Cook v. United States ( 2020 )

1 CAattroorlnineey Eat. LGaewgg , SBN 179061 2 P.O. Box 4413 Walnut Creek, California 94596 3 Email: cegegg@att.net Telephone: (925) 686-0232 4 Facsimile: (925) 686-0233 5 Attorney for Plaintiff TANEYA COOK 6 7 MCGREGOR W. SCOTT 8 United States Attorney JOSEPH B. FRUEH 9 Assistant United States Attorney 501 I Street, Suite 10-100 10 Sacramento, CA 95814 E-mail: joseph.frueh@usdoj.gov 11 Telephone: (916) 554-2702 Facsimile: (916) 554-2900 12 Attorneys for Defendant 13 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 14 15 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 16 EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 17 18 TANEYA COOK, No. 2:20-cv-01256-KJM-DB 19 Plaintiff, STIPULATION AND PROTECTIVE ORDER 20 RE: PLAINTIFF’S MEDICAL RECORDS v. 21 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 22 Defendant. 23 24 25 26 27 28 1 STIPULATION AND PROTECTIVE ORDER 2 IT IS HEREBY STIPULATED, by and between Plaintiff Taneya Cook and Defendant United 3 States of America, pursuant to Rule 26(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and subject to Court 4 approval, that the disclosure of Plaintiff’s medical records and the information therein during the course 5 of discovery in the above-captioned action shall be subject to the following protections in order to 6 respect Plaintiff’s privacy and minimize any potential for embarrassment or harassment. 7 1. Plaintiff’s medical records and the information therein shall not be used or disclosed for 8 any purpose other than the prosecution, defense, appeal, or settlement of this action. Any use of such 9 records or information for any other purpose, or any disclosure of such records or information to anyone 10 not authorized under this Stipulation and Order, is expressly prohibited and would constitute a material 11 breach of this Stipulation and Order. 12 2. Plaintiff’s medical records and the information therein shall not be provided, shown, 13 made available, or communicated in any way to any person or entity with the exception of: 14 a. attorneys and legal-support personnel for Defendant and its employees; 15 b. OLE Health, Inc., Karen Chung, M.D., Physician Assistant Mara Adelman, and 16 Medical Assistant Karla Sahagun; 17 c. experts and consultants for Plaintiff or Defendant and their employees; 18 d. mediators retained for mediation in this action; 19 e. the Court and Court personnel, including filings on the Court’s public docket for 20 the prosecution or defense of this action, as provided in the Court’s Standing Order (ECF 3-1) § 10; 21 f. court reporters; 22 g. outside legal support services, to whom attorneys of record reasonably believe it 23 is necessary to show or will look at documents for the purpose of this litigation; and 24 h. witnesses during the course of a deposition who agree on the record to not 25 disclose the records or information therein. 26 3. Notwithstanding 2.e, above, Defendant shall not file Plaintiff’s medical records from 27 Planned Parenthood, or the information contained therein, on the Court’s public docket without 28 1 providing Plaintiff sufficient notice in advance of the filing to allow for the seeking of an order of 2 sealing or redaction from the Court, as provided in the Court’s Standing Order (ECF 3-1) § 10. 3 4. The parties shall comply with the provisions of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 5.2 and 4 Local Rules 140 and 141 with respect to redactions of documents and any requests to file documents 5 under seal. 6 5. The protections conferred by this Stipulation and Protective Order do not apply to 7 information that is currently in publicly filed pleadings in either this Court or the case Taneya Cook v. 8 Karen Kin Yin Chung et al., Napa County Superior Court, Case No. 20CV000462 as of the date of this 9 Stipulation but shall apply to future publicly filed information. 10 6. After the final termination of this action, the confidentiality obligations imposed by this 11 Order shall remain in effect until Plaintiff agrees otherwise in writing or a Court order directs otherwise. 12 13 Dated: December 3, 2020 /s/ Caroline E. Gegg (authorized 12/3/2020) CAROLINE E. GEGG, ESQ. 14 Attorney for Plaintiff 15 TANEYA COOK 16 17 Dated: December 3, 2020 MCGREGOR W. SCOTT United States Attorney 18 By: /s/ Joseph B. Frueh 19 JOSEPH B. FRUEH Assistant United States Attorney 20 Attorneys for Defendant 21 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 1 ORDER 2 Pursuant to the parties’ stipulation, IT IS SO ORDERED. 3 IT IS FURTHER ORDERED THAT: 4 1. Requests to seal documents shall be made by motion before the same judge who will decide 5 the matter related to that request to seal. 6 2. The designation of documents (including transcripts of testimony) as confidential pursuant to 7 this order does not automatically entitle the parties to file such a document with the court under seal. 8 Parties are advised that any request to seal documents in this district is governed by Local Rule 141. In 9 brief, Local Rule 141 provides that documents may only be sealed by a written order of the court after a 10 specific request to seal has been made. L.R. 141(a). However, a mere request to seal is not enough under 11 the local rules. In particular, Local Rule 141(b) requires that “[t]he ‘Request to Seal Documents’ shall set 12 forth the statutory or other authority for sealing, the requested duration, the identity, by name or category, 13 of persons to be permitted access to the document, and all relevant information.” L.R. 141(b). 14 3. A request to seal material must normally meet the high threshold of showing that “compelling 15 reasons” support secrecy; however, where the material is, at most, “tangentially related” to the merits of 16 a case, the request to seal may be granted on a showing of “good cause.” Ctr. for Auto Safety v. Chrysler 17 Grp., LLC, 809 F.3d 1092, 1096-1102 (9th Cir. 2016); Kamakana v. City and County of Honolulu, 447 18 F.3d 1172, 1178-80 (9th Cir. 2006). 19 4. Nothing in this order shall limit the testimony of parties or non-parties, or the use of certain 20 documents, at any court hearing or trial – such determinations will only be made by the court at the hearing 21 or trial, or upon an appropriate motion. 22 5. With respect to motions regarding any disputes concerning this protective order which the 23 parties cannot informally resolve, the parties shall follow the procedures outlined in Local Rule 251. 24 Absent a showing of good cause, the court will not hear discovery disputes on an ex parte basis or on 25 shortened time. 26 6. The parties may not modify the terms of this Protective Order without the court’s approval. If 27 the parties agree to a potential modification, they shall submit a stipulation and proposed order for the 28 court’s consideration. 1 7. Pursuant to Local Rule 141.1(f), the court will not retain jurisdiction over enforcement of the 2 terms of this Protective Order after the action is terminated. 3 8. Any provision in the parties’ stipulation that is in conflict with anything in this order is hereby 4 DISAPPROVED. 5 DATED: December 4, 2020 /s/ DEBORAH BARNES UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28