Young K Choi v. Wal-Mart Associates, Inc. ( 2024 )

1 Daniel F. Fears, State Bar No. 110573 dff@paynefears.com 2 Andrew K. Haeffele, State Bar No. 258992 akh@paynefears.com 3 Bree A. Oswald, State Bar No. 314614 bao@paynefears.com 4 PAYNE & FEARS LLP Attorneys at Law 5 4 Park Plaza, Suite 1100 Irvine, California 92614 6 Telephone: (949) 851-1100 Facsimile: (949) 851-1212 7 Attorneys for WAL-MART 8 ASSOCIATES, INC. 9 Sam K. Kim, State Bar No. 258467 skim@verumlg.com 10 Yoonis J. Han, State Bar No. 256151 yhan@verumlg.com 11 VERUM LAW GROUP, APC 360 N. Pacific Coast Highway, Suite 1025 12 El Segundo, California 90245 Tel: (424) 320-2000 13 Fax: (424) 221-5010 14 Attorneys for Plaintiff YOUNG K. CHOI 15 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 16 CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA, SOUTHERN DIVISION 17 18 YOUNG K. CHOI, an individual, Case No. 8:23-cv-02376 CJC (KESx) 19 Plaintiff, 20 STIPULATED PROTECTIVE v. ORDER 21 WAL-MART ASSOCIATES, INC., a Action Filed: November 2, 2023 22 Delaware corporation; and DOES 1 Trial Date: None Set through 10, inclusive, 23 Defendant. 24 25 1. GENERAL 26 1.1 Purposes and Limitations. Discovery in this action is likely to involve 27 production of confidential, proprietary, or private information for which special 1 this litigation may be warranted. Accordingly, the parties hereby stipulate to and 2 petition the Court to enter the following Stipulated Protective Order. The parties 3 acknowledge that this Order does not confer blanket protections on all disclosures or 4 responses to discovery and that the protection it affords from public disclosure and 5 use extends only to the limited information or items that are entitled to confidential 6 treatment under the applicable legal principles. The parties further acknowledge, as 7 set forth in Section 12.3, below, that this Stipulated Protective Order does not entitle 8 them to file confidential information under seal; Civil Local Rule 79-5 sets forth the 9 procedures that must be followed and the standards that will be applied when a party 10 seeks permission from the court to file material under seal. 11 1.2 Good Cause Statement. 12 This action is likely to involve trade secrets, customer and pricing lists and 13 other valuable research, development, commercial, financial, technical and/or 14 proprietary information for which special protection from public disclosure and from 15 use for any purpose other than prosecution of this action is warranted. Such 16 confidential and proprietary materials and information consist of, among other things, 17 confidential business or financial information, information regarding confidential 18 business practices, or other confidential research, development, or commercial 19 information (including information implicating privacy rights of third parties), 20 information otherwise generally unavailable to the public, or which may be privileged 21 or otherwise protected from disclosure under state or federal statutes, court rules, case 22 decisions, or common law. 23 The matter may also include private, protected data, which shall refer to any 24 information that a party believes in good faith to be subject to federal, state or foreign 25 data protection laws or other privacy obligations. Examples of such data protection 26 laws include but are not limited to The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, 15 U.S.C. § 6801 27 et seq. (financial information); and, The Health Insurance Portability and 1 and E of Part 164 (medical information). 2 Accordingly, to expedite the flow of information, to facilitate the prompt 3 resolution of disputes over confidentiality of discovery materials, to adequately 4 protect information the parties are entitled to keep confidential, to ensure that the 5 parties are permitted reasonable necessary uses of such material in preparation for and 6 in the conduct of trial, to address their handling at the end of the litigation, and serve 7 the ends of justice, a protective order for such information is justified in this matter. 8 It is the intent of the parties that information will not be designated as confidential for 9 tactical reasons and that nothing be so designated without a good faith belief that it 10 has been maintained in a confidential, non-public manner, and there is good cause 11 why it should not be part of the public record of this case. 12 2. DEFINITIONS 13 2.1 Action: Young Choi v. Walmart Inc., Case No. 14 8:23−cv−02376−CJC−KES 15 2.2 Challenging Party: a Party or Non-Party that challenges the designation 16 of information or items under this Order. 