Geiger et al v. Master United 12 LLC et al

Filing 153

PROTECTIVE ORDER entered by Magistrate Judge Nina Y. Wang on 6/15/15. (bsimm, )

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLORADO

Civil Action No. 14-cv-00240-REB-NYW
ZACH GEIGER, et al.,
Plaintiffs,
v.
Z-ULTIMATE SELF DEFENSE STUDIOS LLC, et al.,
Defendants.

STIPULATION FOR PROTECTIVE ORDER

IT IS STIPULATED BY THE PARTIES:
1.

This

Protective

Order

information,

including

without

shall

apply

limitation,

to

all

documents, materials,

documents

produced,

answers

and
to

interrogatories, responses to requests for admission, deposition testimony, and other
information disclosed pursuant to the disclosure or discovery duties created by the
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
2.

As used in this Protective Order, “document” is defined as provided in Fed.

R. Civ. P. 34(a). A draft or non-identical copy is a separate document within the
meaning of this term.
3.

“CONFIDENTIAL” means information that is confidential and entitled to

protection under Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(c)(1), and is kept as confidential in the normal course
of business. This is limited to any document, file, portions of files,

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response to a discovery request not made available to the public and designated by one
of the parties in the manner provided in paragraph 6 below that contains:
(a) personnel information concerning current employees of any Defendant to the
extent that such information implicates privacy interests and is not generally
known to the public;
(b) information containing industry trade secrets; and
(c) information relating to instructors personal and confidential matters not
generally known to the public, such as, but not limited to, instructors
financial information and medical information.
Documents designated as “CONFIDENTIAL” shall be first reviewed by disclosing
parties’ attorney who will certify that the designation is based on a good faith belief
that the information is confidential as defined in this order or otherwise entitled to
protection under Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(c)(1).
4. CONFIDENTIAL

documents,

materials,

and/or

information

(collectively

“CONFIDENTIAL information”) shall be used solely for the purpose of this action, and
shall not, without the consent of the party producing it or further Order of the Court, be
used, transferred, disclosed or communicated in any way, except that such information
may be disclosed to:
(a) attorneys actively working on this case;
(b) persons regularly employed or associated with the attorneys actively working on the
case whose assistance is required by said attorneys in the preparation for trial, at trial, or
at other proceedings in this case;
(c) the parties, including designated representatives for Defendants;

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(d) expert witnesses and consultants retained in connection with this proceeding, to the
extent such disclosure is necessary for preparation, trial or other proceedings in this case;
(e) the Court and its employees (“Court Personnel”);
(f) stenographic reporters who are engaged in proceedings necessarily incident to the
conduct of this action;
(g) deponents, witnesses, or potential witnesses;
(h) parties or government agencies to ensure the disclosing party is not engaging in
unlawful conduct;
(i) persons who have had, or whom any counsel for any party in good faith
believes to have had, prior access to Confidential Information, or who have been
participants in a communication that is the subject of the Confidential Information and
from whom verification of or other information about that access or participation is
sought, solely to the extent of disclosing such information to which they have or may
have had access or that is the subject of the communication in which they have or may
have participated, except that, unless and until counsel confirms that any such persons
have had access or were participants, only as much of the information may be
disclosed as may be necessary to confirm the person's access or participation; and
(j) other persons by written agreement of the parties.
5.

Nothing herein shall impose any restrictions on the use or disclosure by a party

or witness of documents, material or information obtained by such party or

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witness independently of the discovery proceedings in this action, whether or not such
documents, material or information are also obtained through discovery proceedings
in this action.
6.

Prior to disclosing any CONFIDENTIAL information to any person listed

above (other than counsel, persons employed by counsel, Court Personnel and
stenographic reporters), counsel shall provide such person with a copy of this
Protective Order and obtain from such person an executed “Written Assurance” in the
form attached hereto as Exhibit A. All such written assurances shall be retained by
counsel and shall be subject to in camera review by the Court if good cause for review is
demonstrated by opposing counsel.
7.

Documents are designated as CONFIDENTIAL by placing or affixing on them

after the date of this Order (in a manner that will not interfere with their legibility)
the following or other appropriate notice: “CONFIDENTIAL”. Documents and any
information contained within the documents without CONFIDENTIAL affixed shall
not be deemed confidential or protected under this order. Documents that are not
marked CONFIDENTIAL after the date of this Order are not considered confidential
and are not protected under this order. For Documents produced prior to this
Protective Order, counsels may designate documents as confidential by providing
notice to the opposing party that identifies the specific confidential documents by Bates
number and the specific reason the documents are considered confidential and contains
a certification pursuant to paragraph 3 above.

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8.

In the event Electronically Stored Information (“ESI”) is disclosed or

discovered in the course of this litigation, including, but not limited to, ESI provided in
a native format on hard disks or other magnetic data storage disks, removable disks
and/or drives, portions thereof, or digital images of data storage disks or drives, such
information may be designated as CONFIDENTIAL in a written communication or
in an electronic mail message to the non- producing party.
9.

