Wright v. Progressive Northwestern Insurance Company

Filing 14

LETTER FROM THE COURT re parties' 13 Stipulated Motion for Protective Order on Documents and Information Produced in Response to Defendant's Subpoena to Produce to Wright Chiropractics, by Judge Robert S. Lasnik. The Court is declining to sign. (SWT)

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON
UNITED STATES COURTHOUSE
700 STEWART STREET
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON 98101

ROBERT S. LASNIK
DISTRICT JUDGE

[phone]

May 30, 2017

Delivered Via CM/ECF
RE:

Wright v. Progressive Northwestern Ins. Co., C16-1798RSL
Stipulated Protective Order

Dear Counsel:
On May 25, 2017, the Court received your Stipulated Motion for Protective Order on
Documents and Information Produced in Response to Defendant’s Subpoena to Produce
to Wright Chiropractic, P.S. (Dkt. # 13).
Pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(c), protective orders may be entered to protect confidential
commercial information and/or to limit the scope of specific disclosures. Such protective
orders may issue upon a showing of good cause. Although parties may agree on
confidentiality among themselves, when they request that the Court be involved, the
proposed order must be narrowly drawn, identifying both the type of information that is
to be protected and, if not obvious, the reason such protection is warranted.
The parties’ request to file confidential materials under seal raises additional concerns.
This is a public court and its business should be conducted publicly unless there is a
specific reason to keep things confidential. As stated in Local Civil Rule 5(g), “There is a
strong presumption of public access to the court’s files.”
The stipulated protective order submitted in this case is deficient in the following
respects:

The Court will not pre-authorize the filing of documents under seal
simply because the parties have designated them as “confidential” during
discovery. See Local Civil Rule 26(c)(2). If a party seeks to file documents
under seal in this case, it must obtain authorization to do so by filing a
stipulation and proposed order or a motion regarding the specific documents
at issue.
The stipulated protective order received by the Court will remain lodged in the file, but
will not be entered. The parties may resubmit a proposed order if they remedy the
deficiencies identified in this letter.

Sincerely,

A
Robert S. Lasnik
United States District Judge