Valdez v. Stryker Corporation et al

Filing 25

PROTECTIVE ORDER: by Magistrate Judge Boyd N. Boland on 3/19/12. (bnbcd, )

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLORADO

Civil Action No. 11-cv-03026-CMA-BNB
ALISHA LYNN VALDEZ,
Plaintiff,
vs.
STRYKER CORPORATION, a Michigan corporation; and
STRYKER SALES CORPORATION, a Michigan corporation.
Defendants
STIPULATED PROTECTIVE ORDER RE: CONFIDENTIAL DOCUMENTS

Having come before the Court by agreement of the Defendants Stryker Corporation and
Stryker Sales Corporation and Plaintiff Alisha Valdez, the Court finds that good cause exists for
the entry of this Stipulated Qualified Protective Order (“Protective Order”) in that the
preparation and trial of this action(s) will require the discovery of documents, testimony,
information, or things claimed by one or more of the parties to contain confidential business or
commercial information, and the ends of justice will be served by entry of an order setting forth
procedures for and rules governing discovery, copying, use and return of documents, deposition
transcripts, interrogatory answers and other materials. Accordingly,
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED:
1.

All information which is or has been produced or discovered in the above titled

action and, after first being reviewed by a lawyer who certifies that the designation as
confidential is based on a good faith belief that the information is confidential or otherwise
entitled to protection, designated “Confidential” or “Trade Secret” shall be used by the
receiving party solely for the prosecution or defense of this action, and shall not be used by any

such party, their counsel of record or any other person to whom such material is disclosed for
any other purpose, unless the information is available to the general public without a breach of
the terms of this Protective Order, or is the subject of written agreement between parties counsel
regarding its use in relation to litigation.
2.

As used in this Protective Order, the term “Confidential Discovery Material”

means documents and other information provided in the course of discovery of this action that
are designated as “Confidential” or “Trade Secret” pursuant to the terms of this Protective
Order, or that have been previously designated as such in other similar cases. The term
“documents” as used herein shall be interpreted broadly to encompass hard-copy and imaged
documents as well as electronically stored information (“ESI”) of any type. This Protective
Order is applicable to all forms of discovery, including but not limited to deposition testimony,
answers to interrogatories, documents produced in response to requests for production,
responses to request for disclosure, responses to requests for admission, medical records, and
any documents recorded on computer disks. As used herein, a “party” or the “parties” means a
person/entity or persons/entities subject to this Protective Order.
3.

Any party who receives any Confidential Discovery Material in the course of

discovery in this action shall not disclose such Confidential Discovery Material to anyone else
except as expressly permitted by this Protective Order.
4.

Documents or other discovery material may be designated as “Confidential” or

“Trade Secret” only to the extent that it consists of or includes trade secret or confidential
research, development, competitive, proprietary or commercial information, including, but not
limited to, financial information, information relating to ownership or control of any non-public
company, and any information protected from disclosure by any privacy or other law or
governmental regulation, as well as any other type of information given confidential status by
the Court. Any failure to designate a document “Trade Secret” shall not waive trade secret for
any document otherwise designated as “Confidential” pursuant to this Protective Order, and
shall not waive or preclude any future “Trade Secret” designation.

5.

Confidential information includes information that would identify patients and

persons (excluding Plaintiff(s)) associated with adverse events involving human drugs, medical
devices, and research subjects. See 21 C.F.R. § 314.430 and 21 C.F.R. § 20.63. Defendants
shall not be compelled to disclose this identifying information and may redact this identifying
information from discovery material before production, provided, however, that such defendant
shall maintain an un-redacted copy of such discovery material for any further review by the
Court.
6.

The Producing Party may designate the document as Confidential Discovery

Material by stamping or otherwise clearly marking the document as “Confidential” or “Trade
Secret” in such a manner that will not interfere with legibility or audibility.
7.

