Saunders v. The City of New York

Filing 18

CONFIDENTIALITY STIPULATION AND PROTECTIVE ORDER...regarding procedures to be followed that shall govern the handling of confidential material... SO ORDERED. (Signed by Judge Jessica G. L. Clarke on 11/22/2024) (tg)

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK
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DARRIUS SAUNDERS,
Plaintiff,

-against-

CONFIDENTIALITY
STIPULATION AND
PROTECTIVE ORDER
24-CV-910 (JGLC)

CITY OF NEW YORK, et al.,
Defendants.
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WHEREAS, pursuant to Rule 26(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure,
defendant intends to disclose certain documents and information to plaintiff;
WHEREAS, pursuant to Rules 33 and 34 of the Federal Rules of Civil
Procedure, plaintiff may seek certain documents and information from defendant pursuant to
plaintiff’s discovery demands in this action;
WHEREAS, defendant object to the production of those documents unless
appropriate protection for their confidentiality is assured;
WHEREAS, good cause exists for the entry of an order pursuant to Rule 26(c) of
the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, including that the production of information or documents
that (a) contain highly sensitive information, policies, procedures or other matters that, if disclosed,
could jeopardize individual, correctional or institutional safety, security or good order, (b) contain
information that is confidential under state or federal law, or (c) contain information of a personal
nature;

WHEREAS, defendant deem this information and these documents confidential,
private, not accessible to the public, when disclosed it is usually subject to a protective order,

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and/or subject to a law enforcement and/or governmental privileges and/or other applicable
privileges;
NOW, THEREFORE, IT IS HEREBY STIPULATED AND AGREED, by
and between the attorneys for plaintiff and defendant that documents and information shall be
produced in accordance with the terms set forth below:
1. As used herein, “Confidential Material” shall mean:
a) Employment or personnel related records;
b) Disciplinary histories and documents related thereto, including, but not
limited to, investigative documents in the possession of the New York
City Department of Correction, Office of Administrative Trials and
Hearings (“OATH”), and/or any other governmental agency”;
c) Any and all investigatory files and closing reports from the New York
City Department of Correction Special Investigation Unit, including but
not limited to Case No. N0741/22 – COD #4089/22;
d) Any and all videos, including any Genetec videos or body-worn camera
videos;
e) Training materials, including, but not limited to, non-public sections of
Directives, Operations Orders, Command Level Orders, and training
manuals;
f) Any documents which contain information that is confidential under state
or federal law, including, but not limited to, New York Criminal
Procedure Law Section 160.50, et seq.;

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g) Any Personal Identifying Information of non-parties, including but not
limited to names, addresses, phone numbers, to the extent exchanged
during discovery. For any party or non-party, any Personal Identifying
Information described in Rule 5.2 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure
to the extent exchanged during discovery;
h) Medical records and health information;
i) Other documents and information that may in good faith, during the
pendency of this litigation, be designated Confidential Material by the
defendant(s) or the Court.
2. The documents and information defined in paragraph 1 shall not be Confidential Material
only to the extent, that they are: (a) lawfully obtained by plaintiff from sources other than
defendant, or (b) are otherwise publicly available.
3. Nothing in the Confidentiality Stipulation and Protective Order shall be construed as an
agreement to produce any category of discovery materials or as a waiver of any objection
to the discoverability, relevance, or admissibility of any matter.
4. Nothing in this Confidentiality Stipulation and Protective Order shall limit defendant’s
right to redact personal, confidential, or privileged information before producing any
document to plaintiff.
5. Any documents provided by a third party in this Action, by request or pursuant to a
subpoena, and that are designated as Confidential Material by defendant shall be
governed by the terms of this Confidentiality Stipulation and Protective Order.
6. All parties shall have 30 days to inspect and designate as Confidential Material
documents sought from subpoenas or releases.

