Melwani v. Eagle Point Financial LLC
- Paul Gardephe
- 1:17-cv-08308-PGG-SLC
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 8
In Melwani v. Eagle Point Financial, Judge Gardephe issued a protective order governing confidential discovery materials.
The parties, their counsel and representatives, people who receive or produce discovery, specified witnesses and experts, litigation service providers, and others with actual or constructive notice of the order must follow its confidentiality and use restrictions.
What happened
Melwani v. Eagle Point Financial LLC involved all parties’ request for rules protecting nonpublic and competitively sensitive information disclosed during discovery.
The order explains how parties may mark information confidential, limits who may receive it, and requires recipients to use it only for this case and related appeals. It also sets procedures for filing confidential materials, challenging designations, responding to subpoenas, and returning or destroying the materials after the litigation ends.
Judge Paul G. Gardephe found good cause for a tailored confidentiality order and ordered the parties and other covered people to follow it, subject to contempt sanctions.
The detailed version
- Melwani v. Eagle Point Financial LLC · No. 1:17-cv-08308-PGG-SLC
- Paul Gardephe
- June 24, 2020
Background
The parties, through counsel, jointly requested a confidentiality agreement and 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. Judge Paul G. Gardephe found good cause for an appropriately limited order governing the pretrial phase of the case.
Order
The order permits a producing party to designate as confidential only material it reasonably and in good faith believes contains specified types of information, including previously undisclosed financial information; information about ownership or control of a nonpublic company; business, product-development, or marketing plans; and personal or intimate information about an individual. It also allows the Court to give confidential status to other categories later.
Covered people generally may disclose confidential discovery material only to listed recipients, including the parties, insurers, counsel, litigation vendors, certain witnesses and experts who sign nondisclosure agreements, deposition transcription personnel, and the Court. Recipients may use the material only to prosecute or defend this action and related appeals, not for business, commercial, competitive, or other litigation purposes.
The order provides procedures for marking discovery materials and deposition testimony, correcting an earlier failure to designate material, objecting to confidentiality designations, and requesting additional limits such as attorneys’-eyes-only treatment. It does not waive objections to discovery or privileges, and it does not decide whether evidence will be admissible at trial.
Parties filing confidential material with the Court must publicly file a redacted version and submit an unredacted version under seal. The order states that the Court retains discretion over whether to keep material confidential in connection with motions or other proceedings and is unlikely to seal material introduced at trial without the required findings.
Recipients must give notice when compelled by a subpoena or other legal process to disclose protected material, take precautions against unauthorized disclosure, and generally return or destroy the material within 60 days after the final disposition of the action, including appeals. The order permits litigation counsel to retain certain archival case files, which remain subject to the order.
Disposition
Judge Paul G. Gardephe issued the stipulated confidentiality agreement and protective order on June 24, 2020. The order continues after the litigation ends, and the Court retains jurisdiction to enforce its obligations and impose contempt sanctions.
Read the full 8-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.