Lexington Furniture Industries, Inc. v. The Lexington Company, AB

Background

The court entered this Confidentiality Stipulation and Protective Order under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(c), based on the parties’ consent and agreement. The order governs information, documents, and materials produced in the action that a party or nonparty designates as “Confidential” or “Highly Confidential Attorney Eyes Only.”

The order defines confidential material to include nonpublic personal, financial, proprietary, commercial, customer, personnel, accounting, and similar information that the producing party reasonably and in good faith believes deserves protection. It defines the higher “Highly Confidential Attorney Eyes Only” category as nonpublic information that is so proprietary or competitively sensitive that disclosure to the opposing party could cause competitive injury. The order states that this designation should be used sparingly.

Protective-order requirements

The order permits confidential information to be used only to prosecute, defend, or settle this action, including any appeal, and prohibits other business or litigation uses unless the parties agree in writing or the court orders otherwise. It identifies categories of people who may receive information marked “Confidential,” including the court and its personnel, counsel and necessary counsel employees, the named parties and their representatives for purposes of the action, experts, witnesses and deponents under specified conditions, court reporters, videographers, and outside photocopy vendors.

Information marked “Highly Confidential Attorney Eyes Only” may be disclosed to a narrower group: the court and its personnel, counsel and necessary counsel employees, experts, court reporters, videographers, and outside photocopy vendors. People receiving protected information generally must read the order and sign a confidentiality acknowledgment, subject to the order’s stated exceptions.

The order also establishes procedures for deposition designations, requests to disclose information to people outside the authorized categories, filing confidential material with the court, and objections to confidentiality designations. It states that a separate court order is required to file documents under seal and requires a sealing application to address the standards described in the order, including the cited controlling authority. The order preserves objections based on relevance, privilege, work product, admissibility, proportionality, and other grounds, and it provides that inadvertent production of privileged material does not waive the privilege under the stated conditions.

Ruling and effect

Judge P. Kevin Castel approved the parties’ stipulation as a protective order pursuant to Rule 26(c). The order remains effective unless modified, amended, or rescinded by the court, and its confidentiality provisions survive termination of the action. Within the specified period after the action concludes, including exhaustion of appeals, counsel must return or destroy protected information, subject to the order’s exceptions and certification requirements. The order is a discovery-management ruling and does not resolve the merits of the parties’ dispute.