Mercado v. County of Merced ( 2020 )

1 Mark E. Merin (State Bar No. 043849) Alison Berry Wilkinson (SBN 135890) Paul H. Masuhara (State Bar No. 289805) Berry | Wilkinson | Law Group 2 LAW OFFICE OF MARK E. MERIN 165 North Redwood Drive, Suite 206 1010 F Street, Suite 300 San Rafael, CA 94903 3 Sacramento, California 95814 Telephone: 415.259.6638 Telephone: (916) 443-6911 Facsimile: 877.259.3762 4 Facsimile: (916) 447-8336 Email: alison@berrywilkinson.com 5 E-Mail: mark@markmerin.com paul@markmerin.com Attorneys for Defendant DAMIAN SPARKS 6 Attorneys for Plaintiff 7 MIGUEL RODRIGUEZ CORTEZ and VIKTORIA DESIREE MERCADO 8 James N. Fincher, SBN 196837 9 Merced County Counsel Roger S. Matzkind, SBN 77331 10 Chief Civil Litigator 11 Janine L. Highiet-Ivicevic, SBN 254405 Deputy County Counsel 12 2222 M Street, Room 309 Merced, CA 95340 13 Tel: (209) 385-7564 Fax: (209) 726-1337 14 Email: Roger.Matzkind@countyofmerced.com; Janine.Highiet-Ivicevic@countyofmerced.com 15 Attorneys for Defendants 16 COUNTY OF MERCED, MERCED COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE, and VERNON H. WARNKE 17 18 19 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 20 EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 21 FRESNO DIVISION 22 Case No. 1:20-cv-00161-NONE-SAB 23 MIGUEL RODRIGUEZ CORTEZ, et al., 24 Plaintiffs, ORDER RE STIPULATED PROTECTIVE ORDER 25 vs. (ECF No. 14) 26 COUNTY OF MERCED, et al., 27 Defendants. 28 1 STIPULATION 2 1. The parties to the above-entitled action, Defendants COUNTY OF MERCED, et al., and 3 Plaintiffs MIGUEL RODRIGUEZ CORTEZ and VIKTORIA DESIREE MERCADO.by and through 4 their counsel of record, hereby stipulate to entry of the attached protective order covering materials 5 produced or received (including in response to subpoenas) in relation to an early settlement conference 6 which they intend to schedule. The parties acknowledge that this Order does not confer blanket 7 protections on all disclosures or responses to discovery and that the protection it affords from public 8 disclosure and use extends only to the limited information or items that are entitled to confidential 9 treatment under the applicable legal principles. The parties further acknowledge, as set forth in 10 Paragraph 5, below, that this Stipulated Protective Order does not entitle them to file confidential 11 information under seal; rather, Civil Local Rule 141 sets forth the procedures that must be followed and 12 the standards that will be applied when a party seeks permission from the court to file material under 13 seal. 14 The materials included in the above-mentioned protective order are as follows: 15 16 a. Medical records; and 17 b. Any document produced formally or informally in connection with the early 18 settlement conference, which the parties are in the process of scheduling. 19 All “confidential material” shall be designated by stamping or otherwise marking each such 20 document as follows: “CONFIDENTIAL—SUBJECT TO PROTECTIVE ORDER”. 21 2. Confidential material shall be used solely in connection with the early settlement 22 conference in the within action (Case No. 1:20-cv-00161-NONE-SAB) and not for any other purpose, 23 including any other litigation, without the express approval of this court, except as set forth in paragraph 24 7(a), below. 25 3. Confidential material may not be disclosed, except as is provided in paragraphs 4 and 5, 26 below. 27 4. Confidential material may be disclosed only to the following persons: (a) counsel for any 28 1 by counsel for the parties in this litigation; (c) court personnel, including stenographic reporters engaged 2 in such proceedings as are necessarily incidental to preparation for trial in this action; and (4) retained 3 experts. Nothing in this paragraph (4) is intended to prevent officials or employees of any defendant, or 4 other authorized government officials, from having access to the documents so designated if they would 5 have such access in the normal course of their job duties. Furthermore, nothing herein prevents any 6 witness from disclosing events or activities personal to him or her. Finally, nothing in this paragraph (4) 7 prevents defendant SPARKS from viewing materials produced from his own personnel file. 8 5. Without written permission from the party designating materials as confidential or a court 9 order secured after appropriate notice to all interested persons, a party may not file in the public record in 10 this action any confidential material. A party that seeks to file under seal any confidential material must 11 comply with Civil Local Rule 141. Confidential material may only be filed under seal pursuant to a court 12 order authorizing the sealing of the specific confidential material at issue. Pursuant to Civil Local Rule 13 141, a sealing order will issue only upon a request establishing that the confidential material at issue is 14 privileged, protectable as a trade secret, or otherwise entitled to protection under the law. If a request by 15 a party in receipt of material designated confidential to file said confidential material under seal pursuant 16 to Civil Local Rule 141 is denied by the court, then the party in receipt of the material designated as 17 confidential may file the information in the public record unless otherwise instructed by the court. 