Mirza v. Orange Regional Medical Center

Background

Dr. Tahira Mirza and the defendants—Orange Regional Medical Center, Garnet Health, Jerry Dunlavey, Dr. Gerard Galarneau, James Oxley, and Mohammad Siddiqui—submitted a stipulation governing confidential information and documents exchanged in the lawsuit. The text identifies the parties as represented by counsel.

Confidential information

The stipulation allows a party to designate information, records, documents, materials, or electronically stored information as “Confidential Matter” when the party in good faith believes it contains confidential business, personal, or medical information. Confidential Matter may generally be used only to litigate this lawsuit. The designation must be labeled “Confidential” or an equivalent term, although an omitted designation may be corrected by written notice.

The agreement also covers certain information obtained from outside sources and portions of deposition transcripts concerning Confidential Matter. Disclosure is limited to listed “Qualified Persons,” including the court and jury, the parties and necessary employees, counsel and litigation-support personnel, witnesses and potential witnesses, experts, mediators, court reporters, and anyone else the parties approve in writing.

Challenges, sealing, and subpoenas

A party challenging a confidentiality designation must provide a written objection describing the challenged material and the grounds for the objection. The designating party has 14 days to respond. The parties must then try in good faith to resolve the dispute, and an unresolved dispute must be presented to the court by letter before a formal motion is filed. The material remains treated as confidential while the dispute is pending.

The stipulation states that confidential material cannot be filed under seal without a further court order addressing the specific material. It also sets procedures for advance notice when a party wants to use another party’s confidential information and for seeking a sealing order. The agreement states that materials filed with the court will be accessible only to the listed Qualified Persons and generally must be returned or destroyed after the case ends, subject to the specified deadlines.

If confidential material is subpoenaed or ordered produced, the receiving party must notify the issuing entity and the producing party, provide copies of the subpoena or order, and follow the agreement’s procedures before disclosure. The parties also agree not to contest the producing party’s standing to seek to quash the subpoena or challenge the order.

Privilege and final disposition

The stipulation does not waive objections based on attorney-client privilege, work-product protection, or other privileges or immunities. It provides procedures for addressing inadvertent production of protected material, including notice, return or destruction, and limits on use while the issue is unresolved. The parties may still ask the court to decide whether material is protected or to modify the stipulation.

The order does not decide the underlying claims. On April 27, 2020, Judge P. Kevin Castel signed the document beneath “SO ORDERED,” thereby entering the parties’ confidentiality stipulation as the governing procedure for the case.