PEGGY A. LEEN, Magistrate Judge.
The parties to this action, by their respective counsel, having agreed to the following, and for good cause shown pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P 26(c)(1), IT IS HEREBY ORDERED as follows:
Disclosure and discovery activity in this action may involve production of confidential, proprietary, or private information for which special protection from public disclosure may be warranted pursuant to Rule 26(c)(1) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. 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 under law to treatment as confidential.
All documents produced in the course of discovery, all responses to discovery requests, and all deposition testimony and exhibits and any other materials which may be subject to discovery (hereinafter collectively "Discovery Material") shall be subject to this stipulated protective order concerning confidential information as set forth below. Any party, or any third party who produces documents in this litigation, may designate documents as Confidential but only after review of the documents by an attorney who has, in good faith, determined that the documents contain "Confidential Information," as defined below, and pursuant to the procedure set forth below.
"Confidential Information" shall mean information meriting special protection under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and applicable case law. Confidential Information does not include information that: (a) is in the public domain at the time of disclosure; (b) becomes part of the public domain through no fault of the Receiving Party; (c) the Receiving Party can show was in its rightful and lawful possession at the time of disclosure; or (d) the Receiving Party lawfully receives from a Non-party later without restriction as to disclosure.
Protected Material shall be so designated by the Producing Party by placing or affixing the word "CONFIDENTIAL" on the document in a manner which will not interfere with the legibility of the document and which will permit complete removal of the "Confidential" designation. Documents shall be designated "Confidential" prior to, or contemporaneously with, the production or disclosure of the documents.
A Designating Party must exercise restraint and make good faith efforts to limit CONFIDENTIAL designations to specific materials that qualify for protection under the appropriate standard. Further, a Designating Party must use good faith efforts to designate for protection only those parts of material, documents, items, or communications that qualify — so that other portions of the materials, documents, items, or communications for which protection is not warranted are not swept unjustifiably within the ambit of this Order. If only a portion or portions of materials on a page or within a document merit protection, a Producing Party must so indicate by making appropriate markings in the margins but not over text.
A Producing 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 Order, and, before producing the specified documents, the Producing Party must affix the appropriate legend on each page that contains Protected Material. If only a portion or portions of the material on a page qualifies for protection, the Producing Party also must clearly identify the protected portion(s) (e.g., by making appropriated markings in the margins or by redacting protected portions).
Portions of depositions shall be designated Confidential when the deposition is taken or within fourteen (14) business days after receipt of the transcript, if feasible. Such designation shall be specific as to the portions to be protected. A Designating Party must exercise restraint and make good faith efforts to limit "CONFIDENTIAL" designations to specific materials that qualify for protection under the appropriate standards.
Inadvertent or unintentional production of Protected Material without prior designation as "Confidential" shall not be deemed a waiver, in whole or in part, of the right to designate documents as Protected Material as otherwise allowed by this Order. Further, a Party may assert that disclosures or discovery material produced by another Party constitute Protected Material by informing the opposing Party by following the procedures set forth herein for a Designated Party.
Subject to these requirements, in addition to Parties and the Court, the following categories of persons may be allowed to review Protected Material pursuant to this Order after executing an acknowledgment (in the form set forth at Exhibit A hereto), that he or she has read and understands the terms of this Order and is bound by it:
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 Order, and (d) request such person or persons to execute the "Acknowledgment and Agreement to Be Bound by Stipulated Protective Order" (Exhibit A).
The Parties shall follow Rule 10-5 of the Local Rules of Practice for the U.S. District Court of Nevada, and must file documents under seal under the Court's electronic filing procedures.
