Bonwick Capital Partners, LLC v. Boustead Securities, LLC
- Paul Gardephe
- 1:17-cv-03681
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 9
In Bonwick Capital Partners v. Shineco, Judge Gardephe entered a protective order governing confidential discovery materials.
The order binds the parties, their corporate parents, successors and assigns, representatives, agents, experts, consultants, third parties providing discovery, and other persons with actual or constructive notice. It also governs permitted recipients of confidential discovery material and gives the court continuing authority to enforce the order.
What happened
Bonwick Capital Partners, LLC v. Shineco, Inc. concerns a stipulated confidentiality and protective order for discovery in the case. The court found good cause to protect nonpublic and competitively sensitive information.
The order limits disclosure of designated confidential material, permits its use only for this case and related appeals, and sets procedures for designating, challenging, filing, and handling that material. It also requires return or destruction of most confidential material after the litigation ends.
Judge Paul G. Gardephe entered the order on June 8, 2020. The order remains binding after the case ends, and the court retained authority to enforce it and impose sanctions for contempt.
The detailed version
- Bonwick Capital Partners, LLC v. Boustead Securities, LLC · No. 1:17-cv-03681
- Paul Gardephe
- June 8, 2020
Background
The parties jointly requested a protective order under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(c) to protect nonpublic and competitively sensitive information that might be disclosed during discovery. The court found good cause for an appropriately tailored order covering the pretrial phase of the action.
What the Order Requires
The order allows a producing party to designate only material that it reasonably and in good faith believes includes specified confidential categories, such as previously undisclosed financial information, information about ownership or control of a nonpublic company, business or marketing plans, and personal or intimate information. The order also permits the court to give confidential status to other categories later.
People subject to the order generally may not disclose designated confidential discovery material except to specified recipients. Those recipients include the parties and certain insurers, litigation counsel and their staff, litigation vendors, mediators or arbitrators, identified recipients of a document, potential witnesses, experts and specialized advisers, deposition stenographers, and the court. Witnesses, experts, mediators, and arbitrators must first receive the order and sign a nondisclosure agreement.
Confidential material may be used only to prosecute or defend this action and related appeals. It may not be used for business, commercial, competitive, or other litigation purposes. The order does not waive objections to discovery, privilege, or protection, and it does not decide whether evidence is admissible at trial.
Challenges, Court Filings, and Sealing
A party may object to a confidentiality designation before trial. If the parties cannot promptly resolve the dispute, they must bring it to the court under the court's individual practices. A party seeking additional disclosure limits, such as an attorneys'-eyes-only restriction, must follow a similar process.
A party filing confidential material with the court must publicly file a redacted version and file the unredacted version under seal. The filing must include a letter brief and supporting declaration explaining on a particularized basis why continued sealing is justified. The court retains discretion over whether to keep confidential material sealed when it is submitted in connection with a motion or proceeding, and the order states that material introduced at trial is unlikely to remain sealed.
After the Litigation
Within 60 days after the final disposition of the action, including appeals, recipients generally must return or destroy confidential discovery material and certify that they have not retained copies or other reproductions. Litigation attorneys may keep archival copies of specified case materials, but those copies remain subject to the order. The order survives termination of the litigation, and the court retains jurisdiction as necessary to enforce it or impose contempt sanctions.
Ruling
Judge Paul G. Gardephe entered the stipulated protective order on June 8, 2020. The opinion text does not describe a ruling on the underlying claims.
Read the full 9-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.