Dingman v. Fuji Japanese Steakhouse Sushi Inc.
- Nelson Roman
- 7:20-cv-04850
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 9
In Dingman v. Fuji Japanese Steakhouse Sushi Inc., Judge Roman approved a confidentiality order governing discovery and limiting use and disclosure of designated materials.
The parties, their lawyers, and other people who receive or handle discovery materials in the action, including specified vendors, mediators or arbitrators, witnesses, experts, court personnel, and others with actual notice of the order.
What happened
In Dingman v. Fuji Japanese Steakhouse Sushi Inc., the parties asked the court to protect sensitive, nonpublic information they might exchange during discovery. The parties agreed to the order through their lawyers.
The order allows a producing party to label limited portions of discovery as confidential, including personal, financial, medical, and certain sensitive work-related information. Confidential material may be shared only with specified people, generally for this case, and some recipients must sign a nondisclosure agreement.
Judge Roman found good cause and ordered the parties and other covered people to follow the confidentiality terms. The order also sets procedures for challenging confidentiality labels, filing confidential materials in court, handling accidentally privileged documents, and returning or destroying confidential materials after the case ends.
The detailed version
- Dingman v. Fuji Japanese Steakhouse Sushi Inc. · No. 7:20-cv-04850
- Nelson Roman
- Feb. 12, 2021
Background
The parties jointly requested a protective order under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(c) for nonpublic and 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 action.
Confidentiality Designations
The order defines “Discovery Material” as information produced or disclosed during discovery. A producing party, including a nonparty responding voluntarily or to a subpoena, may designate only portions that it reasonably and in good faith believes contain protected information. Listed examples include personal or intimate information, personal identifiers, financial information, credit-card numbers, phone numbers, tax records, pay stubs, payroll records, employer personnel records, medical records, and certain sensitive customer complaints or work-related matters. Complaints or matters directly related to the claims and defenses cannot be designated under the order’s provision for sensitive restaurant or employee information.
The order provides procedures for marking confidential material and for later correcting an omission by designating material that was previously produced without a confidentiality label. Deposition testimony is treated as confidential for 30 days after the deposition, subject to procedures for identifying the specific protected pages and lines.
Permitted Disclosure and Use
Confidential material may be disclosed only to listed categories of people, including the parties, their insurers and insurance counsel, litigation counsel and assigned staff, certain vendors, mediators or arbitrators, document authors and recipients, potential witnesses, experts and specialized advisers, deposition stenographers, and the court and its personnel. Before disclosure to specified vendors, mediators or arbitrators, witnesses, or experts, counsel must provide the order and obtain a signed nondisclosure agreement.
Recipients may use confidential material only to prosecute or defend this action and related appeals, not for business, commercial, competitive, or other litigation purposes. The order does not waive objections to discovery, privilege, work-product protection, or other rights, and it does not decide whether evidence will be admissible at trial.
Court Filings and Challenges
A party challenging a confidentiality designation may give written notice stating the grounds for the objection. If the parties cannot promptly resolve the dispute, the affected counsel must bring it to the court. The order states that the court has not determined that any designated material is actually confidential and retains discretion over whether to give it confidential treatment.
For court filings containing designated material, the parties must publicly file redacted versions. An unredacted filing under seal requires an application and supporting declaration that justify sealing on a particularized basis. A party seeking to publicly file unredacted confidential material must first request a conference with the court.
Privilege and End of the Order
The inadvertent production of material protected by attorney-client privilege, the work-product doctrine, or another privilege or immunity does not waive that protection if the producing party asserts it as soon as practicable. The producing party may request return or destruction of the material, which must be treated as confidential while the issue is unresolved.
Within 60 days after final disposition of the action, including appeals, recipients generally must return or destroy confidential material and certify that they kept no copies or other reproductions. Litigation attorneys may retain archival copies of specified case-related materials, but those copies remain subject to the order. The order continues after the litigation ends, and the court retains jurisdiction to enforce it or impose contempt sanctions.
Ruling
Judge Nelson Roman entered the stipulated confidentiality order on February 12, 2021. The order governs discovery confidentiality and related procedures; the opinion text does not resolve the underlying claims or defenses.
Read the full 9-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.