17 2.3 “CONFIDENTIAL” Information or Items: information (regardless of 18 how it is generated, stored or maintained) or tangible things that qualify for protection 19 under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(c), and as specified above in the Good 20 Cause Statement. 21 2.4 Counsel: Outside Counsel of Record and House Counsel (as well as their 22 support staff). 23 2.5 Designating Party: a Party or Non-Party that designates information or 24 items that it produces in disclosures or in responses to discovery as 25 “CONFIDENTIAL.” 26 2.6 Disclosure or Discovery Material: all items or information, regardless 27 of the medium or manner in which it is generated, stored, or maintained (including, 1 among other things, testimony, transcripts, and tangible things), that are produced or 2 generated in disclosures or responses to discovery in this matter. 3 2.7 Expert: a person with specialized knowledge or experience in a matter 4 pertinent to the litigation who has been retained by a Party or its counsel to serve as 5 an expert witness or as a consultant in this Action. 6 2.8 House Counsel: attorneys who are employees of a party to this Action. 7 House Counsel does not include Outside Counsel of Record or any other outside 8 counsel. 9 2.9 Non-Party: any natural person, partnership, corporation, association, or 10 other legal entity not named as a Party to this action. 11 2.10 Outside Counsel of Record: attorneys who are not employees of a party 12 to this Action but are retained to represent or advise a party to this Action and have 13 appeared in this Action on behalf of that party or are affiliated with a law firm that 14 has appeared on behalf of that party, including support staff. 15 2.11 Party: any party to this Action, including all of its officers, directors, 16 employees, consultants, retained experts, agents, and Outside Counsel of Record (and 17 their support staffs). 18 2.12 Producing Party: a Party or Non-Party that produces Disclosure or 19 Discovery Material in this Action. 20 2.13 Professional Vendors: persons or entities that provide litigation support 21 services (e.g., photocopying, videotaping, translating, preparing exhibits or 22 demonstrations, and organizing, storing, or retrieving data in any form or medium) 23 and their employees and subcontractors. 24 2.14 Protected Material: any Disclosure or Discovery Material that is 25 designated as “CONFIDENTIAL.” 26 2.15 Receiving Party: a Party that receives Disclosure or Discovery Material 27 from a Producing Party. 1 3. SCOPE 2 The protections conferred by this Stipulation and Order cover not only 3 Protected Material (as defined above), but also (1) any information copied or extracted 4 from Protected Material; (2) all copies, excerpts, summaries, or compilations of 5 Protected Material; and (3) any testimony, conversations, or presentations by Parties 6 or their Counsel that might reveal Protected Material. 7 Any use of Protected Material at trial shall be governed by the orders of the 8 trial judge. This Order does not govern the use of Protected Material at trial. 9 4. DURATION 10 Once a case proceeds to trial, all of the court-filed information to be introduced 11 that was previously designated as confidential or maintained pursuant to this 12 protective order becomes public and will be presumptively available to all members 13 of the public, including the press, unless compelling reasons supported by specific 14 factual findings to proceed otherwise are made to the trial judge in advance of the 15 trial. See Kamakana v. City and Cty. of Honolulu, 447 F.3d 1172, 1180-81 (9th Cir. 16 2006) (distinguishing “good cause” showing for sealing documents produced in 17 discovery from “compelling reasons” standard when merits-related documents are 18 part of court record). Accordingly, the terms of this protective order do not extend 19 beyond the commencement of the trial. 20 5. DESIGNATING PROTECTED MATERIAL 21 5.1 Exercise of Restraint and Care in Designating Material for Protection. 