Wilson & Wilson Holdings LLC v. DTH, LLC

What the Order Does

Wilson & Wilson Holdings LLC and DTH, LLC, through counsel, agreed to a confidentiality and protective order under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(c). That rule allows a court to protect information exchanged during discovery, the pretrial process in which parties obtain information and documents from one another. The court found good cause for an appropriately tailored order covering the pretrial phase of the case.

Confidential Information

The order allows a producing party to designate material as confidential only when it reasonably and in good faith believes the material includes certain previously undisclosed information, including financial information, ownership or control information about a nonpublic company, business or marketing plans, or personal or intimate information. The court may also later give confidential status to another category of information.

The producing party or its counsel must clearly mark protected portions of discovery material and provide a version with the confidential information redacted for future public use. Special procedures apply to deposition testimony and exhibits. During the 30 days after a deposition, the entire transcript must be treated as confidential; specific portions may then be designated under the order.

Who May Receive the Material

Confidential discovery material may be disclosed only to the categories of people listed in the order. They include the parties and their insurers, counsel and their assigned staff, outside vendors serving the litigation, mediators or arbitrators, people identified on the face of a document as having received it, potential witnesses, experts and other specialized advisers, deposition stenographers, and the court and its personnel.

Before confidential material is disclosed to a mediator or arbitrator, potential witness, or expert or specialized adviser, that person must receive the order and sign the required nondisclosure agreement. Counsel must retain the signed agreements and produce them to opposing counsel either before the person testifies or when the case ends, whichever comes first.

Use, Sealing, and Challenges

Recipients may use confidential material only to prosecute or defend this case 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 filing confidential material under seal must also file a letter brief and supporting declaration explaining, on a particularized basis, why continued sealing is justified. The court retains discretion over whether to keep designated material confidential when it is submitted in connection with a motion or other proceeding. The order states that the court is unlikely to seal material introduced into evidence at trial, even if it was previously designated confidential.

A party may object to a confidentiality designation before trial by giving written notice stating the grounds for the objection. A party may also request additional disclosure limits, such as an attorneys-eyes-only restriction, by written notice. Unresolved disputes must be presented to the court under its individual practices.

End of the Case and Enforcement

A party may disclose confidential material when required by a lawful subpoena, other compulsory process, law, or a government agency with jurisdiction, but must give the producing party written notice as soon as reasonably possible and, if time permits, at least 10 days before disclosure. People with access must take reasonable precautions against unauthorized or accidental disclosure.

Within 60 days after final disposition of the case, including appeals, recipients must return or, with the producing party's permission, destroy the confidential material and certify that they kept no copies or other reproductions. Lawyers specifically retained for the case may keep archival copies of certain case files and work product, which remain subject to the order. The order continues after the litigation ends, and the court retains jurisdiction to enforce it or impose contempt sanctions.

Disposition

The court entered the stipulated confidentiality and protective order. This order governed discovery and confidentiality; it did not decide the parties' underlying claims.