed Information, the Receiving Party may file the appropriate motion or application as provided by the Court's procedures to compel production of such material.
Nothing in this section or in this Stipulated Protective Order waives or limits the protections afforded to the parties by the applicable Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
The burden of persuasion in any such challenge proceeding shall be on the Designating Party. Until the Court rules on the challenge, all parties shall continue to afford the material in question the protection to which it is entitled under the Producing Party's designation.
1. The Receiving Party's in-house and Outside Counsel of record in this action, as well as employees and consultants of said Counsel to whom it is reasonably necessary to disclose the information for this litigation;
2. The Receiving Party, if that party is an individual, or if the Receiving Party is an entity, then its officers, directors, owners, members, partners, trustees, beneficiaries, and employees of the Receiving Party to whom disclosure is reasonably necessary for this litigation;
3. Experts (as defined in Section I.J above) of the Receiving Party, and their administrative support staff if any, to whom disclosure is reasonably necessary for this litigation and who have signed the "Acknowledgement and Agreement to Be Bound by Protective Order" (Exhibit A);
4. The Court and its personnel;
5. Neutral evaluators, mediators or arbitrators assigned to the case by the Court or retained for the case by the mutual agreement of the Parties;
6. Professional Vendors for services such as copying, scanning, or electronic document processing to whom disclosure is reasonably necessary for this litigation;
7. Court reporters and their staff to whom disclosure is reasonably necessary for this litigation;
8. During their depositions, witnesses in the action to whom disclosure is reasonably necessary and who have signed the "Acknowledgment and Agreement to Be Bound" (Exhibit A), unless otherwise agreed by the Designating Party or ordered by the Court;
9. Any author or recipient of the document or the original source of the information disclosed in the document; and
10. The Receiving Party's insurance carrier or carrier(s) and their counsel to the extent reasonably related to any actual or potential coverage in connection with this litigation.
1. Counsel who makes CONFIDENTIAL or ATTORNEYS' EYES ONLY Protected Material available to persons set forth in Sections VI(B)-(C) above, shall be responsible for limiting distribution thereof to those persons authorized under this Protective Order. All copies of such Protected Material disclosed shall be subject to the same restrictions imposed herein on original materials. Any person having access to such Protected Material whose participation in this litigation has been terminated or otherwise concluded shall return or destroy all such Protected Material as soon as practicably possible thereafter to the Receiving Party's counsel of record, but in no event longer than thirty (30) days after the termination or conclusion of the participation.
3. Counsel disclosing any Protected Material to a person required to execute a copy of the "Acknowledgment and Agreement to Be Bound" (Exhibit A) shall maintain the original(s) of such form(s).
In the event that a Designating Party objects to such disclosure, such Protected Materials shall not be disclosed to any individual other than those to whom disclosure is permitted by the provisions of this Stipulated Protective Order until such dispute has been resolved by agreement of the Parties or, after the Parties engage in a good faith meet and confer about this issue (which conference is to occur within five business days of a written request therefor), by order of the Court. However, the Parties agree to act in good faith to approve reasonable requests, if feasible, to use Protected Material information at depositions taken in this action, but acknowledge that requests of this nature should generally be made using the procedure in this section prior to the deposition if reasonably anticipated.
1. Showing materials designated as "CONFIDENTIAL" and/or "ATTORNEYS' EYES ONLY" to an individual who either prepared or reviewed the document prior to the filing of this action, or is shown by the document to have received the document.
2. Disclosing or using, in any manner or for any purpose, any information, documents, or things from the Party's own files.
3. Disclosing or using, in any manner or for any purpose, any information, documents, or things obtained from a source other than discovery.
4. Disclosing or using, in any manner or for any purpose, any information, document, or thing that is at the time of production or disclosure, or subsequently becomes, through no wrongful act or failure to act on the part of the Receiving Party, generally available to the relevant public through publication or otherwise, or is already rightfully in the possession of the Receiving Party at the time of production.
If a Receiving Party is served with a subpoena or an order issued under the authority of any court or arbitral, administrative, or legislative body, that would compel disclosure of any information or items designated in this action as "CONFIDENTIAL" and/or "ATTORNEYS' EYES ONLY," to the extent not violative of any statute, rule, or order applicable to such party in such litigation, the Receiving Party must so notify the Designating Party, in writing (by hand, email or fax), promptly and in no event more than five (5) court days after receiving the subpoena or order. Such notification must include a copy of the subpoena or court order.