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7. The parties shall designate documents Confidential Material by labeling such documents
“Confidential” on the face of such documents and shall not in any way impede the
parties’ ability to read the document.
8. The disclosure of documents or information without designating it as Confidential
Material shall not constitute a waiver of the right to do so post-production. The parties
reserve the right to designate any document confidential pursuant to this Confidentiality
Stipulation and Protective Order, if necessary, within 30 days of production of such
documents. If so designated, the document or information shall thenceforth be treated as
Confidential Material subject to all the terms of this Confidentiality Stipulation and
Protective Order. Individuals who reviewed the non-designated material prior to notice of
their new confidential designation shall abide by the provision of this Confidentiality
Stipulation and Protective Order with respect to all future use and disclosure of said
material.
9. Inadvertent, unintentional production of any document or information which is
privileged, confidential, was prepared in anticipation of litigation, or that is subject to in
camera review by the Court, shall not constitute a waiver of any privilege or of another
ground for objecting to discovery with respect to that document, or its subject matter, or
the information contained therein, or of defendant’s right to object to the use of any such
document or the information contained therein during any proceeding in this Action or
otherwise. Plaintiff shall immediately return or destroy such documents and information,
shall provide a certification of counsel that all inadvertently disclosed material has been
returned or destroyed, including any copies, and shall not use such material for any
purpose.

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10. To the extent documents or information that is otherwise privileged is intentionally
produced, such privileged documents or information shall be designated as Confidential
Material.
11. If the parties make public representations, the substance of which concerns, or is
contained in, the Confidential Material, the opposing party may move the Court, on an
expedited basis, for relief, unless the information was obtained through sources that are
not Confidential Material.
12. The parties shall not use the Confidential Material for any purpose other than for the
preparation, evaluation, settlement or presentation of the parties’ case/defenses in this
Action.
13. If any party objects to the designation of any particular document or information as
Confidential Material, the objecting party shall state such objection in writing, and the
parties shall then endeavor to meet and confer in good faith to attempt to resolve such
objection. If the objection cannot be resolved among the parties, the objecting party,
within 30 days of the conclusion of the meet and confer, may request that the Court
remove the designation.

Any such documents or information shall be treated as

Confidential Material until the parties resolve the objection or there is a resolution of the
designation by the Court. Failure to comply with the deadline in this paragraph shall
constitute abandonment of plaintiff’s right to object or move.
14. The parties shall not disclose the Confidential Material to any person other than a party,
an attorney of record for that party, or any member of the staff of that attorney’s office,
except under the following conditions:

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a. Disclosure may be made only if necessary to the preparation, evaluation or
presentation of plaintiff’s case in this Action, to those individuals described in
subparagraphs (b) below.
b. Disclosure before trial may be made only to a party; to an expert who has
been retained or specially employed by either parties’ attorney with respect to
this Action; to a witness in preparation for testimony at a deposition or trial; to
a witness, court reporter/stenographer and/or videographer at deposition or
trial; or to the Court.
c. Before any disclosure is made to a person listed in subparagraph (b) above
(other than to the Court), the parties’ attorney shall provide each such person
with a copy of this Confidentiality Stipulation and Protective Order for
review, and such person shall consent in writing, using the form annexed
hereto as Exhibit A, not to use the Confidential Material for any purpose other
than in connection with the preparation, evaluation or presentation of this
Action and not to further disclose the Confidential Material except in
testimony taken in this Action. The parties’ attorney shall retain the signed
consent form and furnish a copy to the opposing party’s attorney upon
request, although the name of an expert that a party does not intend to call as a
trial witness may be redacted from such consent form before it is produced.
15. Deposition testimony concerning any Confidential Material, which reveals the contents
of such materials shall be deemed confidential, and the transcript of such testimony,
together with any exhibits referred to therein, shall be marked confidential on the record

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or marked as confidential within 30 days of receiving the transcript within the meaning of
this Stipulation of Confidentiality and Protective Order.
16. If Confidential Material is used at a deposition, the parties may designate those
deposition exhibits and portions of deposition testimony as Confidential either by: (a)
indicating on the record during the deposition that a question relates to Confidential
Material, and can request that the court reporter/stenographer bind the designated
testimony as a separate transcript and with a cover page prominently marked
“Confidential Information Governed by Confidentiality Stipulation and Protective
Order;” or (b) notifying the court reporter/stenographer and all attorneys of record, in
writing, within 30 days after a deposition transcript has been received (during which time
the entire deposition will be considered Confidential Material), of the specific pages and
lines of the transcript that are to be designated Confidential Material, in which event the
parties receiving the transcript will be responsible for marking the copies of the
designated transcript in their possession or under their control.

