Medmarc Casualty Insurance Company v. Clark & Gentry, PLLC
- John Cronan
- 1:21-cv-07224
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 12
In Medmarc Casualty Insurance Company v. Clark & Gentry, Judge Cronan approved a protective order governing confidential discovery.
The parties, their representatives, agents, experts, consultants, third parties providing discovery, and other people with actual or constructive notice of the protective order are required to follow its confidentiality and related procedures.
What happened
Medmarc Casualty Insurance Company v. Clark & Gentry, PLLC is a lawsuit in which all parties asked the court to protect nonpublic and competitively sensitive information disclosed during discovery.
The order limits disclosure of information marked confidential, including certain business, financial, ownership, personal, and business-planning information. It permits disclosure to specified people, such as the parties, lawyers, experts, witnesses, and the court, subject to additional conditions in some cases.
Judge Cronan found good cause and ordered the parties and other covered people to follow the protective order. The order also sets procedures for sealed filings, objections to confidentiality designations, use of the information, return or destruction of materials, and enforcement for violations.
The detailed version
- Medmarc Casualty Insurance Company v. Clark & Gentry, PLLC · No. 1:21-cv-07224
- John Cronan
- June 1, 2022
Order and Background
The parties jointly requested a protective order under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(c) for the pretrial discovery phase. They sought protection for nonpublic and competitively sensitive information that might be disclosed in the case. The court found good cause for an appropriately limited confidentiality order and approved the parties’ agreement.
Confidential Information
The order defines “Discovery Material” as information produced or disclosed during discovery. A producing party may designate only material it reasonably and in good faith believes includes previously undisclosed information such as:
- business or financial information, including profitability reports or estimates, percentage fees, design fees, royalty rates, minimum guarantee payments, sales reports, and sales margins; - information about ownership or control of a nonpublic company; - business plans, product-development information, or marketing plans; - personal or intimate information about an individual; or - another category that the court later determines should receive confidential status.
The order establishes procedures for marking confidential material and producing redacted copies for future public use. Deposition testimony and exhibits may be designated during the deposition or within 30 days afterward. During that 30-day period, the entire deposition transcript must be treated as confidential. A producing party may also correct an earlier failure to designate material before trial by notifying prior recipients in writing.
Permitted Disclosures and Use
Confidential material may be disclosed only to specified recipients, including the parties and their insurers, counsel and related staff, outside vendors working on the case, mediators or arbitrators, certain people identified on a document, possible witnesses, experts and consultants, deposition stenographers, and the court and its personnel. Mediators, arbitrators, witnesses, experts, and consultants generally must first receive the order and sign the required nondisclosure agreement. Counsel must retain those agreements and produce them at the specified time.
Recipients may use confidential material only to prosecute or defend this action and related appeals. They may not use it for business, commercial, competitive, or other litigation purposes. The order does not waive objections to discovery, privileges, or protections, and it does not decide whether evidence will be admissible at trial. A party may produce confidential material in response to a lawful subpoena or other compulsory process, subject to notice requirements; the producing party then bears the burden of opposing the disclosure if it chooses to do so.
Sealing, Challenges, and Enforcement
A party filing material under seal must also file a letter brief and supporting declaration giving a particularized justification. The order states that the court may unseal documents unless it makes specific findings that sealing is essential to protect higher values and is narrowly tailored. Parties filing confidential court submissions must publicly file redacted versions and file unredacted versions under seal. The court retains discretion over whether to keep confidential any material submitted in connection with a motion or other proceeding and warns that material introduced at trial is unlikely to remain sealed.
A party may object to a confidentiality designation before trial by written notice stating the grounds. A party seeking stricter disclosure limits, such as attorneys’-eyes-only treatment in extraordinary circumstances, may likewise make a written request. Unresolved disputes must be presented to the court under its individual practices.
Within 60 days after final disposition of the action, including appeals, recipients must return or, with the producing party’s permission, destroy confidential material and certify that they retained no copies or other reproductions. Specifically retained attorneys may keep archival copies of specified case materials and work product, but those copies remain subject to the order. The order survives the end of the litigation, and the court retains jurisdiction to enforce its obligations and impose contempt sanctions.
Disposition
The court entered the stipulated confidentiality and protective order. This opinion does not decide the underlying claims or defenses in the lawsuit.
Read the full 12-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.