To the extent that Confidential Discovery Material stored or recorded in the form

of electronic or magnetic media (including information, files, databases or programs stored on
any digital or analog machine-readable device, computers, Internet sites, discs, networks, or
tapes (“Electronic Discovery Material”) is produced in such form, the party producing such
Electronic Discovery Material may designate it as confidential by cover letter referring
generally to the Electronic Discovery Material, and/or by designation in the accompanying load
file. Whenever a party to whom confidential Electronic Discovery Material is produced reduces
the confidential Electronic Discovery Material to hardcopy or image form, that party shall mark
each page of the hardcopy or image form with the “Confidential” and/or “Trade Secret”
designation.
8.

With respect to deposition transcripts and exhibits, a party may indicate on the

record that a question calls for Confidential Discovery Material, in which case the transcript of
the question and answer shall be bound in a separate volume and marked “Confidential” and/or
“Trade Secret” by the court reporter. Alternatively, the party may designate information
disclosed at the deposition as confidential by notifying the other party(ies) in writing within
thirty (30) days of receipt of the transcript of the specific pages and lines which are to be
designated confidential. During such thirty (30) day period, the entire transcript shall be treated

as Confidential Discovery Material. For convenience, the parties may agree that entire
deposition transcripts shall be treated as Confidential Discovery Material.
9.

Third parties to this action may elect to avail themselves of, and agree to be

bound by, the terms and conditions of this Protective Order as if they had stipulated to it at the
time of entry. Such third parties must state their agreement to be bound by this Protective Order
in writing.
10.

Documents and information produced by a third party shall be treated as

Confidential Discovery Material for thirty (30) calendar days after production, in order to allow
the parties to review and assess the documents and information for confidentiality and
designation.
11.

If at any time prior to the trial of this action a party realizes that previously

undesignated documents or other material should be designated as Confidential Discovery
Material, the party may so designate by advising all other parties in writing. The designated
documents or material will thereafter be treated as Confidential Discovery Material pursuant to
this Protective Order. Upon receipt of such designation in writing, each party shall take
reasonable and appropriate action to notify any and all recipients of such Confidential
Discovery Material about the protected status of that Material and shall retrieve the newly
designated Confidential Discovery Material from any person who is not permitted by this
Protective Order to have such material.
12.

Inadvertent production or other disclosure of documents subject to work-product

immunity, the attorney-client privilege, or other legal privilege that protects information from
discovery shall not constitute a waiver of the immunity, privilege, or other protection, provided
that the Producing Party notifies the Receiving Party in writing when it becomes aware of such
inadvertent production. Upon notification, the receiving party shall immediately, at the
producing party’s option, return or destroy the inadvertently-produced materials and all copies,
and shall delete the material and all copies from any litigation-support or other database. The
recipient shall destroy notes and work product reflecting the contents of such materials. No

further use or disclosure shall be made of the inadvertently-produced materials, and the
recipient shall take all reasonable and appropriate steps to retrieve the materials, and all copies,
from any person to whom the recipient has provided them.
Any party or individual having inadvertently received privileged or protected
information need not wait for notice from the Producing Party before complying with the above
and is expected to comply with the requirements of this paragraph as soon as it is known or
should be known that the document and information contained therein is privileged and/or
protected. If the party returning such material does not agree with the privilege designation, the
party returning such material must write a letter to the Producing Party, setting forth the reason
for believing that the material in question is not privileged. If the issue cannot be resolved
between the parties, the Producing Party shall move the Court, within ten (10) days of the
completion of such meet-and-confer efforts, to rule on the material's status and shall produce a
copy of the document to the Court for in camera inspection. Any inadvertent disclosure of
privileged information shall not operate as a waiver in any other federal or state proceeding, and
the parties’ agreement regarding the effect of inadvertent disclosure of privileged information
shall be binding on non-parties.
13.