22 Each Party or Non-Party that designates information or items for protection under this 23 Order must take care to limit any such designation to specific material that qualifies 24 under the appropriate standards. The Designating Party must designate for protection 25 only those parts of material, documents, items, or oral or written communications that 26 qualify so that other portions of the material, documents, items, or communications 27 for which protection is not warranted are not swept unjustifiably within the ambit of 1 Mass, indiscriminate, or routinized designations are prohibited. Designations 2 that are shown to be clearly unjustified or that have been made for an improper 3 purpose (e.g., to unnecessarily encumber the case development process or to impose 4 unnecessary expenses and burdens on other parties) may expose the Designating Party 5 to sanctions. 6 If it comes to a Designating Party’s attention that information or items that it 7 designated for protection do not qualify for protection, that Designating Party must 8 promptly notify all other Parties that it is withdrawing the inapplicable designation. 9 5.2 Manner and Timing of Designations. Except as otherwise provided in 10 this Order (see, e.g., second paragraph of section 5.2(a) below), or as otherwise 11 stipulated or ordered, Disclosure or Discovery Material that qualifies for protection 12 under this Order must be clearly so designated before the material is disclosed or 13 produced. 14 Designation in conformity with this Order requires: 15 (a) for information in documentary form (e.g., paper or electronic 16 documents, but excluding transcripts of depositions or other pretrial or trial 17 proceedings), that the Producing Party affix, at a minimum, the legend 18 “CONFIDENTIAL” (hereinafter “CONFIDENTIAL legend”), to each page that 19 contains protected material. If only a portion or portions of the material on a page 20 qualifies for protection, the Producing Party also must clearly identify the protected 21 portion(s) (e.g., by making appropriate markings in the margins). 22 A Party or Non-Party that makes original documents available for inspection 23 need not designate them for protection until after the inspecting Party has indicated 24 which documents it would like copied and produced. During the inspection and 25 before the designation, all of the material made available for inspection shall be 26 deemed “CONFIDENTIAL.” After the inspecting Party has identified the documents 27 it wants copied and produced, the Producing Party must determine which documents, 1 the specified documents, the Producing Party must affix the “CONFIDENTIAL 2 legend” to each page that contains Protected Material. If only a portion or portions 3 of the material on a page qualifies for protection, the Producing Party also must clearly 4 identify the protected portion(s) (e.g., by making appropriate markings in the 5 margins). 6 (b) for testimony given in depositions that the Designating Party identify 7 the Disclosure or Discovery Material on the record, before the close of the deposition. 8 (c) for information produced in some form other than documentary and 9 for any other tangible items, that the Producing Party affix in a prominent place on 10 the exterior of the container or containers in which the information is stored the legend 11 “CONFIDENTIAL.” If only a portion or portions of the information warrants 12 protection, the Producing Party, to the extent practicable, shall identify the protected 13 portion(s). 14 5.3 Inadvertent Failures to Designate. If timely corrected, an inadvertent 15 failure to designate qualified information or items does not, standing alone, waive the 16 Designating Party’s right to secure protection under this Order for such material. 17 Upon timely correction of a designation, the Receiving Party must make reasonable 18 efforts to assure that the material is treated in accordance with the provisions of this 19 Order. 20 6. CHALLENGING CONFIDENTIALITY DESIGNATIONS 21 6.1 Timing of Challenges. Any Party or Non-Party may challenge a 22 designation of confidentiality at any time that is consistent with the Court’s 23 Scheduling Order. 24 6.2 Meet and Confer. The Challenging Party shall initiate the dispute 25 resolution process under Local Rule 37-1, et seq. Any discovery motion must strictly 26 comply with the procedures set forth in Local Rules 37-1, 37-2, and 37-3. 