Frazier v. Wineinger, et al

Filing 58

QUALIFIED HIPAA AND CONFIDENTIALITY PROTECTIVE ORDER. Ordered by Magistrate Judge Cheryl R. Zwart. (TCL)

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF NEBRASKA
DOUGLAS FRAZIER,

)
)
Plaintiff,
)
)
)
v.
)
)
JAY WINEINGER, in his individual and
)
official capacity, the COUNTY OF
)
DOUGLAS, NEBRASKA, ROBERT LANEY, )
in his individual and official capacity,
)
ANTHONY FRIEND, in his individual and
)
official capacity, and the CITY OF OMAHA,
)
NEBRASKA,
)
)
Defendants.
)

CASE NO. 8:18-cv-160

QUALIFIED HIPAA AND
CONFIDENTIALITY PROTECTIVE
ORDER

This matter came before the Court pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(c), upon a stipulated
(unopposed) motion for a Protective Order relating to documents responsive to the
disclosures and discovery responses of the parties. (Filing No. 57). The parties recognize that it
may be necessary during the course of this proceeding to produce, disclose, receive,
obtain, subpoena, and/or transmit confidential discovery material of the parties, non-parties,
and third parties to other parties, non-parties, and third parties. This Protective Order applies to
all discovery material produced during discovery in this case that is confidential.
For the purposes of this Protective Order, confidential discovery material shall include:
1. Personnel data of the parties or their employees and agents, including but not limited to
employment application information; the identity of and information received from
employment references; wage and income information; benefits information; employee
evaluations; medical evaluation and treatment information and records; counseling or
mental health records; educational records; internal affairs and related employee

misconduct investigation files; and employment counseling, discipline, or performance
improvement documentation;
2. Records restricted or prohibited from disclosure by statutes related to Nebraska’s Merit
System (Neb. Rev. Stat. § 23-1721 et seq.);
3. Records restricted or prohibited from disclosure by statutes related to the Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 and the Standards for Privacy of
Individually Identifiable Health Information;
4. Any information copied or extracted from the previously described materials, including
all excerpts, summaries, or compilations of this information or testimony, and
documentation of questioning, statements, conversations, or presentations that might
reveal the information contained within the underlying confidential discovery material.
The producing party shall affix a “CONFIDENTIAL” designation to any of the above
described material produced in this action, on each that contains protected material. If it is not
feasible to label confidential material as “CONFIDENTIAL,” the producing party shall indicate
via cover letter or otherwise at the time of production that the material being produced is
“CONFIDENTIAL.”
A producing party that inadvertently fails to properly affix a “CONFIDENTIAL”
designation to confidential discovery material shall have 20 days from discovering the oversight
to correct that failure. Such failure shall be corrected by providing written notice of the error to
every receiving party. Any receiving party notified of such error shall make reasonable efforts to
retrieve any such documents distributed to persons who are not Qualified Recipients under this
order, and as to Qualified Recipients, shall exchange the undesignated or improperly designated
documents with documents that include the correct “CONFIDENTIAL” designation.

No document containing the “CONFIDENTIAL” stamp shall be produced or copied in
whole or in part without the “CONFIDENTIAL” stamp appearing on the production or the copy.
All documents of any nature including, but not limited to, briefs, motions, memoranda,
transcripts, discovery responses, evidence, and the like that are filed with the court for any
purpose and that contain material designated as “CONFIDENTIAL” shall be provisionally filed
under restricted access with the filing party’s motion for leave to file restricted access
documents.
The parties shall not use or disclose any confidential discovery material released in this
action for any other purpose or in any other proceeding.
Before disclosing any confidential discovery material to any persons involved in the
litigation, including but not limited to parties, counsel, co-counsel, counsel’s staff, witnesses
(and, if applicable, witnesses’ counsel) or expert or consulting expert witnesses retained in
connection with this action, counsel will be responsible for informing each such person that the
material is confidential, must be held in confidence, may be used solely for the purpose of
preparing for this litigation, and that these restrictions are imposed by a court order, and counsel
shall provide any such person with a copy of this Protective Order.
Nothing in this Protective Order shall be deemed a waiver of the right of any party to
object to a request for discovery on the basis of relevance, materiality, privilege, overbreadth, or
any other recognized objection to discovery.
At the termination of this action, the parties shall return all confidential discovery
material to the attorney representing the party who produced it, and/or dispose of any
confidential discovery material retained thereafter.

This Protective Order may be modified by further written stipulation signed by the parties
with approval of this Court or by further order of this Court upon application to the Court with
notice.
The Court may impose sanctions with respect to any person or entity improperly granting
access to confidential discovery material subject to this Protective Order.

IT IS SO ORDERED, this 11th day of October, 2019.

BY THE COURT
_______________________________
U.S. Magistrate Judge