Opinion
Civil Action 21-Civ.-00301 (AT) (VF)
06-24-2022
GABINO GENAO, Plaintiff, v. CITY OF NEW YORK, Defendants.
PROPOSED CONFIDENTIALITY STIPULATION AND PROTECTIVE ORDER
VALERIE FIGUEREDO United States Magistrate Judge.
WHEREAS, the Parties having agreed to the following terms of confidentiality, and the Court having found that good cause exists for the issuance of an appropriately tailored confidentiality order pursuant to Rule 26(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, it is hereby
ORDERED that the following restrictions and procedures shall apply to the information and documents exchanged by the parties in connection with the pre-trial phase of this action:
1. Counsel for any party may designate any document or information, in whole or in part, as confidential if counsel determines, in good faith, that such designation is necessary to protect the interests of the client in information that is proprietary, a trade secret or otherwise sensitive non-public information. Sensitive non-public information includes, but is not limited to, non-public Department of Corrections Directives. Information and documents designated by a party as confidential will be stamped "CONFIDENTIAL."
2. The Confidential Information disclosed will be held and used by the person receiving such information solely for use in connection with the action.
3. In the event a party challenges another party's designation of confidentiality, counsel shall make a good faith effort to resolve the dispute, and in the absence of a resolution, the challenging party may seek resolution by the Court. Nothing in this Protective Order constitutes an admission by any party that Confidential Information disclosed in this case is relevant or admissible. Each party reserves the right to object to the use or admissibility of the Confidential Information.
4. Documents designated "confidential" shall be shown only to the attorneys, parties, experts, actual or proposed witnesses, court personnel and other persons necessary to review the documents for the prosecution or defense of this lawsuit. Each person who is permitted to see confidential documents shall first be shown a copy of this Order and shall further be advised of the obligation to honor the confidential designation. Each person who is permitted to see confidential documents, who is not a party or an attorney for a party, shall be required to sign an agreement to be bound by this Order, attached hereto as Exhibit A. The
parties agree that any confidential discovery material produced in this litigation may only be used in connection with this litigation.
5. Review of the confidential documents and information by counsel, experts, or consultants for the litigants in the litigation shall not waive the confidentiality of the documents or objections to production.
6. Prior to disclosing or displaying the Confidential Information to any person, PLAINTIFF must:
a. Give prior notice to defense counsel, for an opportunity to ensure any disclosure aligns with this confidentiality agreement, and an opportunity to seek court intervention, if necessary.
b. Inform the person of the confidential nature of the information or documents;
c. Inform the person that this Court has enjoined the use of the information or documents by him/her for any purpose other than this litigation and has enjoined the disclosure of the information or documents to any other person; and d. Require each such person to sign an agreement to be bound by this Order in the form attached as Exhibit A.
7. The disclosure of a document or information without designating it as "Confidential" shall not constitute a waiver of the right to designate such document or information as Confidential Information. If so designated, the document or information shall thenceforth be treated as Confidential Information subject to all the terms of this Stipulation and Order.
8. Any Personally Identifying Information ("PM") (e.g., social security numbers, financial account numbers, passwords, and information that may be used for identity theft) exchanged in discovery shall be maintained by the receiving party in a manner that is secure and confidential and shared only with authorized individuals in a secure manner. The producing party may specify the minimal level of protection expected in the storage and transfer of its information. In the event the party who received Pll experiences a data breach, it shall immediately notify the producing party of same and cooperate with the producing party to address and remedy the breach. Nothing herein shall preclude the producing party from asserting legal claims or constitute a waiver of legal rights and defenses in the event of litigation arising out of the receiving party's failure to appropriately protect Pll from unauthorized disclosure.
9. Pursuant to Federal Rule of Evidence 502, the production of privileged or work-product protected documents or communications, electronically stored information ("ESI") or information, whether inadvertent or otherwise, shall not constitute a waiver of the privilege or
protection from discovery in this case or in any other federal or state proceeding. This Order shall be interpreted to provide the maximum protection allowed by Federal Rule of Evidence 502(d). Nothing contained herein is intended to or shall serve to limit a party's right to conduct a review of documents, ESI or information (including metadata) for relevance responsiveness and/or segregation of privileged and/or protected information before production.
10. Notwithstanding the designation of information as "Confidential" in discovery, there is no presumption that such information shall be filed with the Court under seal. The parties shall follow the Court's procedures for requests for filing under seal.
11. At the conclusion of litigation, Confidential Information and any copies thereof shall be promptly (and in no event later than 30 days after entry of final judgment no longer subject to further appeal) returned to the producing party or certified as destroyed, except that the parties' counsel shall be permitted to retain their working files on the condition that those files will remain protected.
12. Nothing herein shall preclude the parties from disclosing material designated to be Confidential Information if otherwise required by law or pursuant to a valid subpoena.
13. (k) Nothing in this Confidentiality Order shall be construed to limit the producing party's use of its own confidential materials in any manner.
14. The terms of this Confidentiality Order shall be binding upon all current and future parties to this Action and their counsel.
15. This Court shall retain jurisdiction over all persons subject to this Order to the extent necessary to enforce any obligations arising hereunder.
16. Defendants may move to dismiss this lawsuit in its entirety if Plaintiff willfully discloses, disseminates, or anything of the like, documents, in violation of this confidentiality agreement.
Exhibit A
Agreement
I have been informed by counsel that certain documents or information to be disclosed to me in connection with the matter entitled have been designated as confidential. I have been informed that any such documents or information labeled "CONFIDENTIAL" are confidential by Order of the Court.
I hereby agree that I will not disclose any information contained in such documents to any other person. I further agree not to use any such information for any purpose other than this litigation.
SO STIPULATED AND AGREED.
SO ORDERED.