Sherrod et al v. Williams et al

Filing 27

AGREED PROTECTIVE ORDER re 25 . Signed by Magistrate Judge Michael J. Newman on 9/24/2015. (srb)

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT, SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF OHIO
WESTERN DIVISION
Tressa Sherrod, et al.,
Plaintiffs,
v.
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., et al.,
Defendants.

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Case No. 3:14-cv-454
Judge Walter H. Rice
Magistrate Judge Michael J. Newman

AGREED PROTECTIVE ORDER
The parties have agreed to and have submitted to the Court, and for good cause shown
the Court hereby enters, the following Protective Order:
1.

This Protective Order shall govern the disclosure of materials designated as

Confidential Material during the course of discovery. Confidential Material, as used in this
Order, shall refer to any document or item designated as Confidential, including but not limited
to, documents or items produced during discovery, all copies thereof, and the information
contained in such material.
2.

Confidential Material, as used in this Order, may consist of the following

materials and categories of materials, but this is not an exhaustive list:
a. Materials relating to any privileged, confidential, or nonpublic
information, including, but not limited to, trade secrets, research,
design, development, financial, technical, marketing, planning,
personal, or commercial information, as such terms are used in the
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure
contracts; proprietary
information; vendor agreements; personnel files; and
claim/litigation information.
b. Protected Data shall refer to any information that a party
believes in good faith to be subject to federal, state or foreign data
protection laws or other privacy obligations. Examples of such data
protection laws include but are not limited to The Gramm-LeachBliley Act, 15 U.S.C. § 6801 et seq. (financial information); and,
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and the
regulations thereunder, 45 CFR Part 160 and Subparts A and E of
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Part 164 (medical information). Certain Protected Data may
compel alternative or additional protections beyond those afforded
Highly Confidential Material, in which event the parties shall meet
and confer in good faith, and, if unsuccessful, shall move the Court
for appropriate relief.
3.

To designate information as confidential, the producing party shall mark

Confidential Material with the legend “CONFIDENTIAL- SUBJECT TO PROTECTIVE
ORDER” and shall submit confidential discovery, such as answers to interrogatories or answers
to requests for admissions, in a separate document stamped with the appropriate legend. The
Receiving Party may make copies of Confidential Material and such copies shall become subject
to the same protections as the Confidential Material from which those copies were made.
a. Information on a disk or other electronic format may be designated confidential
by marking the storage medium itself with the legend “CONFIDENTIALSUBJECT TO PROTECTIVE ORDER.” The Receiving Party shall mark any
hard-copy printouts and the storage medium of any permissible copies of such
electronic material with the corresponding legend contained on the original and
such copies shall become subject to the same protections, as the Confidential
Material from which those copies were made.
b. Information disclosed at any deposition of a party taken in this action may be
designated by the party as confidential by indicating on the record at the
deposition that the information is confidential and subject to the provisions of this
Order. Alternatively, the party may designate information disclosed at the
deposition as confidential by notifying the court reporter and other parties in
writing, within 15 business days of receipt of the transcript, of the specific pages
and lines of the transcript which are designated as confidential. The parties may
agree to a reasonable extension of the 15 business day period for designation.
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Designations of transcripts will apply to audio, video, or other recordings of the
testimony.

During such 15 business day period, if a party designates some

portion of the deposition confidential, the entire transcript shall receive
confidential treatment. Upon such designation, the court reporter and each party
shall affix the “CONFIDENTIAL- SUBJECT TO PROTECTIVE ORDER”
legend to the designated pages and segregate them as appropriate. From that
point forward, the designated pages will be treated as confidential.
c. Copies of material described in paragraph 2 above, or incorporated into
paragraph 2 by Court Order, and which were produced without the designation of
“CONFIDENTIAL- SUBJECT TO PROTECTIVE ORDER” may be so
designated later if the Producing Party failed to make such designation at the time
of production through inadvertence or error. If such information has been
disclosed to persons not qualified pursuant to paragraph 7 below, the party who
disclosed such information shall take reasonable efforts to retrieve previously
disclosed Confidential Material and advise such persons that the material is
Confidential.
4.

Pursuant to Federal Rule of Evidence 502(d), disclosure (including production) of

information that a party or non-party later claims should not have been disclosed because of a
privilege, including, but not limited to, the attorney-client privilege or work product doctrine
(“Privileged Information”), shall not constitute a waiver of, or estoppels as to, any claim or
attorney-client privilege, attorney work product, or other ground for withholding production as to
which the Producing Party would be entitled in the Litigation or any other federal or state
proceeding. Pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(b)(5)(B) and Federal Rule of

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Evidence 502(e), the Receiving Party hereby agrees to return, sequester, or destroy any
Privileged Information disclosed or produced by the Producing Party upon request. If the
Receiving Party reasonably believes that Privileged Information has been inadvertently disclosed
or produce to it, it shall promptly notify the Producing Party and sequester such information until
instructions as to disposition are received.

