Jean-Charles v. Amerisourcebergen Drug Corporation

Nature of the Order

The court entered a protective order governing confidential discovery material exchanged in the action. Discovery material includes information exchanged informally or through formal discovery, including documents, deposition materials, electronically stored information, and copies, excerpts, or summaries.

Covered Information and Designations

The order allows confidential treatment for specified categories of information, including business and commercial information, personnel records, medical and mental-health information, settlement and mediation information, records whose disclosure is restricted by law, and material derived from those categories. A producing party must mark protected material “CONFIDENTIAL,” identify protected portions when only part of a document qualifies, and use a cover letter or similar notice when labeling the material directly is not feasible. The order requires producing parties to use reasonable care and prohibits broad, indiscriminate, or routine designations.

Who May Receive the Material

Qualified recipients include the parties and their representatives, counsel and litigation-support staff, certain fact and potential witnesses, consulting and testifying experts and their staff, mediators and arbitrators, insurers and their representatives, court reporters, the court and its staff, jurors, and auditors or regulators with a contractual or legal right to review the material. Certain witnesses, consultants, and experts must review and sign the order’s agreement before receiving confidential material. Counsel must instruct covered recipients about the disclosure restrictions and maintain a list of disclosures and signed agreements. The restrictions remain enforceable even if a recipient does not sign the agreement.

Use, Filing, and Challenges

Confidential material may be used only to prepare for and conduct this action. Copies generally may be made only for transmission to qualified recipients or with permission from the producing party or the court, although the order permits working copies and use of document-review systems for case preparation. Documents filed with the court that contain confidential material must be provisionally filed under seal with a motion seeking permission to do so, subject to the court’s rules and public-access standards.

A party challenging a confidentiality designation must first confer in good faith with the producing party. If the dispute remains unresolved, the parties must submit letters to the court under the specified page and timing limits. The producing party bears the burden of proving that the designation is proper, and the challenging party must obtain a court order before sharing the material with anyone other than a qualified recipient.

Other Provisions and Effect

The order preserves objections to the admissibility of confidential material and permits requests for in-camera review or other protections at hearings or trial. After final termination of the action, including appeals, each party must make reasonable efforts to destroy confidential material and notify the producing party; material that cannot be destroyed must be returned. The order continues to bind the parties and their counsel after the action ends. It also permits requests to modify the order, requires newly joined parties to agree to be bound before receiving confidential material, and provides a 14-day period to correct an inadvertent failure to designate material properly.

Judge Cathy Seibel’s order concerns discovery confidentiality and does not resolve the merits of Jean-Charles’s claims against Amerisourcebergen Drug Corporation.