United States District Court, C.D. California, Southern Division
DONEYDA PEREZ as an individual and on behalf of all others similarly situated, Plaintiff,
v.
DIRECTV GROUP HOLDINGS, LLC, a Delaware Corporation, LONSTEIN LAW OFFICES, P.C., a New York Professional Corporation; SIGNAL AUDITING, INC., a New York Corporation; JULIE COHEN LONSTEIN; and WAYNE D. LONSTEIN, Defendants.
PROTECTIVE ORDER
Hon.
Douglas F. McCormick, United States 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. This Order does not confer blanket protections on
all disclosures or responses to discovery and 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.
As set forth in Section 13.3, below, this Stipulated
Protective Order does not entitle any party 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.
GOOD CAUSE STATEMENT
This
action will involve personal identifying information,
proprietary information and other confidential matters. These
materials consist of, among other things: (i)
customer/subscriber information, including but not limited to
names, addresses, and phone numbers; (ii) business rcords and
other materials that are confidential, proprietary, or trade
secret, and for which disclosure would cause competitive
advantage to the Disclosing Party's competitors or would
otherwise diminish or harm the Disclosing Party's (or any
other Defendants') standing in the marketplace, including
but not limited to vendor agreements, vendor invoices,
contractors, retainers, training materials, business policies
and procedures, customer relationship policies, order
fulfillment systems, customer management systems, budgeting
processes, invoices, financial records, research studies,
technical information, strategic forecasts, financial
forecasts, accounting records; (iii) information and/or
documents identified as confidential and/or proprietary in a
written contract and/or agreement between parties to the
Action and/or between a party to the Action and a non-party
to the Action; (iv) personnel records and personnel files;
(v) policies and procedures pertaining to the method of
investigating, auditing and responding to commercial piracy,
the disclosure of which would hinder such efforts and
diminish the competitive value of such efforts; and (vi) any
compensation records, tax records, asset records, payment
records, investment records or any other financial records
maintained as confidential.
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 to serve the ends
of justice, a protective order for such information is
justified in this matter.
The
Court cautions that no party may designate any information as
confidential for tactical reasons and that nothing may be so
designated without a good faith belief that there is good
cause why it should not be part of the public record in this
case.
3.
DEFINITIONS
3.1
Action: this pending lawsuit entitled Doneyda
Perez v. DIRECTV Group Holdings, LLC, et al., USDC No.
CV 18-01440 JLS (DFMx) [sometimes designated as USDC No.
8:16-cv-01440-JLS-DFM].
3.2
Challenging Party: a Party or Non-Party that
challenges the designation of information or items under this
Order.
3.3
“CONFIDENTIAL” Information or Items:
information (regardless of how it is generated, stored or
maintained) or tangible things that qualify for protection
under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(c), and as specified
above in the Good Cause Statement.
3.4
Counsel: attorneys employed by a Party to this
Action, retained to represent or advise a Party to this
Action, or affiliated with a law firm which has appeared on
behalf of that Party. (as well as
their support staff).
3.5
Designating Party: a Party or Non-Party that
designates information or items that it produces in
disclosures or in responses to discovery as
“CONFIDENTIAL.”
3.6
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 Action.
3.7
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.
3.8
Non-Party: any natural person, partnership,
corporation, association, or other legal entity not named as
a Party to this Action.
3.9
Party: any party to this Action, including all of
its officers, directors, employees, consultants, retained
experts, and Counsel (and their support staffs).
3.10
Personal Identifying Information or
“PII”: addresses, telephone numbers, social
security numbers or other information used to identify any
individual.
3.11
Producing Party: a Party or Non-Party that produces
Disclosure or Discovery Material in this Action.
3.12
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 class action administrators) and
their employees and subcontractors.
3.13
Protected Material: any Disclosure or Discovery
Material that is designated as “CONFIDENTIAL.”
3.14 Receiving Party: a Party that receives
Disclosure or Discovery Material from a Producing Party.
4.
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. The Parties shall negotiate in
good faith a separate agreement regarding the confidentiality
of documents to be used at trial and submit such agreement to
the trial judge at least one week before the final pre-trial
conference. [1]
5.
DURATION
Unless
made available to the public during trial, 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 of this Action, including the time limits for
filing any motions or applications of extension of time
pursuant to applicable law.
6.
DESIGNATING ...