United States District Court, W.D. Washington
STIPULATED PROTECTIVE ORDER
Honorable Thomas S. Zilly Judge
1.
PURPOSES AND LIMITATIONS
Discovery
in this action is likely to involve production of
confidential, proprietary, or private information by
defendant Life Care Centers of America, Inc. (“Life
Care”) for which special protection may be warranted.
Accordingly, the parties hereby stipulate to and petition the
court to enter the following Stipulated Protective Order. The
parties acknowledge that this agreement is consistent with
LCR 26(c). It does not confer blanket protection on all
disclosures or responses to discovery, the protection it
affords from public disclosure and use extends only to the
limited information or items that are entitled to
confidential treatment under the applicable legal principles,
and it does not presumptively entitle parties to file
confidential information under seal.
2.
“CONFIDENTIAL” MATERIAL
“Confidential”
material shall include the following documents and tangible
things produced or otherwise exchanged by Life Care: quality
indicator reports, investigation files, personnel files for
any employee other than Plaintiff, policies and procedures,
and confidential or sensitive information concerning Life
Care residents, employees, operations, business, practices,
policies, and procedures.
3.
SCOPE
The
protections conferred by this agreement cover not only
confidential material (as defined above), but also (1) any
information copied or extracted from confidential material;
(2) all copies, excerpts, summaries, or compilations of
confidential material; and (3) any testimony, conversations,
or presentations by parties or their counsel that might
reveal confidential material. However, the protections
conferred by this agreement do not cover information that is
in the public domain or becomes part of the public domain
through trial or otherwise.
4.
ACCESS TO AND USE OF CONFIDENTIAL MATERIAL
4.1
Basic Principles. A receiving party may use
confidential material that is disclosed or produced by
another party or by a non-party in connection with this case
only for prosecuting, defending, or attempting to settle this
litigation. Confidential material may be disclosed only to
the categories of persons and under the conditions described
in this agreement. Confidential material must be stored and
maintained by a receiving party at a location and in a secure
manner that ensures that access is limited to the persons
authorized under this agreement.
4.2
Disclosure of “CONFIDENTIAL” Information or
Items. Unless otherwise ordered by the court or
permitted in writing by the designating party, a receiving
party may disclose any confidential material only to:
(a) the receiving party's counsel of record in this
action, as well as employees of counsel to whom it is
reasonably necessary to disclose the information for this
litigation;
(b) the officers, directors, and employees (including in
house counsel) of the receiving party to whom disclosure is
reasonably necessary for this litigation, unless the parties
agree that a particular document or material produced is for
Attorney's Eyes Only and is so designated;
(c) experts and consultants to whom disclosure is reasonably
necessary for this litigation and who have signed the
“Acknowledgment and Agreement ...