Further, the Parties recognize the presumption of public access inherent in judicial records and that a Protective Order does not establish that documents meet the "standard for sealing set forth in Rule 10-5 of the Local Rules of Practice for the U.S. District Court of Nevada and the Ninth Circuit's decisions in Kamakana v. City and County of Honolulu, 447 F.3d 1172 (9th Cir. 2006) and Ctr. for Auto Safety v. Chrysler Group, LLC, 809 F.3d 1092, 1097 (9th Cir. 2016), cert. denied sub nom. FCA U.S. LLC v. Ctr. for Auto Safety, 137 S.Ct. 38 (2016). "A party seeking to seal a judicial record then bears the burden of overcoming this strong presumption by meeting the `compelling reasons' standard." Kamakana, 447 F.3d at 1178. The only exception to this rule is that only good cause need be established "for sealed materials attached to a discovery motion unrelated to the merits of a case." Chrysler Group, 809 F. 3d at 1097 (citing Phillips ex rel. Estates of Byrd v. Gen. Motors Corp., 307 F.3d 1206, 1213-14 (9th Cir.2002).). Further, the Court should make an independent determination regarding whether documents merits sealed status, and thus expressly reserves the right to do. Kamakana 447 F.3d at 1186-87.
In recognition of this legal standard, and the fact that the party filing Protected Material may not be the party that designated it confidential (and thus, may not believe good cause exists for sealing), the Parties suggest that the procedure set forth below is followed if the sole ground for a motion to seal is that the opposing party (or non-party) has designated a document as subject to protection pursuant to this Stipulated Protective Order: The Party filing such Protected Materials may assert in the accompanying motion any reasons why the Protected Materials should not, in fact, be kept under seal and the Designating Party, who must be properly noticed, may likewise file a response asserting its position that the Protected Material merits protection under Rule 26(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and attaching a declaration supporting the assertion that the designated material meets the applicable standard.
Any designation of Protected Material is subject to challenge. The following procedures shall apply to any such challenge:
All provisions of this Order restricting the use of Protected Material shall continue to be binding after the conclusion of the litigation unless otherwise agreed or ordered. However, the dismissal of this action will terminate the jurisdiction of this Court, including over this Order. Within thirty (30) days of the final termination of in the above-entitled action, which would be either a final judgment on all claims or stipulation and order for dismissal with prejudice, all documents and information designated as CONFIDENTIAL by a Designating Party and which has not been challenged, including any copies, or documents containing information taken therefrom, shall be returned to the Designating Party. In the alternative, within thirty (30) days of the final termination of this case, which would be either a final judgment on all claims or stipulation and order for dismissal with prejudice, all such documents, including copies, may be shredded or disposed of in a manner to ensure the destruction thereof and a declaration certifying such destruction or disposal provided to the Designating Party. To the extent a party has designated portions of a deposition transcript as CONFIDENTIAL, the non-designating party is under no obligation or duty to shred or dispose of the deposition transcript, however, the CONFIDENTIAL designation will remain.
If a Party is served with a subpoena or an order issued in other litigation that would compel disclosure of Protected Material designated by another Party or Non-party, the Party must so notify the Designating Party, in writing (by e-mail or fax, if possible) within three (3) court days after receiving the subpoena or order. Such notification must include a copy of the subpoena or court order.
This Order shall be subject to modification on motion of any Party or any other person who may show an adequate interest in in the above-entitled action to intervene for purposes of addressing the scope and terms of this Order. The Order shall not, however, be modified until the Parties shall have been given notice and an opportunity to be heard on the proposed modification.
This Order is entered based on the representations and agreements of the Parties and for the purpose of facilitating discovery. Nothing herein shall be construed or presented as a judicial determination that any specific document or item of information designated as CONFIDENTIAL by counsel is subject to protection under Rule 26(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure or otherwise until such time as a document-specific ruling shall have been made.
This Order shall take effect when entered and shall be immediately binding upon the Parties (as defined herein).
IT IS SO STIPULATED.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
The undersigned hereby acknowledges that he/she has been provided with a copy of the parties' PROPOSED STIPULATED PROTECTIVE ORDER in the lawsuit captioned PATRICIA FITZPATRICK vs. LVMPD ET AL. (U.S. District Court Case No. 2:17-cv-1886-JAD-PAL). The undersigned agrees to be bound by the terms of the referenced Stipulated Confidentiality Agreement and Protective Order in the same manner as Plaintiff, Defendant, and their attorneys.