The Receiving Party also must immediately inform in writing the party who caused the subpoena or order to issue in the other litigation that some or all the material covered by the subpoena or order is the subject of this Stipulated Protective Order. In addition, the Receiving Party must deliver a copy of this Stipulated Protective Order promptly to the party in the other action that caused the subpoena or order to issue.
The purpose of imposing these duties is to alert the interested parties to the existence of this Stipulated Protective Order and to afford the Designating Party in this case an opportunity to try to protect its confidentiality interests in the court from which the subpoena or order issued. The Designating Party shall bear the burdens and the expenses of seeking protection in that court of its confidential material to the extent permissible by such court. If Designating Party does not move for a protective order within fifteen (15) business days of the date written notice is given, the party to whom the referenced subpoena is directed may produce such Protected Material in response thereto. Nothing in this Stipulated Protective Order is intended or should be construed as authorizing a party to disobey a lawful subpoena issued in another action.
If a Receiving Party learns that, by inadvertence or otherwise, it has disclosed Protected Material to any person or in any circumstance not authorized under this Stipulated Protective Order, the Receiving Party must immediately (a) notify in writing the Designating Party of the unauthorized disclosures, (b) use its best efforts to retrieve all copies of the Protected Material, (c) inform the person or persons to whom unauthorized disclosures were made of all the terms of this Stipulated Protective Order, and (d) request such person or persons to execute the "Acknowledgment and Agreement to Be Bound" that is attached as Exhibit A.
In accordance with Civil Local Rule 79-5.1, if any papers to be filed with the Court contain information and/or documents that have been designated as "CONFIDENTIAL" and/or "ATTORNEYS' EYES ONLY" the proposed filing shall be accompanied by an application to file the papers or the portion thereof containing the designated information or documents (if such portion is segregable) under seal; and the application shall be directed to the judge to whom the papers are directed. For motions, the parties shall publicly file a redacted version of the motion and supporting papers.
Unless otherwise ordered or agreed in writing by the Producing Party, within ninety (90) days after the final termination of this action (e.g., a Court order terminating this action and from which no appeal is taken), each Receiving Party must make reasonable efforts to return or destroy the Protected Material. As used in this paragraph, "Protected Material" includes all copies, abstracts, compilations, summaries or any other form of reproducing or capturing any of the Protected Material. Whether the Protected Material is returned or destroyed, the Receiving Party must submit a written certification to the Producing Party (and, if not the same person or entity, to the Designating Party) by the ninety-day deadline that affirms that the Receiving Party has taken reasonable efforts to comply with the foregoing provisions, and has not retained any copies, abstracts, compilations, summaries or other forms of reproducing or capturing any of the Protected Material. "Reasonable efforts" shall not require the return or destruction of Protected Material that (i) is stored on backup storage media made in accordance with regular data backup procedures for disaster recovery purposes, (ii) is located in the email archive system or archived electronic files of departed employees, or (iii) is subject to legal hold obligations. Backup storage media will not be restored for purposes of returning or certifying destruction of Protected Material, but such retained information shall continue to be treated in accordance with the Order.
Notwithstanding this provision, counsel are entitled to retain archival copies and are not required to return or destroy copies of all pleadings, motion papers, written discovery, transcripts, legal memoranda, correspondence, attorney-client communications or attorney work product, even if such materials contain Protected Material, provided that such counsel take appropriate steps to prevent the disclosure in a manner contrary to this Stipulated Protective Order of such Protected Material. Any such archival copies that contain or constitute Protected Material remain subject to this Stipulated Protective Order as set forth in Section III above.
IT IS SO STIPULATED.
I, [NAME], with an address of [ADDRESS], declare under penalty of perjury that I have read in its entirety and understand the Amended Stipulated Protective Order that was issued by the United States District Court for the Central District of California on _______________, 2014, in the case of Yucaipa Corporate Initiatives Fund I, LP v. Hawaiian Airlines, Inc., Case No. CV 13-9060-MRW.
I agree to comply with and to be bound by all the terms of this Stipulated Protective Order, and I understand and acknowledge that failure to so comply could expose me to sanctions and punishment in the nature of contempt of court. I solemnly promise that I will not disclose in any manner any information or item that is subject to the Stipulated Protective Order to any person or entity except in strict compliance with the provisions of this Order.
I further agree to submit to the jurisdiction of the United States District Court for the Central District of California for the purpose of enforcing the terms of this Stipulated Protective Order, even if such enforcement proceedings occur after termination of this action.
I hereby appoint [NAME] of [FIRM NAME AND ADDRESS] as my California agent for service of process in connection with this action or any proceedings related to enforcement of this Stipulated Protective Order.