Nixon v. The Northstar Group, Inc.
- John Cronan
- 1:23-cv-05218
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 10
Nixon v. Source Digital; Judge Cronan entered a protective order governing confidential discovery, disclosure limits, and sealing procedures.
The parties, their officers, agents, employees, attorneys, people acting with them, and anyone with actual notice of the order who receives or accesses designated discovery material.
What happened
In Nixon v. Source Digital, Inc., Roderick Nixon and the defendants jointly requested a protective order for nonpublic and competitively sensitive information exchanged during discovery. The court found good cause for a tailored order covering the pretrial phase.
The order allows parties to label qualifying discovery material as “Confidential” or, in limited circumstances, “Highly Confidential—Attorney’s Eyes Only.” It restricts disclosure, requires confidentiality agreements for certain recipients, sets procedures for challenging designations and seeking sealed filings, and protects against waiver when privileged material is produced by mistake.
Judge John P. Cronan ordered the parties and other people with notice to follow these requirements, subject to contempt. The order also requires return or destruction of confidential materials after the litigation ends, while allowing limited archival copies for attorneys, and preserves the court’s power to enforce the order.
The detailed version
- Nixon v. The Northstar Group, Inc. · No. 1:23-cv-05218
- John Cronan
- Apr. 23, 2024
Background
The parties jointly requested a protective order under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(c). They sought protection for nonpublic and competitively sensitive information that might be disclosed during discovery. The court found good cause for issuing an appropriately tailored confidentiality order for the pretrial phase of the case.
Protective Designations and Disclosure
The order permits a producing party to designate only portions of discovery material that it reasonably and in good faith believes contain protected information. Listed categories include previously undisclosed financial information, ownership or control information concerning a nonpublic company, business or marketing plans, personal or intimate information, and sensitive or proprietary business information.
Material designated “Confidential” may be disclosed only to specified recipients, including the parties, counsel and necessary staff, outside vendors, mediators or arbitrators, certain document-related individuals, potential witnesses, experts and specialized advisers, deposition stenographers, the court, and people otherwise authorized by court order or written agreement. Some recipients, including certain witnesses and experts, must first receive the order and sign a nondisclosure agreement.
Material designated “Highly Confidential—Attorney’s Eyes Only” may be disclosed only to the more limited group identified in the order. The order also provides procedures for designating deposition testimony, correcting an inadvertent failure to designate material, and objecting to a confidentiality designation.
Court Filings and Privilege
A party seeking to file confidential discovery material under seal must publicly file a redacted version and file the unredacted version under seal, supported by an application and declaration explaining the need for sealing. The order warns that confidentiality designations do not guarantee sealing and that the court is unlikely to seal material introduced into evidence at trial without the required findings.
The order states that it does not waive discovery objections or privileges and does not decide whether evidence is admissible at trial. It also provides that inadvertent production of attorney-client privileged or work-product-protected material does not waive the protection. After notice of such a production, the receiving party generally must return or destroy the material within five business days, while retaining the ability to challenge the privilege claim under seal.
Ruling and Effect
Judge John P. Cronan entered the stipulated protective order. It limits use of protected discovery material to prosecuting and defending this action and related appeals, requires recipients generally to return or destroy the material within 60 days after final disposition, and allows attorneys retained for the case to keep specified archival materials subject to the order. The order continues after the litigation ends, and the court retains jurisdiction to enforce it and impose contempt sanctions.
Read the full 10-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.