18 6. Each person to whom disclosure is made, with the exception of counsel, who are 19 presumed to know the contents of this protective order, shall be provided by the person furnishing him or 20 her “confidential material,” as designated hereunder, with a copy of this order, and shall agree on the 21 record, in writing, that he or she has read this protective order and consents to be subject to the 22 jurisdiction of this court with respect to the enforcement of this order, including without limitation, any 23 proceeding for contempt. Unless such agreement is made on the record in this litigation, counsel making 24 the disclosure to any person described above shall retain the original executed copy of said written 25 agreement until final termination of this litigation. 26 7. If the matter settles at the conclusion of the early settlement conference all confidential 27 material received under the provisions of this order, including any copies made thereof, shall be tendered 28 1 back to the appropriate parties or their attorneys. Provisions of this order, insofar as they restrict the 2 disclosure and use of the material, shall remain in full force and effect until further order of this court. 3 a. If the matter does not resolve at the conclusion of the early settlement conference, 4 any documents secured by subpoena shall be used solely in connection with the litigation in this action 5 (Case No. 1:20-cv-00161-NONE-SAB) and not for any other purpose, including any other litigation, 6 without the express approval of this court. 7 8. The foregoing is without prejudice to the right of any party to this action: (a) to apply to 8 the court for a further protective order relating to any confidential material or relating to discovery in this 9 litigation; (b) to apply to the court for an order removing the confidential material designation from any 10 document; and, (c) to apply to the court for an order compelling production of documents or for 11 modification of this order or for any order permitting disclosure of confidential material beyond the terms 12 of this order. 13 Counsel for the parties to this action hereby declare that they have read the foregoing, that they 14 approve thereof as to form and content, and that, on behalf of their clients in this action, they stipulate 15 thereto. 16 IT IS SO STIPULATED, THROUGH COUNSEL OF RECORD. 17 18 Respectfully Submitted, Dated: April 16, 2020 19 LAW OFFICE OF MARK E. MERIN /s/ Mark E. Merin 20 (as authorized on April 16, 2020) By: __________________________________ 21 Mark E. Merin 22 Attorneys for Plaintiffs MIGUEL RODRIGUEZ CORTEZ 23 and VIKTORIA DESIREE MERCADO 24 // 25 // 26 // 27 // 28 1 Respectfully Submitted, Dated: April 13, 2020 Merced County Counsel’s Office 2 /s/ Roger Matzkind 3 (as authorized on April 13, 2020) By: __________________________________ 4 Roger S. Matzkind Janine L. Highiet-Ivicevic 5 Attorneys for Defendants 6 COUNTY OF MERCED, MERCED COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE, and VERNON H. WARNKE 7 Respectfully Submitted, 8 Dated: April 17, 2020 Berry | Wilkinson | Law Group 9 By: /s/ Alison Berry Wilkinson 10 Attorneys for Defendant DAMIAN SPARKS 11 ATTORNEY ATTESTATION 12 I, Alison Berry Wilkinson, am the ECF user whose identification and password are being 13 used to file the foregoing documents. Pursuant to Local Rule 131(e), I hereby attest that concurrence 14 in the filing of these documents has been obtained from each of its signatories. 15 16 Dated: April 17, 2020 By: /s/ Alison Berry Wilkinson 17 Alison Berry Wilkinson 18 19 ORDER 20 Pursuant to the stipulation of the parties, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that: 21 1. The parties’ stipulation for a protective order is issued covering materials produced or 22 received (including in response to subpoenas) in relation to the agreed early settlement 23 conference. All documents produced formally or informally in connection with the early 24 settlement conference, including medical records, shall be handled in accordance with 25 paragraphs 1-8 above. 26 2. The parties are advised that pursuant to the Local Rules of the United States District 27 Court, Eastern District of California, any documents which are to be filed under seal 28 wOoOe 4:OU EY LINN SPA MMU PIO er TY OV VI 1 3. The party making a request to file documents under seal shall be required to show ° good cause for documents attached to a nondispositive motion or compelling reasons ° for documents attached to a dispositive motion. Pintos v. Pacific Creditors Ass’n, ‘ 605 F.3d 665, 677-78 (9th Cir. 2009). 5 IT IS SO ORDERED. A (re "|| Dated: _ April 17, 2020 OF g UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28