27 6.3 Burden. The burden of persuasion in any such challenge proceeding 1 improper purpose (e.g., to harass or impose unnecessary expenses and burdens on 2 other parties) may expose the Challenging Party to sanctions. Unless the Designating 3 Party has waived or withdrawn the confidentiality designation, all parties shall 4 continue to afford the material in question the level of protection to which it is entitled 5 under the Producing Party’s designation until the Court rules on the challenge. 6 7. ACCESS TO AND USE OF PROTECTED MATERIAL 7 7.1 Basic Principles. A Receiving Party may use Protected Material that is 8 disclosed or produced by another Party or by a Non-Party in connection with this 9 Action only for prosecuting, defending, or attempting to settle this Action. Such 10 Protected Material may be disclosed only to the categories of persons and under the 11 conditions described in this Order. When the Action has been terminated, a Receiving 12 Party must comply with the provisions of section 13 below (FINAL DISPOSITION). 13 Protected Material must be stored and maintained by a Receiving Party at a 14 location and in a secure manner that ensures that access is limited to the persons 15 authorized under this Order. 16 7.2 Disclosure of “CONFIDENTIAL” Information or Items. Unless 17 otherwise ordered by the Court or permitted in writing by the Designating Party, a 18 Receiving Party may disclose any information or item designated 19 “CONFIDENTIAL” only to: 20 (a) the Receiving Party’s Outside Counsel of Record in this Action, as 21 well as employees of said Outside Counsel of Record to whom it is reasonably 22 necessary to disclose the information for this Action; 23 (b) the officers, directors, agents, and employees (including House 24 Counsel) of the Receiving Party to whom disclosure is reasonably necessary for this 25 Action; 26 (c) Experts (as defined in this Order) of the Receiving Party to whom 27 disclosure is reasonably necessary for this Action and who have signed the 1 (d) the Court and its personnel; 2 (e) court reporters and their staff; 3 (f) professional jury or trial consultants, mock jurors, and Professional 4 Vendors to whom disclosure is reasonably necessary for this Action and who have 5 signed the “Acknowledgment and Agreement to Be Bound” (Exhibit A); 6 (g) the author or recipient of a document containing the information or 7 a custodian or other person who otherwise possessed or knew the information; 8 (h) during their depositions, witnesses, and attorneys for witnesses, in 9 the Action to whom disclosure is reasonably necessary provided: (1) the deposing 10 party requests that the witness sign the form attached as Exhibit A hereto; and (2) they 11 will not be permitted to keep any confidential information unless they sign the 12 “Acknowledgment and Agreement to Be Bound” (Exhibit A), unless otherwise 13 agreed by the Designating Party or ordered by the Court. Pages of transcribed 14 deposition testimony or exhibits to depositions that reveal Protected Material may be 15 separately bound by the court reporter and may not be disclosed to anyone except as 16 permitted under this Stipulated Protective Order; and 17 (i) any mediator or settlement officer, and their supporting personnel, 18 mutually agreed upon by any of the parties engaged in settlement discussions. 19 8. PROTECTED MATERIAL SUBPOENAED OR ORDERED 20 PRODUCED IN OTHER LITIGATION 21 If a Party is served with a subpoena or a court order issued in other litigation 22 that compels disclosure of any information or items designated in this Action as 23 “CONFIDENTIAL,” that Party must: 24 (a) promptly notify in writing the Designating Party. Such notification shall 25 include a copy of the subpoena or court order; 26 (b) promptly notify in writing the party who caused the subpoena or order to 27 issue in the other litigation that some or all of the material covered by the subpoena 1 or order is subject to this Protective Order. Such notification shall include a copy of 2 this Stipulated Protective Order; and 3 (c) cooperate with respect to all reasonable procedures sought to be pursued 4 by the Designating Party whose Protected Material may be affected. 