Santos v. Nuve Miguel Corp.
- Robert Lehrburger
- 1:21-cv-01335
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 8
In Santos v. Nuve Miguel Corp., Judge Lehrburger issued a protective order governing confidential discovery and related court filings.
The parties, their lawyers and representatives, discovery providers, experts, witnesses, third parties producing discovery, and other people who receive confidential discovery material in Santos v. Nuve Miguel Corp.
What happened
In Santos v. Nuve Miguel Corp., the defendants asked the court to protect nonpublic and competitively sensitive information that could be exchanged during discovery. The court found good cause for a tailored confidentiality order.
The order limits disclosure of information marked confidential to specified people, including the parties, lawyers, experts, certain witnesses, service providers, and the court. It identifies categories that may be treated as confidential, requires special procedures for sealed court filings, and generally allows confidential material to be used only for this lawsuit and related appeals. Ordinary employment records such as wage records, work schedules, and time records are generally not confidential, except that personally identifying information in those records is treated as confidential.
The court issued the protective order on March 3, 2022. The order also requires recipients to return or destroy confidential materials after the case ends, preserves the court's authority to enforce the order, and states that confidential treatment does not guarantee sealing or exclusion of the material at trial. Judge Robert Lehrburger signed the order.
The detailed version
- Santos v. Nuve Miguel Corp. · No. 1:21-cv-01335
- Robert Lehrburger
- Mar. 3, 2022
Background
The defendants requested a protective order under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(c). The request concerned nonpublic and competitively sensitive information that might be disclosed during discovery in this action. The court found good cause for an appropriately tailored confidentiality order covering the pretrial phase.
Information Covered
A producing party may designate material as confidential if it reasonably and in good faith believes the material includes previously undisclosed financial or proprietary business information, information about ownership or control of a nonpublic company, business or marketing plans, product-development information, or personal or intimate information about an individual. The order also permits the court to give confidential status to other information later.
The order specifically states that wage records, compensation and deductions, wage rates, work schedules, employee handbooks, wage summaries, wage notices, punch-in and punch-out records, and similar employment records for the plaintiff and prospective class members are not confidential merely because they are produced in discovery. Personally identifying information in those materials is treated as confidential.
Disclosure Limits and Procedures
People subject to the order may disclose confidential discovery material only to listed categories of recipients. These include the parties and certain insurers, counsel and their staff, outside vendors working on the case, mediators or arbitrators who sign the required nondisclosure agreement, people identified on a document as having received it, potential witnesses who sign the agreement, experts and other specialized advisers who sign the agreement, deposition transcribers, and the court and its personnel.
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 unrelated litigation purposes. The order also addresses later confidentiality designations, objections to designations, legally required disclosures, precautions against unauthorized disclosure, and the return or destruction of confidential material after final resolution of the action, including appeals. Lawyers specifically retained for the case may keep certain archival case files, but those files remain subject to the order.
Court Filings and Enforcement
A party filing confidential material must publicly file a redacted version and submit the unredacted version under seal, along with required courtesy copies. A party seeking to file under seal must also provide a letter brief and supporting declaration explaining, on a particularized basis, why continued sealing is justified. The court retains discretion over whether to treat confidential material as confidential when it is submitted in connection with a motion or proceeding, and stated that it is unlikely to seal or otherwise protect material introduced as evidence at trial.
The court retained jurisdiction over people subject to the order to enforce its obligations and impose sanctions for contempt. The order remains binding after the litigation ends. Judge Robert W. Lehrburger entered the confidentiality and protective order on March 3, 2022.
Read the full 8-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.