DoubleLine Capital LP v. Odebrecht Finance, Ltd
- Barbara Moses
- 1:17-cv-04576
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 1
In DoubleLine Capital LP v. Odebrecht Finance, Judge Moses ordered the parties to propose redactions before publicly filing a sealed sanctions decision.
The plaintiffs, the defendants, their attorneys, court personnel, and members of the public seeking access to the court’s sanctions ruling were affected. The parties were required to propose redactions before the sealed opinion and order could be publicly filed.
What happened
In DoubleLine Capital LP v. Odebrecht Finance, Ltd., Magistrate Judge Barbara Moses addressed how an opinion and order should be redacted before public filing. The sealed opinion and order granted the plaintiffs’ motion for discovery sanctions concerning the defendants’ refusal to produce documents requested in Requests for Production 1, 3, and 4.
The court explained that the sealed opinion discussed Brazilian court decisions and related materials that had been provided only on a confidential basis. The parties were ordered to meet and confer and email their proposed redactions by August 3, 2022, while minimizing redactions because judicial documents are generally presumed to be publicly accessible.
Judge Barbara Moses issued the order on July 20, 2022. The order required the parties to submit proposed redactions; the related sanctions ruling had been filed under seal and was accessible only to the parties’ attorneys and court personnel at that time.
The detailed version
- DoubleLine Capital LP v. Odebrecht Finance, Ltd · No. 1:17-cv-04576
- Barbara Moses
- July 20, 2022
Background
Magistrate Judge Barbara Moses stated that she had filed under seal an Opinion and Order granting the plaintiffs’ motion for discovery sanctions. The sanctions concerned the defendants’ refusal to produce documents responsive to the plaintiffs’ Requests for Production 1, 3, and 4, as required by the court’s October 14, 2020 order.
At the time of this redaction order, the sealed Opinion and Order was accessible only to the attorneys appearing for the parties and court personnel. The opinion discussed decisions by the 13th Federal Court of Curitiba in Brazil concerning a leniency agreement between the defendants and Brazilian prosecutors. That Brazilian court had authorized the defendants to disclose the agreement to the New York court and the plaintiffs only on a confidential basis. Related materials had also been filed under seal.
Order
The court directed the parties to meet and confer and submit their proposed redactions by email on or before August 3, 2022, before the Opinion and Order was publicly filed. The court instructed the parties to minimize redactions wherever possible because of the presumption that judicial documents should be publicly accessible. The order cited Second Circuit decisions concerning public access to judicial documents.
Effect
This order governed the proposed redactions and public filing of the sealed sanctions ruling. It did not state that the underlying sanctions ruling itself was vacated or changed.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.