Bush v. California Physicians'service

          [PROPOSED] STIPULATED PROTECTIVE ORDER

          PATRICK J. WALSH, Magistrate Judge.

         Subject to the approval of this Court, Plaintiff Jeff Bush and Defendant California Physicians' Service dba Blue Shield of California stipulate as follows:

         1. Purposes and Limitations

         Discovery in this action is likely to involve production of confidential, proprietary, or private information for which special protection from public disclosure and from use for any purpose other than prosecuting this litigation may be warranted. Accordingly, the parties hereby stipulate to and petition the Court to enter the following Stipulated Protective Order. The parties acknowledge that this Order does not confer blanket protections on all disclosures or responses to discovery and that the protection it affords from public disclosure and use extends only to the limited information or items that are entitled to confidential treatment under the applicable legal principles. The parties further acknowledge, as set forth in Section 9, below, that this Stipulated Protective Order does not entitle them to file confidential information under seal; Civil Local Rules 79-5, 79-6, and 79-7 set forth the procedures that must be followed and the standards that will be applied when a party seeks permission from the court to file material under seal.

         2. Good Cause Statement

         This action is likely to involve valuable research, development, commercial, financial, technical and/or proprietary information for which special protection from public disclosure and from use for any purpose other than prosecution of this action is warranted. Such confidential and proprietary materials and information consist of, among other things, confidential business or financial information; information regarding confidential business practices or other confidential research, development, or commercial information (including information implicating privacy rights of third parties); or information otherwise generally unavailable to the public or which may be privileged or otherwise protected from disclosure under state or federal statutes, court rules, case decisions, or common law. Accordingly, to expedite the flow of information, to facilitate the prompt resolution of disputes over confidentiality of discovery materials, to adequately protect information the parties are entitled to keep confidential, to ensure that the parties are permitted reasonable necessary uses of such material in preparation for and in the conduct of trial, to address their handling at the end of the litigation, and serve the ends of justice, a protective order for such information is justified in this matter. It is the intent of the parties that information will not be designated as confidential for tactical reasons and that nothing be so designated without a good faith belief that it has been maintained in a confidential, non-public manner, and there is good cause why it should not be part of the public record of this case.

         3. A document constitutes or contains "Confidential Material" when it has been given that designation by the party producing it or by the party to whom the information relates ("the Designating Party"). A party or nonparty may designate documents or information as "Confidential Material" as follows:

         a. In the case of documents and information contained in documents, designation must be made by placing the following legend on each page of the document before production: "CONTAINS CONFIDENTIAL MATERIAL, SUBJECT TO PROTECTIVE ORDER."

         b. In the case of discovery responses and information contained in discovery responses, designation must be made by (i) placing a statement at the start or end of the responses specifying that the responses, or part of the responses, are designated Confidential Material, and (ii) placing the following legend on each page (including the caption page) of any discovery response containing designated Confidential Material: "CONTAINS CONFIDENTIAL MATERIAL, SUBJECT TO PROTECTIVE ORDER."

         c. In the case of depositions and hearings, designation of the portions of the transcript (including exhibits) that contain Confidential Material must be made by the Designating Party by: (i) making a statement to that effect on the record in the course of the deposition or hearing; or (ii) sending a letter to all counsel within the time permitted for the review and signing of the deposition by the witness (in the event of a deposition) or within 45 days of receipt of the transcript of the hearing (in the event of a hearing). Once designated, the original and each copy of the transcript that contains Confidential Material must bear (or must be modified by counsel to bear) the following legend on its cover: "CONTAINS CONFIDENTIAL MATERIAL, SUBJECT TO PROTECTIVE ORDER."

         4. For purposes of this Order, "Confidential Material" includes the following types of documents and information:

         a. information that is proprietary or constitutes a trade secret, including, without limitation, information, materials, and other documents reflecting non-public business or financial strategies and confidential competitive information that, if disclosed, could result in prejudice or harm to the disclosing party;

         b. non-public financial projections, analyses, or studies;

         c. non-public communications with regulators, Departments of Insurance, or other governmental bodies that are intended to be kept confidential or are ...