Any party producing documents in this action must simultaneously produce a

privilege log, if any document has been withheld from production based on the assertion of
privilege. The privilege log will identify every document withheld on the basis of privilege by:
(1) author; (2) date; (3) recipient(s); (4) type of document; and (5) privilege asserted. If only a
portion of the document is privileged, the Producing Party will only withhold that portion which
is privileged, by redaction if possible. A log must be produced with each production and each
Producing Party must produce an updated privilege log within a reasonable time of the
determination that additional documents need to be added.
14.

No party other than the party designating material as Confidential Discovery

Material shall disclose such material to any other person, except as follows:

(a)

Counsel for the parties in the specific action in which the documents are to be

produced, including any paralegal, clerical, and other staff employed by counsel for work on
this action;
(b)

With respect to a specific document, the document’s author, addressees, and any

other person shown on the face of the document as having received a copy;
(c)

Any witness who counsel for a party in good faith believes may be called to

testify at trial or deposition in this action, provided such person has first executed a nondisclosure agreement in the form attached to this Protective Order as Exhibit 1. However, if
the witness is currently an employee, officer, director, contractor, subcontractor or consultant of
an entity that is presently engaged in the research, development, manufacture, or sale of any
product that competes with, or is similar to, any product(s) addressed in documents produced as
Confidential Discovery Material, the party seeking the testimony must also first receive written
consent of counsel for the party disclosing the Confidential Discovery Material, or obtain an
order from the Court permitting the disclosure to said witness;
(d)

Any person retained by a party to serve as an expert consultant or witness or

otherwise provide specialized advice to counsel in connection with this action, provided such
person has first executed a non-disclosure agreement in the form attached;
(e)

Insurers and indemnitors to the extent reasonably necessary to defend and

evaluate the claims;
(f)

Official court reporters; and

(g)

The court, mediators, and support personnel.

15.

Prior to any disclosure of Confidential Discovery Material to any person referred

to in subparagraphs (c) or (d) of paragraph 14 above, the person shall be provided by counsel
with a copy of this Protective Order and shall sign a non-disclosure agreement in the form
attached as Exhibit 1 hereto. The non-disclosure agreement will state that the person has read
this Protective Order and agrees to be bound by its terms. All non-disclosure agreements will
be maintained throughout this action by the attorneys obtaining them. At the conclusion of this

action, upon a showing of good cause and necessity, any party may seek an order requiring
production of non-disclosure agreements, but nothing in this Order is intended to modify or
shift any burden of proof or privilege relating to the motion or authorize discovery of experts or
their identities.
16.

Any request to restrict access to materials must comply with the

requirements of D.C.COLO.LCivR 7.2. Any party wishing to file any Confidential
Discovery Material with the Court, including any portion of a court paper that discloses
confidential discovery material, shall file a motion to have the Confidential Discovery Material
filed under seal and shall otherwise comply with applicable Federal Rules of Civil Procedure,
the Local Rules, and any other rules, procedures, or Orders of this Court. When filing the
motion, the filing party will cite to the Court the grounds for filing the Confidential Discovery
Material under seal. The parties agree that any motion will be narrow in scope to ensure that
the only information withheld from public inspection is information expressly authorized by
law. Whenever possible, disputes regarding confidentiality designations should be resolved
before Confidential Discovery Material or any document containing or referencing it is filed
with the Court. For any item of Confidential Discovery Material for which a designation
dispute has not been resolved, that item and any document containing or referencing it will be
filed under seal (at least provisionally).
17.

A party may object to the designation of particular “Confidential” and/or

“Trade Secret” information by giving written notice to the party designating the disputed
information. The written notice shall identify the information to which the objection is
made. If the parties cannot resolve the objection within ten (10) business days after the
time the notice is received, it shall be the obligation of the party designating the
information as “Confidential” and/or “Trade Secret” to file an appropriate motion
requesting that the court determine whether the disputed information should be subject to
the terms of this Protective Order. If such a motion is timely filed, the disputed
information shall be treated as “Confidential” and/or “Trade Secret” under the terms of