Any portions of a

transcript designated confidential shall thereafter be treated as confidential in accordance
with this Confidentiality Stipulation and Protective Order.
17. If any paper which incorporates any Confidential Material or reveals the contents thereof
is filed in this Court, the party or parties shall apply to the Court to have them placed
under seal, in accordance with the rules of the district court in which the Action is filed
and/or the Individual Rules of the judge to whom the papers are directed.
18. If any paper which incorporates any Confidential Material or reveals the contents thereof
is filed in this Court, but the confidential information is not material to issues addressed
in court submissions, and the parties agree in writing that the redaction of personal,

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confidential and/or identifying information would be sufficient to protect the interests of
parties or non-parties, the parties may file redacted documents without further order of
the Court.
19. In the event that the Confidential Material or the contents thereof may be disclosed at a
court hearing or at trial, the Court may impose appropriate safeguards for the presentation
of such Confidential Material.

The parties agree to meet and confer in good faith

regarding the redaction of any Confidential Material that either party may seek to enter
into evidence at a court hearing or trial.
15. This Confidentiality Stipulation and Protective Order will survive the termination of the
litigation and will continue to be binding upon all persons to whom Confidential Material
is produced or disclosed.

All documents or information that have been designated

Confidential Material pursuant to this Confidentiality Stipulation and Protective Order,
including all copies and non-conforming copies thereof, shall remain confidential for all
time.

Once the Action has been resolved, including all appeals, the Confidential

Material, including all conforming or non-conforming copies thereof, shall not be used by
either party, or anyone receiving confidential documents pursuant to paragraph 14
subsection (b) herein, for any purpose.
16. Within 30 days after the termination of this Action, including any appeals, the
Confidential Material, including all copies (other than the Court’s copies of such
material), shall be returned to defendant’s attorneys or, upon defendant’s attorneys’
consent, destroyed; except that plaintiff’s attorney shall retain one copy of the
Confidential Material, and any Confidential Material containing plaintiff’s attorney work
product (including but not limited to, notes, and other materials containing or referring to

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the contents of Confidential Material), to the extent required to comply with applicable
law or regulation, so long as appropriate and reasonable safeguards (at least as stringent
as those used to protect plaintiff’s own information of similar nature) are imposed to
prevent the use of the Confidential Material for any other purpose. Confidential Material
which were uploaded to a database or review platform, including any backups, and which
cannot reasonably be deleted, must be quarantined and secured to prohibit access to the
Confidential Material and shall also be safe guarded by plaintiff’s attorney in the same
manner as described in this paragraph.
17. This Confidentiality Stipulation and Protective Order shall be binding upon the parties
immediately upon signature and shall be submitted to the Court for entry as an Order.
18. The Court will retain jurisdiction over all persons subject to this Confidentiality
Stipulation and Protective Order to the extent necessary to enforce any obligations arising
hereunder or to impose sanctions for any contempt thereof.
19. The terms of this Confidentiality Stipulation and Protective Order shall be binding upon
all current and future parties to this Action and their attorneys.
20. This Confidentiality Stipulation and Protective Order may be executed in counterparts,
and when each party has signed and delivered at least one such counterpart, each
counterpart shall be deemed an original, and, when taken together with other signed
counterparts, shall constitute one Confidentiality Stipulation and Protective Order, which
shall be binding upon and effective as to all Parties. The facsimile, scanned or signed
pursuant to Rule 5 of the signatories shall be deemed the “original” for the purpose of
signing this Confidentiality Stipulation and Protective Order.

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21. Nothing in this Confidentiality Stipulation and Protective Order shall be construed to
limit defendant's use of the Confidential Material for any other purpose.
Dated: New York, New York
November Ii, 2024
RICKNER PLLC
SARAJ.WOLKENSDORFER
Attorney for Plaintiff
14 Wall Street, Suite 1603
New York, New York 10005
[phone]

MURIEL GOODE-TRUFANT
Acting Corporation Counsel of the
City of New York
Attorneyfor Defendants City
I 00 Church Street, 3 rd Floor
New York, New York 10007
Telephone: [phone]

SO ORDERED.

HON. JESSICA G. L. CLARKE
UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

Dated: November 22, 2024
New York, New York

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EXHIBIT A
The undersigned hereby acknowledges that s/he has read the Confidentiality Stipulation and
Protective Order dated ______________, entered into the Action entitled
________________________, and understands the terms thereof. The undersigned agrees not to
use the Confidential Material defined therein, or the contents thereof, for any purpose other than
in connection with the preparation, evaluation or presentation of this case, and will not further
disclose the Confidential Material or the contents thereof except in testimony taken in this case.

Date:

Signature:

Print Name:

Occupation:

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