Category Archives: Protective Orders

Jan 09 2011
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Motion to Seal, Protective Orders

Chief Judge Easterbrook Pointedly Denies Motion to Seal AT&T Mobility’s and Google’s Documents for Lack of Trade Secret Contention

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Chief Judge Easterbrook of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit pointedly denied a motion to seal documents in In re Specht, 2010 WL 3494676, No. 10-2823, — F.3d —-, 2010 WL 3494676 (7th Cir. Sept. 8, 2010).  As part of its opposition to plaintiff’s petition for writ of mandamus in which plaintiff sought recusal of the district court judge.  Id. *1.  Google and AT & T Mobility were asked to respond to the petition, and asked the Third Circuit to seal their indemnity agreement and other documents.  The court refused: “If Google and AT & T wanted to keep the documents’ terms secret, they should not have proffered them in response to Specht’s motion.” Id. *4. Continue reading →

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Jan 09 2011
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Protective Orders

Central District Issues Rare Opinion Rejecting Stipulated Protective Order

Tire-Euro-Bad
Image via Wikipedia By CHARLES H. JUNG

Magistrate Judge Fernando M. Olguin issued a rare opinion about a stipulated protective order, rejecting the proposed  stipulated order in Murphy v. Continental Tire North America, Inc., No. CV 09-3004 GHK (FMOx), 2010 WL 3260183 (C.D. Cal. Aug. 9, 2010).  The court gave six  reasons for the rejection, including the failure to include a good cause statement (citing Makar-Wellbon v. Sony Elecs., Inc., 187 F.R.D. 576, 577 (E.D. Wis. 1999) (even stipulated protective orders require good cause showing)), lack of specificity in the description of the material to be protected (the parties used conclusory terms such as “confidential technical information”), and duration (“once a case proceeds to trial, all of the information that was designated as confidential and/or kept and maintained pursuant to the terms of a protective order becomes public and will be presumptively available to all members of the public, including the press, unless good cause is shown to the district judge in advance of the trial to proceed otherwise”).   Continue reading →

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