Any party who inadvertently fails to identify documents or information as

CONFIDENTIAL shall, promptly upon discovery of its oversight, provide written
notice of the error and substitute appropriately designated documents. Any party
receiving such improperly designated documents shall promptly retrieve such
documents from persons not entitled to receive those documents and, upon receipt
of the substitute documents, shall return or destroy the improperly- designated
documents.
10.

Any party who inadvertently discloses documents that are privileged or

protected by this Protective Order shall, promptly upon discovery of such inadvertent
disclosure, so advise the receiving party and request that the documents be returned.
The receiving party shall return such inadvertently produced documents, including all
copies and copies the receiving party provided to any other individual or entity, within 14
days of receiving such a written request.
11.

Any request to restrict access must comply with the requirements of

D.C.COLO.LCivR 7.2. Nothing in this Protective Order requires the court to restrict any
document.

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12.

By agreeing to this Protective Order, the parties certify the authenticity of

documents produced subject to it.
13.

Whenever

a

deposition

involves

the

disclosure

of

CONFIDENTIAL

information, the portions thereof that involve the disclosure of CONFIDENTIAL
information shall be designated as CONFIDENTIAL and shall be subject to the
provisions of this Protective Order. Such designation shall be made on the record during
the deposition whenever possible, but a party may designate portions of depositions as
CONFIDENTIAL after transcription, provided written notice of the designation is
promptly given to all counsel of record within thirty (30) days after notice by the court
reporter

of

the

completion

of

the

transcript.

Transcript

pages

containing

CONFIDENTIAL information must be separately bound by the court reporter, who
must affix to the top of each such page the legend “CONFIDENTIAL,” as instructed
by the party or non-party offering or sponsoring the witness or presenting the testimony.
14.

A party may object to the designation of particular CONFIDENTIAL

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 to schedule a conference with the Court within two (2) business
days to determine whether the disputed information should be subject to the terms of
this Protective Order. If the designating party fails to schedule the conference within the
prescribed time, the

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disputed information shall lose its designation as CONFIDENTIAL and shall not
thereafter be treated as CONFIDENTIAL in accordance with this Protective Order. In
connection with scheduling a conference with the Court under this provision, the
party designating the information as CONFIDENTIAL shall bear the burden of
establishing that good cause exists for the disputed information to be treated as
CONFIDENTIAL.
15.

At the conclusion of this case, unless other arrangements are agreed upon,

each

document

and

all

copies

thereof

which

have

been

designated

as

CONFIDENTIAL shall be returned to the party that designated it CONFIDENTIAL,
provided, however, that counsel for each Party may retain one copy of the
CONFIDENTIAL documents for the sole purpose of maintaining a complete file, and
all such retained documents will not be released, disclosed, or utilized except upon
express permission of this Court after written notice to counsel for the Party that
produced the documents.
16.

If counsels for either party, in good faith, believe that CONFIDENTIAL

information provided in this action implicates the disclosing party in unlawful
misconduct or that requires disclosure to ensure the disclosing party does not falsely
misrepresent its business or accounting practices to a government agency or another
party,

counsel

may

disclose

documents

marked

CONFIDENTIAL. However,

counsels shall inform the disclosing party of said disclosure and redact any personal
identifying information not generally known to the public from the document prior to
disclosure.

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17.

Nothing in this Protective Order shall prevent any party or other person from

seeking modification of this Order or from objecting to discovery that the party or
other person believes to be improper. Nothing in this Protective Order shall prejudice
the

right

of

any

party

to

contest

the

alleged

relevancy, admissibility, or

discoverability of confidential documents or information sought.
18.

This Protective Order may be modified by the Court at any time for good cause

shown following notice to all parties and an opportunity for them to be heard.

Dated: June 15, 2015

BY THE COURT:

s/ Nina Y. Wang
United States Magistrate Judge

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLORADO
Magistrate Judge Boyd N. Boland

Civil Action No. 14-cv-00240-REB-BNBNYW
ZACH GEIGER, et al.,
Plaintiffs,
v.
Z-ULTIMATE SELF DEFENSE STUDIOS LLC, et al.,
Defendants.

EXHIBIT A TO PROTECTIVE ORDER –
CONFIDENTIALITY AGREEMENT

I,
that:
I reside at
of
telephone number is

the undersigned, hereby declare
in the City
, State of
.

, County of

. My

I acknowledge that I have been informed that a Protective Order issued by the Court in
the above captioned civil action requires confidentiality with respect to information
designated as “CONFIDENTIAL” and therefore I agree to keep all such information and
materials strictly and absolutely confidential, and in all other respects be bound by the
provisions of the Protective Order.
As soon as practical, but no later than 30 days after final termination of this action, I shall
return to the attorney from whom I have received them, any documents in my possession
designated “CONFIDENTIAL,” and all copies, excerpts, summaries, notes, digests,
abstracts, and indices relating to such documents.
Executed on
(Date)

(Signature)

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