this Protective Order until the Court rules on the motion. If the designating party fails to
file such a motion within the prescribed time, the disputed information shall lose its
designation as “Confidential” and/or “Trade Secret” and shall not thereafter be treated
as “Confidential” and/or “Trade Secret” in accordance with this Protective Order. In
connection with a motion filed under this provision, the party designating the information
as “Confidential” and/or “Trade Secret” shall bear the burden of establishing that good
cause exists for the disputed information to be treated as “Confidential” and/or “Trade
Secret”.
Any party objecting to the designation of any material as Confidential Discovery
Material, or requesting further limits on disclosure (such as “attorney eyes only”), may at any
time prior to the trial of this action serve upon counsel for interested parties a written notice
stating with particularity the reasons for the objection. If agreement cannot promptly be
reached, the dispute will be submitted to the Court pursuant to the Court’s ordinary procedures
for handling discovery disputes. Until a dispute is resolved, the material designated as
“Confidential” or “Trade Secret” shall remain and be treated as Confidential Discovery Material
pursuant to this Protective Order.
18.

Each person who has access to Confidential Discovery Material shall take all

necessary precautions to prevent the unauthorized or inadvertent disclosure of such material.
19.

This Protective Order shall survive the termination of this action. Within 30

days of the final disposition of this action, which includes the conclusion of any and all appeals,
all Confidential Discovery Material, and all copies (including those in electronic format), shall
promptly be returned to the Producing Party or, with the permission of the Producing Party, be
destroyed.
20.

The Court shall retain jurisdiction over all persons and parties subject to this

Protective Order to the extent necessary to modify this Protective Order, enforce its obligations,
or to impose sanctions for any violation.
21.

Nothing in this Protective Order shall prevent any party from seeking further or

additional protection, or removing protection, for Confidential Discovery Material.
22.

Additional parties may be added to this action as allowed under the applicable

Rules of Civil Procedure. Before receiving Confidential Discovery Material, a new party must
agree to be bound by the terms of this Protective Order as if the party had stipulated to it at the
time of entry. No newly added party shall have access to Confidential Discovery Material until
the party is subject to the terms of this Protective Order.
23.

Any discovery material designated as “Trade Secret” shall be treated in all

respects as Confidential Discovery Material. With respect to the manufacturers and
distributors of the pain pumps, the trade secret discovery material shall only be produced to
counsel (including in-house counsel), as defined in Paragraph 14(a), and not any other
employees of those parties. The purpose of this paragraph is to prevent manufacturers and
distributors of pain pumps from having access to the other’s trade secret discovery material,
except as needed by counsel defending this action.
24.

Nothing in this Protective Order shall prevent the Receiving Party from using

Confidential Discovery Material in any case in which the Producing Party is a defendant and in
which a Protective has been entered, by a Court of competent jurisdiction, and is applicable to
said Confidential Discovery Material. Furthermore, the Receiving Party may share, discuss,
and exchange such Confidential Discovery Material with counsel involved in active litigation
against the Producing Party, as long as a protective order with comparable terms of protection
for such Confidential Discovery Material has been entered in that other litigation. However,
before the Receiving Party may share, discuss, and exchange such Confidential Discovery
Material with such counsel, notice shall be provided to counsel for that Producing Party,
identifying the Confidential Discovery Material to be shared or exchanged, the counsel with
whom that exchange is to be made, and the litigation in which that other counsel is involved.
The Producing Party shall then be permitted 10 days from the date of that notice to object to
said exchange of material or their content. If such objection is timely made, the Receiving
Party may not share, discuss, and exchange such Confidential Discovery Material.

25.

The provisions of this Protective Order shall not affect, nor does this Protective

Order limit, the use or admissibility of Confidential Discovery Material (or references to that
material) as evidence at trial, or during any arbitration, mediation, hearing, or similar
proceeding in this action or as part of the record on appeal, provided that either parry may seek
an appropriate Order of the Court to protect such Confidential Discovery Material, including
provisions for use of such materials under seal. The provisions of this Order shall not prejudice
the rights of the parties with respect to the use or protection of Confidential Discovery Material
at trial or other such addressed proceedings. Absent court order to the contrary, the use or
production of Confidential Discovery Material at trial by any party, under seal or under such
other terms as required by the Court to maintain the confidentiality of that material, does not
waive the protection of such Confidential Discovery Material required under this Protective
Order in subsequent proceedings or in any other case.
26.