5 If the Designating Party timely seeks a protective order, the Party served with 6 the subpoena or court order shall not produce any information designated in this action 7 as “CONFIDENTIAL” before a determination by the court from which the subpoena 8 or order issued, unless the Party has obtained the Designating Party’s permission. The 9 Designating Party shall bear the burden and expense of seeking protection in that court 10 of its confidential material and nothing in these provisions should be construed as 11 authorizing or encouraging a Receiving Party in this Action to disobey a lawful 12 directive from another court. 13 9. A NON-PARTY’S PROTECTED MATERIAL SOUGHT TO BE 14 PRODUCED IN THIS LITIGATION 15 (a) The terms of this Order are applicable to information produced by a Non- 16 Party in this Action and designated as “CONFIDENTIAL.” Such information 17 produced by Non-Parties in connection with this litigation is protected by the 18 remedies and relief provided by this Order. Nothing in these provisions should be 19 construed as prohibiting a Non-Party from seeking additional protections. 20 (b) In the event that a Party is required, by a valid discovery request, to produce 21 a Non-Party’s confidential information in its possession, and the Party is subject to an 22 agreement with the Non-Party not to produce the Non-Party’s confidential 23 information, then the Party shall: 24 (1) promptly notify in writing the Requesting Party and the Non-Party 25 that some or all of the information requested is subject to a confidentiality agreement 26 with a Non-Party; 27 1 (2) promptly provide the Non-Party with a copy of the Stipulated 2 Protective Order in this Action, the relevant discovery request(s), and a reasonably 3 specific description of the information requested; and 4 (3) make the information requested available for inspection by the Non- 5 Party, if requested. 6 (c) If the Non-Party fails to seek a protective order from this Court within 14 7 days of receiving the notice and accompanying information, the Receiving Party may 8 produce the Non-Party’s confidential information responsive to the discovery request. 9 If the Non-Party timely seeks a protective order, the Receiving Party shall not produce 10 any information in its possession or control that is subject to the confidentiality 11 agreement with the Non-Party before a determination by the Court. Absent a court 12 order to the contrary, the Non-Party shall bear the burden and expense of seeking 13 protection in this Court of its Protected Material. 14 10. UNAUTHORIZED DISCLOSURE OF PROTECTED MATERIAL 15 If a Receiving Party learns that, by inadvertence or otherwise, it has disclosed 16 Protected Material to any person or in any circumstance not authorized under this 17 Stipulated Protective Order, the Receiving Party must immediately (a) notify in 18 writing the Designating Party of the unauthorized disclosures, (b) use its best efforts 19 to retrieve all unauthorized copies of the Protected Material, (c) inform the person or 20 persons to whom unauthorized disclosures were made of all the terms of this Order, 21 and (d) request such person or persons to execute the “Acknowledgment and 22 Agreement to Be Bound” that is attached hereto as Exhibit A. 23 11. INADVERTENT PRODUCTION OF PRIVILEGED OR OTHERWISE 24 PROTECTED MATERIAL 25 When a Producing Party gives notice to Receiving Parties that certain 26 inadvertently produced material is subject to a claim of privilege or other protection, 27 the obligations of the Receiving Parties are those set forth in Federal Rule of Civil 1 may be established in an e-discovery order that provides for production without prior 2 privilege review. Pursuant to Federal Rule of Evidence 502(d) and (e), insofar as the 3 parties reach an agreement on the effect of disclosure of a communication or 4 information covered by the attorney-client privilege or work product protection, the 5 parties may incorporate their agreement in the stipulated protective order submitted 6 to the Court. 7 12. MISCELLANEOUS 8 12.1 Right to Further Relief. Nothing in this Order abridges the right of any 9 person to seek its modification by the Court in the future. 10 12.2 Right to Assert Other Objections. By stipulating to the entry of this 11 Protective Order, no Party waives any right it otherwise would have to object to 12 disclosing or producing any information or item on any ground not addressed in this 13 Stipulated Protective Order. Similarly, no Party waives any right to object on any 14 ground to use in evidence of any of the material covered by this Protective Order. 