NANCY J. KOPPE, Magistrate Judge.
The Court enters the following protective order to govern the designation and production of confidential information or documents so designated by Plaintiffs and Defendants.
Discovery activity in this action is likely to involve production of confidential, proprietary, or private information for which special protection from public disclosure and from use for any purpose other than prosecuting this litigation would be warranted. Accordingly, the parties have stipulated to and petitioned the Court to enter the following Protective Order.
The parties acknowledge that this Protective 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 under the applicable legal principles to treatment as confidential. The parties further acknowledge, as set forth below, that this Protective Order creates no entitlement to file confidential information under seal. Local Rule IA 10-5 sets forth the procedures that must be followed and reflects the standards that will be applied when a party seeks permission from the Court to file material under seal.
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The protections conferred by this Protective Order cover not only Protected Material (as defined above), 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 to or in Court or in other settings that might reveal Protected Material. The protections conferred by this Stipulation and Order do not waive the right of Plaintiffs or Defendants to challenge the propriety of any discovery. This Protective Order does not decide the validity of any such challenge.
Even after the termination of this litigation, the confidentiality obligations imposed by this Protective Order shall remain in effect until a Designating Party agrees otherwise in writing or a Court order otherwise directs.
5.1.
If it comes to a Party's or a nonparty's attention that information or items that it designated for protection do not qualify for protection at all, or do not qualify for the level of protection initially asserted, that Party or nonparty must promptly notify all other parties that it is withdrawing the mistaken designation.
5.2.
Designation in conformity with this Order requires:
(a)
(b)
Transcript pages containing Protected Material must be separately bound by the court reporter, who must affix to the top of each such page the legend "CONFIDENTIAL" or "HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL — ATTORNEYS' EYES ONLY," as instructed by the Party or nonparty offering or sponsoring the witness or presenting the testimony.
5.3.
6.1.
A Party that elects to initiate a challenge to a Designating Party's confidentiality designation must do so in good faith and must begin the process by conferring with counsel for the Designating Party. In conferring, the challenging Party must explain the basis for its belief that the confidentiality designation was not proper and must give the Designating Party an opportunity to review the designated material, to reconsider the circumstances, and, if no change in designation is offered, to explain the basis for the chosen designation. A challenging Party may proceed to challenge a Designating Party's confidentiality designation only if it has engaged in a meet and confer process first.
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 level of protection to which it is entitled under the Producing Party's designation.
7.1.
Protected Material must be stored and maintained by a Receiving Party at a location and in a secure manner that ensures that access is limited to the persons authorized under this Protective Order.
7.2.
(a) the Receiving Party's Outside Counsel of record in this action, as well as employees of said Counsel to whom it is reasonably necessary to disclose the information for this litigation, who have signed the "Agreement to Be Bound by Protective Order" (Exhibit A);
(b) the Receiving Party and officers, directors, and employees (including House Counsel) of the Receiving Party to whom disclosure is reasonably necessary for this litigation and who have signed the "Agreement to Be Bound by Protective Order" (Exhibit A);
(c) Experts (as defined in this Protective Order) of the Receiving Party to whom disclosure is reasonably necessary for this litigation and who have signed the "Agreement to Be Bound by Protective Order" (Exhibit A);
(d) the Court and its personnel, and court reporters and their staffs;
(e) professional vendors to whom disclosure is reasonably necessary for this litigation and who have signed the "Agreement to Be Bound by Protective Order" (Exhibit A);
(f) during their depositions, witnesses in the action to whom disclosure is reasonably necessary and who have been informed of the requirements of the Protective Order. Pages of transcribed deposition testimony or exhibits to depositions that reveal Protected Material must be separately bound by the court reporter and may not be disclosed to anyone except as permitted under this Protective Order;
(g) the author of the document or the original source of the information;
(h) officers, directors, and employees of the Designating Party; and
(i) mediators and other ADR neutrals in this case.
7.3.
(a) the Receiving Party's Outside Counsel and House Counsel, as well as employees of said Counsel to whom it is reasonably necessary to disclose the information for this litigation, who have signed the "Agreement to Be Bound by Protective Order" (Exhibit A);
(b) Experts (as defined in this Protective Order) to whom disclosure is reasonably necessary for this litigation, and who have signed the "Agreement to Be Bound by Protective Order" (Exhibit A);
(c) the Court and its personnel, and court reporters and their staffs;
(d) professional vendors to whom disclosure is reasonably necessary for this litigation and who have signed the "Agreement to Be Bound by Protective Order" (Exhibit A);
(e) the author of the document or the original source of the information;
(f) officers, directors, and employees of the Designating Party; and
(g) mediators and other ADR neutrals in this case.
If a Receiving Party is served with a subpoena or an order issued in other litigation that would compel disclosure of any information or items designated in this action as "CONFIDENTIAL" or "HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL — ATTORNEYS' EYES ONLY," the Receiving Party must so notify the Designating Party in writing immediately and in no event more than seven 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 inform in writing within a reasonable period of time 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 Protective Order. In addition, the Receiving Party must deliver a copy of this 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 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 — and nothing in these provisions should be construed as authorizing or encouraging a Receiving Party in this action to disobey a lawful directive from another court.
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 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 Order, and (d) request such person or persons to execute the "Agreement to Be Bound by Protective Order" that is attached hereto as Exhibit A.
Without written permission from the Designating Party or a Court order secured after appropriate notice to all interested persons, a Party may not file in the public record in this action any Protected Material. A Party that seeks to file under seal any Protected Material must comply with Local Rule 10-5.
Unless otherwise ordered or agreed in writing by the Producing Party, within sixty days after the final termination of this action, each Receiving Party must return all Protected Material to the Producing Party or destroy it. As used in this subdivision, "all 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 sixty-day deadline that identifies (by category, where appropriate) all the Protected Material that was returned or destroyed and that affirms that the Receiving Party has not retained any copies, abstracts, compilations, summaries or other forms of reproducing or capturing any of the Protected Material.
Notwithstanding this provision, Counsel are entitled to retain an archival copy of all pleadings, motion papers, transcripts, legal memoranda, correspondence or attorney work product, even if such materials contain Protected Material. Any such archival copies that contain or constitute Protected Material remain subject to this Protective Order as set forth in Section 4 (DURATION), above.
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IT IS SO ORDERED.
I, ________________________________________[print or type full name], declare under penalty of perjury that I have read in its entirety and understand the Protective Order that was issued by the United States District Court for the District of Nevada on ______________________, 2018, in Garcia, et al. v. Service Employees International Union, et al., Case No. 2:17-cv-01340-APG-NJK, and Mancini, et al. v. Service Employees International Union, et al., Case No. 2:17-cv-02137-APG-NJK. I agree to comply with and to be bound by all the terms of this Protective Order and I understand and acknowledge that failure to so comply could expose me to sanctions and punishment in the nature of contempt. I solemnly promise that I will not disclose in any manner any information or item that is subject to this Protective Order to any person or entity except in strict compliance with the provisions of this Order.