The failure of any party to provide notice or

instructions under this Paragraph shall not constitute a waiver of, or estoppels as to, any claim of
attorney-client privilege, attorney work product, or other ground for withholding production as to
which the Producing Party would be entitled in the Litigation or any other federal or state
proceeding. This provision is designed to foreclose any arguments that by simply producing
privileged or Confidential Materials the Producing Party:
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)

purposely produced the document;
did not take reasonable steps to
prevent the disclosure of privileged Documents;
did not take reasonable or timely steps
to rectify such Disclosure; and/or
waives any applicable privileges or protections associated with
such Documents.

Any party may still challenge, with the Court, the Privileged or Confidential designation
of any documents covered under this Paragraph.
5.

Any Confidential Material and the information contained therein shall be

disclosed only to the Court, its staff, and counsel of record, and also shall be disclosed on a needto-know basis only to the parties, counsel’s staff personnel, employees of a party to whom
disclosure is necessary in connection with the preparation for and trial of this action, and any
witnesses in the case (including consulting and testifying experts) as may from time to time
reasonably be necessary in prosecution or defense of this action. Counsel shall advise all persons
to whom Confidential Material is disclosed pursuant to this Order of the existence of this Order,

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and shall provide all such persons (other than the Court and its staff) with a copy of this Order.
Counsel also shall require all persons, except the Court, its staff, the parties, counsel of record
and counsel’s staff personnel, to execute the Affidavit attached as Exhibit A, prior to the
disclosure of Confidential Material. It shall be the obligation of counsel, upon learning of any
breach or threatened breach of this Protective Order, to promptly notify counsel for the
Producing Party of such breach or threatened breach.

Counsel shall not otherwise offer or

permit disclosure of any Confidential Material, its contents, or any portion or summary thereof.
Disputes concerning the confidential nature of such materials shall be resolved by the Court upon
motion prior to dissemination of any Confidential Material.
6.

Persons having knowledge of Confidential Material and information by virtue of

their participation in the conduct of this litigation shall use them for that purpose only and only
as permitted herein, and shall not disclose such Confidential Material, their contents or any
portion or summary thereof to any person(s) not involved in the conduct of this litigation. If any
person having access to the Confidential Material herein shall violate this Order, he/she may be
subject to sanctions by the Court.
7.

The provisions of this Protective Order shall not affect, and this Order does not

limit, the use or admissibility of Confidential Material (or references to that material) as evidence
at trial, or during a hearing or similar proceeding in this action or as part of the record on appeal
in any proceeding. However, either party may seek an appropriate Court Order to protect
Confidential Material.
8.

Nothing in this Protective Order shall be deemed to preclude any party or

interested member of the public from seeking and obtaining, on an appropriate showing, a
modification of this Order including additional protection with respect to confidentiality of

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material or the removal of a confidential designation. Should an interested member of the public
disagree with any designation of material as confidential, he or she first shall attempt to resolve
such dispute with the parties’ counsel and, if unsuccessful, apply to the Court for a determination
as to whether the material or information should remain designated as Confidential Material.
9.

Should a party disagree with any designation of material as confidential, the party

shall first make an informal attempt to resolve the dispute with the designating party’s counsel.
If unsuccessful, the parties shall then have an informal conference with the Magistrate Judge to
discuss resolution of the issue. If that is unsuccessful, the party disagreeing with the designation
shall briefly notify the designating party, in writing, of the disagreement. The designating party
shall then have 10 days to file a Motion setting forth the basis for the designation. All parties
disagreeing with the designation shall have 10 days to file a Memorandum in Opposition to said
Motion with a Reply brief being due 5 days thereafter. Pending resolution of any challenges, the
material at issue shall continue to be treated as Confidential Material until ordered otherwise by
the Court.
10.

The restrictions set forth in any of the preceding paragraphs shall not apply to

information or material that was, is or becomes public knowledge in a manner other than by
violation of this Order.
11.

Confidential Material may be filed with the Court. Any party wishing to file

Confidential Material with the Court must first seek leave to file such material under seal in
conformance with paragraph 20 below. Any member of the public may challenge the filing of
documents with the Court, under seal.

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12.

In the event Confidential Materials or portions of transcripts are sealed as

confidential by the Court as described in Paragraph 11 above, they shall be filed in an envelope
bearing the following designation when deposited:
CONFIDENTIAL
IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE PROTECTIVE ORDER OF THE
COURT, THE CONTENTS OF THIS ENVELOPE SHALL BE
TREATED AS CONFIDENTIAL AND MUST NOT BE SHOWN
TO A PERSON OTHER THAN THE COURT, ATTORNEYS IN
THIS CASE, OR TO PERSONS ASSISTING THOSE
ATTORNEYS.
13.