15 12.3 Filing Protected Material. A Party that seeks to file under seal any 16 Protected Material must comply with Civil Local Rule 79-5. Protected Material may 17 only be filed under seal pursuant to a court order authorizing the sealing of the specific 18 Protected Material at issue; good cause must be shown in the request to file under 19 seal. If a Party’s request to file Protected Material under seal is denied by the Court, 20 then the Receiving Party may file the information in the public record unless 21 otherwise instructed by the Court. 22 13. FINAL DISPOSITION 23 After the final disposition of this Action, within 60 days of a written request by 24 the Designating Party, each Receiving Party must return all Protected Material to the 25 Producing Party or destroy such material. As used in this subdivision, “all Protected 26 Material” includes all copies, abstracts, compilations, summaries, and any other 27 format reproducing or capturing any of the Protected Material. Whether the Protected 1 certification to the Producing Party (and, if not the same person or entity, to the 2 Designating Party) by the 60 day deadline that (1) identifies (by category, where 3 appropriate) all the Protected Material that was returned or destroyed, and (2) affirms 4 that the Receiving Party has not retained any copies, abstracts, compilations, 5 summaries or any other format reproducing or capturing any of the Protected Material. 6 Notwithstanding this provision, counsel are entitled to retain an archival copy of all 7 pleadings, motion papers, trial, deposition, and hearing transcripts, legal memoranda, 8 correspondence, deposition and trial exhibits, expert reports, attorney work product, 9 and consultant and expert work product, even if such materials contain Protected 10 Material. Any such archival copies that contain or constitute Protected Material 11 remain subject to this Protective Order as set forth in Section 4 (DURATION). 12 // 13 // 14 // 15 // 16 // 17 // 18 // 19 // 20 // 21 // 22 // 23 // 24 // 25 // 26 // 27 // 1/14. VIOLATION OF ORDER 2 Any violation of this Order may be punished by any and all appropriate 3||measures including, without limitation, contempt proceedings and/or monetary 4 || sanctions. IS SO STIPULATED, THROUGH COUNSEL OF RECORD. VERUM LAW GROUP, APC 9 10||DATED: March 12, 2024 By: /s/Sam_K. Kim ll SAM K. KIM YOONIS J. HAN 12 Attorneys for Plaintiff YOUNG K. CHOI SF 13 DATED: March 12, 2024 PAYNE & FEARS LLP 14 15 By: /s/ Andrew K. Haeffele 7 DANIEL F. FEARS ANDREW K. HAEFFELE 18 BREE A. OSWALD 19 Attorneys for WAL-MART 20 ASSOCIATES, INC. 21 22 || FOR GOOD CAUSE SHOWN, IT IS SO ORDERED. 23 24||/DATED: March 13, 2024 Ty crams Scot? 25 HON. KAREN E. SCOTT United States Magistrate Judge 27 28 1 EXHIBIT A 2 ACKNOWLEDGMENT AND AGREEMENT TO BE BOUND 3 4 I, _____________________________ [full name], of _________________ 5 [full address], declare under penalty of perjury that I have read in its entirety and 6 understand the Stipulated Protective Order that was issued by the United States 7 District Court for the Central District of California on ____________ [date] in the 8 case of ___________ [insert case name and number]. I agree to comply with and 9 to be bound by all the terms of this Stipulated Protective Order and I understand and 10 acknowledge that failure to so comply could expose me to sanctions and punishment 11 in the nature of contempt. I solemnly promise that I will not disclose in any manner 12 any information or item that is subject to this Stipulated Protective Order to any 13 person or entity except in strict compliance with the provisions of this Order. 14 I further agree to submit to the jurisdiction of the United States District Court 15 for the Central District of California for the purpose of enforcing the terms of this 16 Stipulated Protective Order, even if such enforcement proceedings occur after 17 termination of this action. I hereby appoint __________________________ [full 18 name] of _______________________________________ [full address and 19 telephone number] as my California agent for service of process in connection with 20 this action or any proceedings related to enforcement of this Stipulated Protective 21 Order. 22 Date: ______________________________________ 23 City and State where signed: _________________________________ 24 25 Printed name: _______________________________ 26 27 Signature: __________________________________