Citgo Petroleum Corporation v. Ascot Underwriting Limited

Background

The parties, through their lawyers, 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 issuing a tailored confidentiality order governing the pretrial phase of the case.

Confidentiality Rules

The order permits a producing party to label only material that it reasonably and in good faith believes falls within specified categories, including previously undisclosed financial information; information about ownership or control of a nonpublic company; business, product-development, or marketing plans; personal or intimate information; and other categories later given confidential status by the court.

Confidential material generally may be disclosed only to specified people, including the parties and their insurers, case counsel and support staff, outside service providers, mediators or arbitrators, certain people identified in documents, potential witnesses, experts and specialized advisers, deposition stenographers, and the court. Mediators, arbitrators, witnesses, experts, and specialized advisers must first receive the order and sign a nondisclosure agreement.

The material may be used only for prosecuting or defending this case and related appeals. People who receive it must take precautions against unauthorized or accidental disclosure. The order does not waive objections to discovery, privilege, or other protection, and it does not decide whether evidence is admissible at trial.

Court Filings and Challenges

A party filing confidential discovery material or papers that reveal it must publicly file a redacted version and file the unredacted version under seal. A party seeking sealing must submit an application and supporting declaration providing a particularized justification. The order warns that the court may unseal documents if the required specific findings are not made and that materials introduced at trial are unlikely to remain confidential solely because they were previously designated or sealed.

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 the court’s individual practices. A party may also request additional disclosure limits, such as an attorneys’-eyes-only designation, through the same process.

Disposition and Continuing Effect

The court ordered the parties and other persons covered by the order to follow these requirements, subject to contempt. Within 60 days after final disposition of the case, including appeals, recipients must return or, with the producing party’s permission, destroy confidential discovery material and certify that they kept no copies or other reproductions. Case counsel may retain archival copies of specified case records and work product, but those copies remain subject to the order.

The order continues after the litigation ends. The court retains jurisdiction over persons subject to it as needed to enforce the order or impose contempt sanctions. Judge Gregory H. Woods therefore entered the stipulated protective order; the order did not resolve the underlying dispute or determine the confidentiality of any particular discovery material.