This Order shall continue to be binding throughout and after the conclusion of this

litigation, and until all documents are returned or destroyed. After all of the parties to this
litigation have reached the age of majority, plus one year, all documents designated as
confidential shall either be returned to the producing party or destroyed. Notwithstanding this
provision, counsel is entitled to retain any attorney work product, including summaries. This
Paragraph does not apply to any documents which have been reclassified as not Confidential, by
agreement of the Parties, by Court Order, or by any other means through which the documents
lose their confidential protection.
14.

If any person receiving documents covered by this Order is served with a

subpoena, order, interrogatory, or document or civil investigative demand (collectively, a
“Demand”) issued in any other action, investigation, or proceeding, and such Demand seeks
material that was produced or designated as Confidential Material by someone other than the
Receiving Party, the Receiving Party shall give prompt written notice by hand, email or facsimile
transmission within five (5) business days of receipt of such Demand to the party or non-party
who produced or designated the material as Confidential Material, and shall generally object to
the production of such materials on the grounds of the existence of this Order. The burden of
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opposing the enforcement of the Demand shall fall upon the party or non-party who produced or
designated the material as Confidential Material. Unless the party or non-party who produced or
designated the Confidential Material obtains an order directing that the Demand not be complied
with, and serves such order upon the Receiving Party prior to production pursuant to the
Demand, the Receiving Party shall be permitted to produce documents responsive to the Demand
on the Demand response date, provided sufficient notice of the Demand is provided.
Compliance by the Receiving Party with any order directing production pursuant to the Demand
of any Confidential Material shall not constitute a violation of this Order. Nothing in this Order
shall be construed as authorizing a party to disobey a lawful subpoena issued in another action.
15.

In the event additional parties join or intervene in this litigation, the newly joined

party(ies) shall not have access to Confidential Material until its/their counsel has executed and,
at the request of any party, filed with the Court the agreement of such party(ies) and such counsel
to be fully bound by this Order.
16.

The parties agree that nothing in this Order shall be deemed to limit the extent to

which counsel for the parties may advise or represent their respective clients, conduct discovery,
prepare for trial, present proof at trial, including any document herein, or oppose the production
or admissibility of any information or documents which have been requested.
17.

Nothing in this Agreed Protective Order shall prevent any Party from seeking

additional protection for documents, upon Motion to the Court and after an informal attempt to
resolve the issue among the Parties. This includes an "Attorney Eyes Only" designation.
18.

If any Party intends to submit any information marked "Confidential" to an

employee of a direct competitor of one of the Parties, then the Party intending to disclose such
Confidential information to that direct competitor's employee must provide thirty (30) days'

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written notice of such intention, and identify the Confidential information by bates number so as
to allow the designating Party reasonable opportunity to seek additional protection, or, if
appropriate, seek an Order prohibiting the disclosure of such Confidential information to a
current employee of a direct competitor. The Confidential information shall not be provided to
an employee of a direct competitor until a final ruling is issued on an objection or Motion filed
under this provision. To the extent Confidential information is provided to a direct competitor’s
employee, such employee must comply with the provisions of paragraph 5 above and execute the
attached Exhibit A.
19.

This Order shall remain in full force and effect until such time as it is modified,

amended or rescinded by the Court.
20.

Per authority of Procter & Gamble Co. v. Bankers Trust Co., 78 F.3d 219 (6th

Cir. 1996), no document may be filed with the Court under seal without prior permission as to
each such filing, upon motion and for good cause shown, including the legal basis for filing
under seal. Documents filed under seal shall comply with Southern District of Ohio Local Rule
79.3. This Protective Order does not authorize filing under seal; any provisions in this Protective
Order to the contrary are hereby stricken.
IT IS SO ORDERED.

Date: September 24, 2015

s/ Michael J. Newman
Michael J. Newman
United States Magistrate Judge

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AFFIDAVIT
1. My name is _____________________________________________________. I live
at ________________________________________________________________.
2.

I

am

aware

that

a

Protective

Order

has

been

entered

in

____________________________________________, and a copy thereof has been given to me.
3. I acknowledge that documents and information designated as confidential pursuant to
such Protective Order are being disclosed to me only upon the condition that I agree to be subject
to the jurisdiction of this Court and to that Order. I hereby agree to abide by such Order, subject
to all penalties prescribed therein, including contempt of Court, for disobedience of said Order. I
promise that the documents and information given confidential treatment under the Protective
Order entered in this case will be used by me only in connection with assisting counsel for the
parties in preparing for litigation of the above-captioned matters. I understand that any use of
such Confidential Material in any manner contrary to the provisions of the Protective Order will
subject me to the sanctions of this Court for contempt.
4. I promise that I will not disclose or discuss such Confidential Materials or information
any person other than the parties and counsel for the parties or members of their staff.

DATED: _________________, 20

.

____________________________________

EXHIBIT A

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