Intrepid Financial Partners, LLC v. Fernandez

Background

The court considered two requests to restrict public access to materials filed in connection with the defendant’s motion to dismiss and opposition to the plaintiff’s motion for a preliminary injunction, and the plaintiff’s reply papers supporting its preliminary-injunction motion.

The defendant sought to seal excerpts from deposition testimony on the ground that the testimony contained non-public confidential information. The court found that the defendant’s explanation did not provide enough information for the court to determine whether the applicable legal standards were satisfied and whether the proposed restrictions were narrowly tailored.

Rulings

The court directed the defendant to file under seal the exhibits containing excerpts from the depositions of Fernandez and Trauber, with proposed redactions highlighted for the court’s review and approval. The defendant also had to provide more detailed information supporting those redactions.

For excerpts from the testimony of Winchenbaugh and McGee, the court directed the plaintiff to file the excerpts under seal with proposed highlighted redactions and supporting reasons, as required by the court’s Individual Rule of Practice 5(b)(ii). The parties were required to file their proposed redactions and justifications by December 29, 2020.

The court granted the plaintiff’s redaction requests except for the request concerning material highlighted in paragraph 22 of docket entry 82. It required the plaintiff to refile a public version of that docket entry without those paragraph-22 redactions. The clerk was directed to restrict access to docket entries 80, 81, and 82 to the plaintiff and defendant. Judge Laura Taylor Swain stated that the order resolved docket entry 79.

Effect of the Order

This was an order about sealing and redacting court filings. The opinion did not decide the underlying motion to dismiss or preliminary-injunction motion.