Barron v. micromobility.com Inc.

What the Court Ordered

The Court entered a stipulated confidentiality order under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(c), which allows a court to protect information exchanged in discovery. The parties represented that discovery could include sensitive financial, commercial, business, and personal information. The order applies to the plaintiffs, the defendants, their counsel, and other people covered by its terms.

Confidentiality Designations

A producing party may designate documents, things, discovery responses, deposition testimony, exhibits, or portions of them as “Confidential” if the party believes in good faith that the material is entitled to protection. The order describes protected material as including trade-secret information and other information covered by Rule 26(c)(1)(G).

Documents generally must be marked “CONFIDENTIAL.” Deposition testimony may be designated on the record or by written notice within 30 days after the transcript is received. Unless the parties agree otherwise, deposition testimony is treated as confidential for 30 days after the deposed party receives the transcript. A designation may later be withdrawn in writing.

A receiving party may object to a confidentiality designation at any time while the case is pending. The parties must first confer in good faith. If they cannot resolve the objection within 10 calendar days, the objecting party may move the Court within 30 calendar days for an order requiring a new designation, unless a different deadline is agreed to or ordered. The producing party has the burden of proving confidentiality by a preponderance of the evidence. The material remains confidential while the dispute is pending, and failing to challenge a designation is not an admission that it was proper.

Use and Disclosure

Confidential information may be used only for this lawsuit. Without written permission from the producing party or another Court order, it may be disclosed only to listed categories of people, including parties and certain employees involved in the litigation, outside litigation counsel and supporting staff, people recording testimony, litigation experts and consultants, litigation vendors and service providers, and the Court and its personnel.

An expert or consultant must sign the order’s undertaking before receiving confidential information. The order also permits disclosure to certain authors or recipients of the information, certain former affiliates who sign the undertaking, and people who legally received the information before the lawsuit began. Disclosure to anyone else requires a reasonable attempt to obtain the producing party’s permission or a motion to the Court, with the moving party bearing the burden of showing why disclosure is necessary.

Other Protections

Accidental production of privileged or otherwise protected material does not waive the protection. When the producing party gives notice of such a production, the receiving parties must follow Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(b)(5)(B).

The order protects confidential material produced by a nonparty when a party designates it as confidential, while allowing a nonparty to seek additional protection from the Court.

Confidential information may be filed with the Court under seal only after a further order addressing the specific material. A sealing application must include affidavits and a legal memorandum addressing the applicable sealing standards, including the authority identified in the order. The order also provides advance-notice procedures when one party seeks to use another party’s confidential information and preserves the operation of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 5.2 on required redactions.

End of the Litigation and Enforcement

The order remains effective after the litigation ends unless the parties agree otherwise or the Court orders otherwise. Within 30 days after the case concludes, each party must return or, with the producing party’s agreement, destroy documents containing the producing party’s confidential information, and must destroy related notes and other materials that reveal it. The party must certify compliance in writing. The parties and attorneys may retain archival copies of specified litigation materials, but those copies remain subject to the order.

The Court may modify the order on its own initiative or on motion by a party or another person with standing. The order takes effect when entered and binds counsel of record, their law firms, the parties, and people covered by its terms. Judge P. Kevin Castel entered the order in January 2025.