This Protective Order is intended to comport with the requirements of the Health

Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”). Any identifiable health information
shall be automatically deemed “Confidential” and shall be treated as Confidential Discovery
Material under the terms of this Order, without being stamped as “Confidential” by the
producing party. Nothing in this Order shall prevent a party from objecting that documents do
not contain individually identifiable health information, or are not otherwise subject to the
requirements of HIPPA.
27.

Nothing in this Protective Order shall preclude a party from using or disclosing

its own Confidential Discovery Material in any manner it sees fit, without the prior consent of
any other party and without waiving its "Confidential" or "Trade Secret" status under this
Protective Order.
28.

Any party served with a subpoena or other notice compelling production of

Confidential Discovery Material shall immediately give written notice to counsel for the
Producing Party.

29.

A party who learns of an unauthorized or inadvertent disclosure of Confidential

Discovery Material by it or by any person to whom the party has disclosed Confidential
Discovery Material pursuant to this Protective Order shall immediately (a) issue written notice
of the unauthorized or inadvertent disclosure to the producing party; (b) use best efforts to
retrieve all copies of the Confidential Discovery Material subject to unauthorized or inadvertent
disclosure; (c) inform all persons to whom unauthorized or inadvertent disclosure was made of
the terms of this Protective Order; and (d) use best efforts to secure a non-disclosure agreement
in the form attached as Exhibit 1 hereto from all persons to whom the unauthorized disclosure
was made.
Dated March 19, 2012.

BY THE COURT:

s/ Boyd N. Boland
United States Magistrate Judge

IT IS SO AGREED: February __, 2012.

s/ Daniel L. English

s/ J. Lee Gray

Daniel L. English

Maureen Reidy Witt

Law Firm of Daniel Lee English, P.C.

J. Lee Gray

6355 Ward Rd., Suite 400

HOLLAND & HART LLP

Arvada, CO 80004

6380 South Fiddlers Green Circle, Suite 500

Phone [phone]

Greenwood Village, CO 80111

Fax [phone]

Phone: [phone]

[e-mail]

Fax: [phone]
[e-mail]

ATTORNEYS FOR PLAINTIFF

[e-mail]

Vaughn A. Crawford
SNELL & WILMER L.L.P.
One Arizona Center
400 E. Van Buren
Phoenix, AZ 85004
Tel.: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
[e-mail]

ATTORNEYS FOR DEFENDANTS

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
DISTRICT OF COLORADO

Civil Action No. 11-cv-03026-CMA-BNB

ALISHA LYNN VALDEZ,

Plaintiff,

vs.

STRYKER CORPORATION, a Michigan corporation; and
STRYKER SALES CORPORATION, a Michigan corporation.

Defendants

EXHIBIT “1”- ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF PROTECTIVE ORDER

I,

, acknowledge that I have read and understand

the Stipulated Qualified Protective Order (“Protective Order”) in this action governing the nondisclosure of those portions of Confidential Discovery Material that have been designated as
Confidential or Trade Secret, or contain individually identifiable health information. I agree
that I will not disclose such Confidential Discovery Material to anyone except as expressly
permitted by the Protective Order and only for purposes of this action, and that at the
conclusion of the action I will return all such Confidential Discovery Material to the party or

attorney from whom I received it. By acknowledging these obligations under the Protective
Order, I understand that I am submitting myself to the jurisdiction of The United States District
Court for the District of Colorado, for the purpose of any issue or dispute arising hereunder and
that my willful violation of any term of the Protective Order could subject me to punishment for
contempt of Court.
Dated this

day of

, 201__.

Name
______________________________
Signature