Fair Housing Justice Center, Inc. v. Gotham Organization Inc.
- Gregory Woods
- 1:19-cv-10547
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 10
In Fair Housing Justice Center v. Gotham Organization, Judge Woods issued a protective order governing confidential discovery materials and their use in the case.
The plaintiff, all defendants, their lawyers and litigation personnel, insurers, approved vendors, certain witnesses and experts, mediators or arbitrators, court personnel, and anyone else with actual notice of the protective order who receives or handles designated confidential discovery material.
What happened
Fair Housing Justice Center, Inc. v. Gotham Organization Inc. is a case in which all parties, through their lawyers, agreed to rules protecting certain nonpublic information exchanged during discovery. The court found good cause to issue a tailored protective order for the pretrial phase.
The order allows parties to mark limited categories of information as confidential, including certain financial information, business plans, personal information, and information about non-parties. It restricts disclosure to specified people, requires some recipients to sign confidentiality agreements, limits use of the information to this case and related appeals, and sets procedures for challenging confidentiality designations and seeking court permission to file materials under seal.
The court ordered the parties and other people covered by the order to follow these requirements and retained jurisdiction to enforce them or impose contempt sanctions. Judge Gregory H. Woods signed the order on May 4, 2020.
The detailed version
- Fair Housing Justice Center, Inc. v. Gotham Organization Inc. · No. 1:19-cv-10547
- Gregory Woods
- May 4, 2020
Background
The parties jointly requested a protective order under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(c). They sought protection for nonpublic and competitively sensitive information that might be disclosed during discovery. The court found good cause for an appropriately tailored confidentiality order governing the pretrial phase of the case.
Confidentiality designations
The order defines “Discovery Material” as information produced or disclosed during discovery. A producing party may designate material as “Confidential” only when it reasonably and in good faith believes that the material falls within specified categories, including:
- previously undisclosed financial information; - previously undisclosed information about ownership or control of a nonpublic company; - previously undisclosed business plans, product-development information, or marketing plans; - personal or intimate information about an individual; and - employment, financial, medical, or other personal information about non-parties, including tenants, tenancy applicants, employees, and former employees.
The producing party must mark confidential portions and provide a version with the confidential information redacted for future public use. Deposition testimony and exhibits may be designated during the deposition or within 30 days afterward. During that 30-day period, the entire deposition transcript is treated as confidential. A producing party may also later designate material that was initially produced without a confidentiality designation, subject to the order’s notice and replacement-copy requirements.
Permitted disclosures and use
Confidential material may be disclosed only to people listed in the order, including the parties and their insurers, counsel and litigation-support staff, vendors, mediators or arbitrators, certain document recipients, potential witnesses, experts and other specialized advisers, deposition transcription staff, and the court. Mediators, arbitrators, witnesses, experts, and certain advisers must first receive the order and sign the required non-disclosure agreement.
Recipients may use confidential material only to prosecute or defend this action and related appeals, not for another purpose or litigation. People with access must take reasonable precautions against unauthorized or accidental disclosure. The order does not waive objections to discovery, privileges, or protections, and it does not decide whether any material is admissible at trial.
Court filings, challenges, and sealing
A party filing confidential material or papers that disclose it must publicly file a redacted version and file the unredacted version under seal as required by the court’s rules. A party seeking sealing must submit an application and supporting declaration providing a particularized justification. The order warns that the court may unseal material if the required specific findings are not made and that confidential treatment at trial is unlikely even if material was previously sealed or designated confidential.
A party may object to a confidentiality designation before trial by giving written notice stating the grounds. The parties must bring unresolved disputes to the court under its individual practices. A party seeking additional restrictions, such as attorneys’-eyes-only treatment in extraordinary circumstances, must follow a similar notice process.
Duration and disposition
Within 60 days after final disposition of the action, including appeals, recipients must return or, with the producing party’s permission, destroy confidential material and certify that they kept no copies or other reproductions. Counsel specifically retained for the action may keep certain archival litigation files, but those copies remain subject to the order. The order continues after the litigation ends, and the court retains jurisdiction to enforce it and address contempt.
Disposition
The court approved and ordered compliance with the stipulated confidentiality agreement and protective order. This order addressed discovery confidentiality and enforcement; the opinion does not decide the underlying claims or defenses.
Read the full 10-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.