Towery v. Mississippi County Arkansas Economic Opportunity Commission Inc

Filing 27

PROTECTIVE ORDER PURSUANT TO STIPULATION AND AGREEMENT. Signed by Judge D. P. Marshall Jr. on 4/24/2019. (jak)

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
EASTERN DISTRICT OF ARKANSAS
JONESBORO DIVISION
MARIA TOWERY

PLAINTIFF

V.

CASE NO. 3:18-CV-44-DPM

MISSISSIPPI COUNTY ARKANSAS
ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
COMMISSION, INC.

DEFENDANT

PROTECTIVE ORDER PURSUANT TO STIPULATION AND AGREEMENT
On this ,;i.'f~ day of April, 2019, the Court reviewed the Joint Motion for Protective
Order filed by the parties, and makes the following Order:
1.

Confidential Information, as later defined, and produced by either party or

pursuant to a release of employment or medical records in this action, shall be used only for the
purpose of this litigation and for no other purpose whatsoever, and shall not be given, shown,
made available, or communicated in any way to anyone except Qualified Persons, as defined.
2.

Confidential Information shall include, without limitation:
a)

Those personnel files, applications, job descriptions, rates of pay,
policies, training materials, insurance coverage information, benefits
information, financial information, proprietary information, and recruiting
information.

b)

Any information concerning the matters in 2(a) as may be, from time to
time, produced by the parties and declared by the party at the time of
production to be "Confidential Information" and subject to this Order. This
designation must be in writing and may be by letter of transmittal to the
party.

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3.

Except with the prior written consent of the party or pursuant to further Order of

this Court on motion with notice to the party, no Confidential Information may be disclosed to
any person other than "Qualified Persons" who shall be defined to include the parties, any
current or future counsel of record for the parties in this action , and secretaries,
paraprofessional assistants, and other employees of such counsel who would be actively
engaged in assisting counsel in connection with this action. The parties agree that Confidential
Information will not be disclosed to anyone, unless used for the purpose of trial preparation,
depositions, or trial proceedings. The parties agree that if Confidential Information is disclosed
during trial preparation or depositions, the parties will advise the recipient of the information that
he/she must keep the information confidential except during depositions or the actual trial
proceedings. The parties specifically agree that Confidential Information contained in the
personnel files of current or former employees will not be disclosed to anyone, unless used for
the purpose of trial preparation, depositions or the actual trial proceedings.
4.

Upon receipt of Confidential Information from opposing counsel, the party

receiving the Confidential Information shall execute and return to opposing counsel a document
entitled "Inventory of Confidential Documents Received" in the form affixed hereto as Exhibit A.
5.

This Order, insofar as it restricts the communication in any way and use of

Confidential Information, shall be binding throughout this case, and one year after it ends,
including any appeals. Thereafter, the obligations of this Order shall continue, but shall be
solely a matter of contract between the parties and Qualified Persons. At the conclusion of this
action, including all appeals:
a)

One year after the conclusion of this case, counsel must destroy the
confidential information.
necessary

to

Counsel must also take all reasonable steps

reclaim

all

Confidential

Information,

including

correspondence, memoranda, notes, or any other documents embodying
such information, in whole or in part, by requesting the return of all copies

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of such Confidential Information and paying reasonable expenses for the
return of the documents. But the Plaintiff's counsel and Plaintiff shall be
entitled to keep a copy of Confidential Information deemed to be work
product as agreed to by the parties.
b)

Counsel and all Qualified Persons are enjoined from disclosing in any
manner any Confidential Information obtained during the course of this
case.

6.

Nothing in this Order shall prevent any party from seeking modification of this

Order at any time as to specific matters designated "Confidential Information" to remove such
from the application of this Order.
7.

In the event that either party disputes whether a document is confidential,

Counsel should confer in good faith in person before bringing any dispute to the Court. If the
parties cannot resolve the dispute themselves, they should file a joint report explaining the
disagreement. File this paper under the CM/ECF event called "Joint Report of Discovery
Dispute." The joint report must not exceed ten pages, excluding the style and signature block.
Each side gets five pages. Do not file a motion asking for more pages. Use double spacing and
avoid footnotes. Attach documents as needed. Redact any attachments as required by Federal
Rule of Civil Procedure 5.2 to protect confidential information. File the joint report sufficiently
before the discovery cutoff so that the dispute can be resolved, and any additional discovery
completed, without undermining other pretrial deadlines. The Court will rule or schedule a
hearing. Alert the law clerk on the case to the joint report's filing .
8.

Information designated as "Confidential" must not be filed on the public docket. If

practicable, it should be redacted. FED. R. C1v. P. 5.2. If an entire page contains information
designated as "Confidential, " substituting a page marked "Redacted" is an acceptable redaction
method. If redaction is impracticable, a party must move for permission to file any information
designated as "Confidential" and a related motion, brief, or paper, containing that material under

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seal.

The moving party must justify sealing with specifics and solid reasons including an

explanation about why redaction cannot be done.
9.

No item shall be deemed "Confidential" if it has been made public by the

producing party, is generally known throughout the trade and public, or comes to be known to
the receiving party through means not constituting breach of any propriety or confidential
relationship or obligation or breach of this Order.
IT IS HEREBY SO ORDERED.

D.P. Marshall Jr. I/
U. S. DISTRICT JUDGE

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EXHIBIT A
INVENTORY OF CONFIDENTIAL DOCUMENTS RECEIVED
I hereby acknowledge receipt of the following documents, document pages,
and/or depositions which are subject to the Protective Order for the protection of
documents in MARIA TOWERY V. MISSISSIPPI COUNTY ARKANSAS ECONOMIC
OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION, INC., CASE NO. 3:18-CV-44-DPM (list all documents,
pages, and depositions received):
DATE: _ _ _ _ _ _ __

Attorney Signature

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