Moving Simplified, Inc. v. Estes Express Lines, Inc.

Filing 19

CONSENT PROTECTIVE ORDER. Signed by Senior Judge Graham Mullen on 1/2/2018. (eef)

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
WESTERN DISTRICT OF NORTH CAROLINA
CHARLOTTE DIVISION
3:16-cv-764-GCM
MOVING SIMPLIFIED, INC.,
Plaintiff,
v.
CONSENT PROTECTIVE ORDER
ESTES EXPRESS LINES, INC. d/b/a
ESTES SUREMOVE,
Defendant.

Pursuant to Rule 26(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and with the consent of the
parties to this action, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED THAT:
1.

Any party hereto, or any third-party, producing, or providing documents, testimony

or information in response to discovery or any other formal or informal request for information or
documents, may designate as Confidential Material all or any part thereof containing sensitive
financial, trade secret, marketing, customer, research, development, proprietary, other commercial
information, or other sensitive information the producing party wishes to protect under this
Consent Protective Order. All such responses and the information contained in them are referred
to herein as “Confidential Material.”
2.

The parties shall make the designation “Confidential Material” in the following

manner:
a.

In the case of documents or other written materials, by affixing to the first

page of each such document the word “CONFIDENTIAL” by label, stamp or other method
which will make that word reasonably conspicuous;

b.

In the case of electronic media, by affixing to the CD, video tape, audio

tape, or other magnetic media, or the case for said material the word “CONFIDENTIAL”
by label, stamp, or other method which will make that word reasonably conspicuous;
c.

In the case of large numbers of documents or bulk documents, by producing

them for inspection by “Qualified Persons” as identified in Paragraph 4 of this Order with
a statement that the information contained in the documents is confidential, and then by
specifically labeling, stamping or marking as confidential only those documents which
counsel for the inspecting party requests copies; and
d.

During depositions, by either indicating on the record at the deposition the

specific testimony which contains Confidential Information that is to be made subject to
the provisions of this Order or by designating, in writing, within 30 days following receipt
of the transcript of the deposition, of the specific pages and lines of the transcript that are
to be designated Confidential. Each producing party shall attach a copy of such written
designation to the face of the transcript and each copy thereof in its possession, custody or
control.
3.

Any material thus designated as Confidential Material shall be revealed only to and

used only by “Qualified Persons” as provided in Paragraph 4 of this Order and only in connection
with the litigation of this case or for purposes of settlement discussions. Such Confidential
Material shall not: (1) be used for the purpose of competing in business with the party providing
the Confidential Material; (2) used for any other commercial or business purpose; (3) be disclosed
by such Qualified Persons to anyone except other Qualified Persons; or (4) be used in any other
civil action or legal proceeding without the written agreement of the party who produced the
material or without further order of this Court.
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4.

As used herein, “Qualified Persons” means:
a.

This Court, including its staff and any jury selected in this case, under such

safeguards as are provided in this Order or as are required by this Court in the event any
Confidential Material is to be used or introduced at trial;
b.

Present and subsequent in-house and outside counsel for the parties to this

action, together with their paralegals and clerical employees actually working on the case
at any time;
c.

Outside experts consulted or retained by counsel in connection with the

preparation for trial or trial of this action;
d.

Those officers, employees and agents of a party, including any insurance

carrier and its personnel or others, whose access to Confidential Material is deemed by
counsel for that party to be appropriate to the prosecution or defense of this action.
Disclosure of Confidential Material to such a person shall be confined to those materials
deemed necessary by counsel for that purpose; and
e.
5.

The individual parties to this action.

It shall be the responsibility of counsel for each party to this action to insure that

Qualified Persons receiving Confidential Material pursuant to this Order have knowledge of the
terms of this Order and agree to be bound by them.
6.

This stipulation and Order shall be without prejudice to the right of any party to

oppose production of any information on any grounds other than confidentiality or to bring before
the Court at any time the question whether any particular information is or is not in fact of a
confidential nature as contemplated by the provisions of this Order.

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7.

Nothing contained in this Order shall prevent disclosure or use of any Confidential

Material in connection with the litigation of this case, so long as such disclosure or use is deemed
necessary in the judgment of counsel proposing to disclose or use such material for the prosecution
or defense of this action. In the event that a party wishes to use information or documents
designated as Confidential Material in any document, pleading or deposition transcript filed in this
litigation, such document, pleading or transcript (or the party thereof containing Confidential
Material) shall be filed under seal and maintained under seal by the Court, subject to further order.
8.

At the completion of the above-styled lawsuit, the parties shall, upon the timely

request of any party, destroy all Confidential Material and all copies thereof obtained pursuant to
this Order. In the alternative, upon the request of any party and with costs borne by that party, all
parties shall return all Confidential Material and all copies thereof obtained to the producing party.
The ultimate disposition of the protected materials shall be subject to further orders of this Court.
9.

If any party designates any documents, testimony or other information as

confidential and any other party disputes or disagrees with the designation, the parties shall
endeavor in good faith to resolve their differences of opinion.

SO ORDERED.
Signed: January 2, 2018

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CONSENTED TO BY:
JOHN F. HANZEL, P.A.

By:

POYNER SPRUILL LLP

s/ John F. Hanzel
John F. Hanzel
N.C. State Bar No. 6186
[e-mail]
19425-G Liverpool Pkwy.
Cornelius, NC 28031
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

By:

By:

COUNSEL FOR PLAINTIFF
MOVING SIMPLIFIED, INC.

By:

s/ Eric P. Stevens
Eric P. Stevens
N.C. State Bar No. 17609
[e-mail]
s/ Andrew H. Erteschik
Andrew H. Erteschik
N.C. State Bar No. 35269
[e-mail]
P.O. Box 1801
Raleigh, NC 27602-1801
Telephone: [phone]
Facsimile: 919.783.1075
s/ John M. Durnovich
John M. Durnovich
N.C. State Bar No. 47715
[e-mail]
301 S. College St., Suite 2900
Charlotte, NC 28202
Telephone: [phone]
Facsimile: 704.342.5264
COUNSEL FOR DEFENDANT
ESTES EXPRESS LINES, INC.

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