United States District Court, C.D. California
DCD PARTNERS, LLC, a California limited liability company; PERSONAL INVOLVEMENT CENTER, LLC, a Nevada limited liability company; and REVEREND DR. J. BENJAMIN HARDWICK, as trustee of the PERSONAL INVOLVEMENT CENTER TRUST Plaintiffs,
v.
TRANSAMERICA LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, a corporation, TRANSAMERICA LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, successor in interest to TRANSAMERICA OCCIDENTAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY; and DOES 1-30, Defendants.
[PROPOSED] STIPULATED PROTECTIVE ORDER
ANDREW
J. WISTRICH, Magistrate Judge.
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, Plaintiffs DCD Partners, LLC,
Personal Involvement Center, LLC, and Reverend Dr. J.
Benjamin Hardwick, as Trustee of the Personal Involvement
Center Trust No. 1 (collectively, "Plaintiffs") and
Defendant Transamerica Life Insurance Company
("Defendant" or "Transamerica") hereby
stipulate to and petition the Court to enter the following
Stipulated Protective Order ("Protective Order" or
"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 12.3 (Filing
Protected Material), below, that this Order does not entitle
them to file confidential information under seal; Civil Local
Rule 79-5 sets 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.
DEFINITIONS
2.1
Action: DCD Partners, LLC, et al. v. Transamerica Life
Insurance Company, Case No. 2:15-cv-03238-CAS-VBK.
2.2
Challenging Party: A Party or Non-Party that challenges the
designation of information or items under this Order.
2.3
"CONFIDENTIAL" Information or Items:
Confidential
proprietary or commercially sensitive business or financial
information, trade secrets, or personal information which is
not generally known or publicly available and which the
Designating Party would not normally reveal to third parties
or would cause third parties to maintain in confidence, or
information that otherwise meets the standard for protection
set forth in Rule 26(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil
Procedure. 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 Action.
2.4
Counsel: Outside Counsel of Record and House Counsel (as well
as their support staff).
2.5
Designating Party: A Party or Non-Party that designates
information or items that it produces or that are produced in
disclosures or in response to discovery as
"CONFIDENTIAL" or "HIGHLY
CONFIDENTIAL-ATTORNEYS' EYES ONLY."
2.6
Disclosure or Discovery Material: All items or information,
regardless of the medium or manner in which it is generated,
stored, or maintained (including, among other things,
testimony, transcripts, and tangible things), that are
produced or generated in disclosures or responses to
discovery in this matter.
2.7
Expert: A person with specialized knowledge or experience in
a matter pertinent to the litigation who has been retained by
a Party or its counsel to serve as an expert witness or as a
consultant in this Action and who is not a past or current
employee of a Party or a current employee of a Party's
competitor and who, at the time of retention, is not
anticipated to become an employee of a Party or a competitor
of a Party. This definition includes a professional jury or
trial consultant retained in connection with this litigation.
2.8
"HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL-ATTORNEYS' EYES ONLY"
Information or Items: Extremely sensitive "Confidential
Information or Items, " disclosure of which to another
Party or Non-Party would create a substantial risk of serious
harm that could not be avoided by less restrictive means.
2.9
House Counsel: Attorneys who are employees of a party to this
Action. House Counsel does not include Outside Counsel of
Record or any other outside counsel.
2.10
Non-Party: Any natural person, partnership, corporation,
association, or other legal entity not named as a Party to
this action.
2.11
Outside Counsel of Record: Attorneys who are not employees of
a party to this Action but are retained to represent or
advise a party to this Action and have appeared in this
Action on behalf of that party or are affiliated with a law
firm which has appeared on behalf of that party, and includes
support staff.
2.12
Party: Any party to this Action, including all of its
officers, directors, employees, consultants, retained
experts, and Outside Counsel of Record (and their support
staffs).
2.13
Producing Party: A Party or Non-Party that produces
Disclosure or Discovery Material in this Action.
2.14
Professional Vendors: Persons or entities that provide
litigation support services (e.g., photocopying, videotaping,
translating, preparing exhibits or demonstrations, and
organizing, storing, or retrieving data in any form or
medium) and their employees and subcontractors.
2.15
Protected Material: Any Disclosure or Discovery Material that
is designated as "CONFIDENTIAL" or "HIGHLY
CONFIDENTIAL-ATTORNEYS' EYES ONLY."
2.16
Receiving Party: A Party that receives Disclosure or
Discovery Material from a Producing Party.
3.
SCOPE
The
protections conferred by this Order cover not only Protected
Material (as defined above), but also (1) any information
copied or extracted from Protected Material; (2) all copies,
excerpts, summaries, or compilations of Protected Material;
and (3) any testimony, conversations, or presentations by
Parties or their Counsel that might reveal Protected
Material. Any use of Protected Material at trial shall be
governed by the orders of the trial judge. This Order does
not govern the use of Protected Material at trial.
4.
DURATION
Even
after final disposition of this litigation, the
confidentiality obligations imposed by this Order shall
remain in effect until a Designating Party agrees otherwise
in writing or a court order otherwise directs. Final
disposition shall be deemed to be the later of (1) dismissal
of all claims and defenses in this Action, with or without
prejudice; and (2) final judgment herein after the completion
and exhaustion of all appeals, rehearings, remands, trials,
or reviews ...