Mays et al v. Dolgencorp LLC

Filing 17

CONFIDENTIALITY ORDER. Signed by Judge D. P. Marshall Jr. on 4/18/2018. (jak)

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF ARKANSAS
JONESBORO DIVISION
ELLEN MAYS AND
ROBERT MAYS , SR.

v.

PLAINTIFFS
3:17-CV-62-DPM

DOLGENCORP, LLC D/B/ A
DOLLAR GENERAL

DEFENDANT

CONFIDENTIALITY ORDER
With the parties' agreement, and pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(c), the
Court orders:
1.

For purposes of this Confidentiality Order, "Confidential Documents" shall include

any documents that a Party or its counsel designates as confidential based upon a good-faith belief
that the designation is appropriate because the documents contain proprietary or confidential
business or financial information, trade secrets, or non-public information of a commercially
sensitive, personal, or private nature. Any documents produced by a non-Party in this Action,
pursuant to subpoena or otherwise, may be designated by such non-Party or by any Party or counsel
for any Party as "Confidential Documents" under the terms of this Confidentiality Order.
Confidential Documents may include information of whatever kind, including but not limited to
written information and information otherwise recorded on any medium, including without
limitation paper, photographs, recordings, and electronic, optical, and magnetic disks and files.
2.

For purposes of this Confidentiality Order, "Confidential Information" shall

include any information provided in disclosures, in response to a written discovery request, or in
response to a deposition question that a Party or its counsel designates as confidential based upon
a good-faith belief that the designation is appropriate because of the proprietary or confidential

business or financial nature of the information, trade secrets contained in the information, or the
non-public, sensitive, personal, or private nature of the information.
3.

At the time a Party or non-Party produces documents in this Action, the Party or

non-Party producing the documents (the "Producing Party") may designate any such documents
as Confidential Documents by stamping on each page of such documents the word
"CONFIDENTIAL."
4.

At the time a Party responds to a written discovery request, the Party producing

information may designate such information as Confidential Information by stating in writing in
response to the written discovery request that the information is Confidential Information and by
indicating on the first page of the written discovery responses that the document contains
Confidential Information.
5.

In the case of deposition testimony, the designating party shall advise opposing

counsel of the specific pages to be maintained in confidence within twenty (20) calendar days
after receipt of the transcript of the deposition. Pending notification from opposing counsel during
the twenty (20) calendar day period, all transcript pages shall be treated as "CONFIDENTIAL"
and may be used only in accordance with such designation under this Protective Order.
6.

If any Party receiving Confidential Documents or Confidential Information (the

"Receiving Party") believes that such documents or information are not entitled to the protections
set forth in this Confidentiality Order, the Receiving Party shall, within three weeks of receiving
such documents or information, indicate to the Producing Party, in writing, the specific documents
or information that the Receiving Party believes falls outside of the protections set forth in this
Confidentiality Order ("Identified Documents or Information") and state in writing the rationale

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for the removal of such Identified Documents or Information from the protections set forth in this
Confidentiality Order.
7.

If the Producing Party objects, in writing, to the Receiving Party's written notice

that the Identified Documents or Information falls outside of the protections set forth in this
Confidentiality Order, such objection shall be made within three weeks of receiving such written
notice, or the claim of confidentiality shall be waived. If such objection is made in writing, it shall
state the rationale for maintaining the Identified Documents or Information under the protections
set forth in this Confidentiality Order. If the Receiving Party desires to challenge the claim of
confidentiality, then the parties must attempt in good faith to resolve the issue. Counsel should
meet and confer in person. If they can't resolve the dispute, then they must file a joint report
pursuant to the Final Scheduling Order, Ng 8 at 3.
8.

Neither the service of the written notice described in paragraph 6 nor the service of

the written objection or filing of a discovery dispute described in paragraph 7 shall remove the
Identified Documents or Information from the protections set forth in this Confidentiality Order.
Until the Parties resolve the dispute among themselves, the Producing Party waives the claim of
confidentiality, or the Court resolves the dispute, the Identified Documents or Information shall
retain the protections set forth in this Confidentiality Order.

9.

The Parties agree that Confidential Documents and Confidential Information shall

not be disclosed, directly or indirectly, to anyone other than the Parties, attorneys for the Parties,
witnesses, consultants, and expert witnesses specially retained or specially employed for purposes
of the Action. To the extent any Confidential Documents or Confidential Information are provided
to non-Party witnesses, consultants, or expert witnesses, each non-Party witness, consultant, or
expert witness shall agree in writing, in the form attached to this Confidentiality Order as Exhibit

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A, before receiving any Confidential Documents or Confidential Information, that he (a) shall be
bound by the terms of this Confidentiality Order and (b) shall return all Confidential Documents
and Confidential Information upon conclusion of the Action. Nothing in this Confidentiality Order
prevents any Party from disclosing Confidential Documents and Confidential Information to the
Court, its staff, and court reporters at deposition or trial, subject to such protections as the Court
may order with respect to the treatment of Confidential Documents and Confidential Information
at trial. Nothing in this Confidentiality Order restricts what a Producing Party may do with
Confidential Documents or Confidential Information it produces.
10.

Confidential Documents and Confidential Information will not be filed on the

public docket. If practicable, it shall be redacted.

F ED.

R. C1v. P. 5.2 . lfredaction is impracticable,

a party must move for permission to file under seal any confidential information and related
motion, brief, exhibit, or paper containing that material. The moving party must justify its sealing
with specifics and solid reasons, including an explanation about why redaction cannot be done.
11.

The inadvertent, unintentional, or in camera disclosure of Confidential Documents

and Confidential Information shall not, under any circumstances, be deemed a waiver, in whole or
in part, of any claims of confidentiality. If Confidential Documents or Confidential Information
are inadvertently produced without the appropriate designation of confidentiality, the Receiving
Party shall, upon notice of the confidential status of the documents or information, treat the
documents or information as if it had been appropriately designated confidential at the moment it
was produced.

12.

The Parties and all persons subject to the provisions of this Confidentiality Order

agree to use Confidential Documents and Confidential Information solely and exclusively for

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purposes of preparing for, conducting, and participating in the Action and not for any other
litigation and not for any other business purpose, personal purpose, or other purpose whatsoever.
13.

The Parties' agreement to produce Confidential Documents and Confidential

Information pursuant to this Confidentiality Order shall not be deemed an agreement that such
information and documents (1) constitute or contain confidential information or trade secrets or
other confidential research, development, financial , commercial, or personal information or (2) are
relevant to any matter at issue in the Action. Each Party reserves the right to object to, and to seek
an appropriate order limiting, any use that any other Party may seek to make of such Confidential
Documents or Confidential Information either in discovery or at the trial of the Action.
14.

The Parties agree that no copies of Confidential Documents or Confidential

Information will be made except as necessary for the purposes of this Action. If it becomes
necessary to include information obtained from Confidential Documents or Confidential
Information or to use Confidential Documents or Confidential Information in any court filing, then
any Confidential Documents and Confidential Information, and any information obtained from
those sources, shall be filed under seal, if not prohibited by law.
15.

Within 60 days after the conclusion of the Action, including any appeal, all

Confidential Documents and Confidential Information and all copies, extracts, summaries, and
facsimiles thereof and all electronically, optically, or magnetically stored information of any kind,
including without limitation diskettes, compact disks, computer files, and similar storage media
("Electronically Stored Documents"), containing Confidential Documents or Confidential
Information shall, by the Receiving Party, be destroyed or deleted, uninstalled, or otherwise
removed from each computer, diskette, compact disk, computer file, and any other storage media.
In the event that any Confidential Information or Confidential Documents are stored in a format

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that is not reasonably accessible to the Receiving Party for the sole purpose of assisting the
Receiving Party in the event of a natural disaster or other catastrophic data loss ("Disaster
Recovery Data"), the Disaster Recover Data may be maintained for up to 18 months after the
conclusion of the Action as part of the Receiving Party's disaster recovery plan. Additionally,
upon request, a sworn certificate attesting to the destruction and electronic file deletion and
indicating that no electronic information (other than Disaster Recovery Data) has been retained
shall be executed by each Party and by counsel for each Party and delivered to all Parties within
60 days after the conclusion of the Action, including any appeal. The Parties agree that nothing in
this Confidentiality Order is intended to alter or diminish the protections of the attorney-client
privilege or the work-product doctrine.
16.

Because a violation of this Confidentiality Order by a Receiving Party could cause

irreparable injury to the Producing Party, and there is no adequate remedy at law for such violation,
the Parties shall have the right, in addition to any other remedies available to them at law or in
equity, to seek to enjoin a Receiving Party from any violation of this Confidentiality Order.
17.

This Confidentiality Order shall inure to the benefit of, and be binding upon, the

Parties and their respective successors, heirs, agents, personal representatives, and assigns.
18.

Any individual or entity that becomes a party to this Action and has not subscribed

to this Confidentiality Order as of the time it is presented to the Court for approval and entry may
thereafter become a party to this Confidentiality Order by having its counsel sign and date a copy
of this Confidentiality Order and filing it with the Court and serving such signed copy upon the
other Parties to this Confidentiality Order.
19.

This Confidentiality Order is applicable to the Parties for the sole purpose of

facilitating discovery in the Action.

This Confidentiality Order and the confidentiality

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designations made pursuant to this Confidentiality Order may not be used in any manner, directly
or indirectly, as evidence at trial or any hearing or referred to at trial or any hearing in this Action,
save and except for a hearing that involves issues related to the enforcement of any provision of
this Confidentiality Order.
20.

This Court hereby retains and shall have continuing jurisdiction for one year after

the conclusion of this Action, including any appeal, over the parties and signatories affected by
this Confidentiality Order. Thereafter, the obligations imposed shall continue but they shall be
solely a matter of contract between the parties and signatories.
21.

This Confidentiality Order is the entire agreement between the Parties. It may not

be amended in any manner whatsoever except by an agreement in writing signed by counsel of
record for each Party and adopted by Order of this Court.
IT IS SO ORDERED this 1.§fl day of

~

, 2018.

HONORABLE D.P. MKRSHALL JR.

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APPROVED AND ENTRY REQUESTED BY:
Quattlebaum, Grooms & Tull PLLC
111 Center Street, Suite 1900
Little Rock, AR 72201
[phone]
[e-mail]
By:

/s/ Justice J. Brooks I
Justice J. Brooks, I, Bar l.D. #2014177

Attorneys for Dolgencorp, LLC
and
Ford & Cook, PLC
404 W. Main Street
Jonesboro, AR 72401
[phone]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]

By:

/s/ Bryce 0. Cook
Bryce 0. Cook Bar l.D. #2009237
Paul N . Ford Bar LO. #87060

Attorneys for Ellen Mays and Robert Mays, Sr.

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