Free Protective Order - District Court of Federal Claims - federal

Case 1:03-cv-02684-CFL

Document 457

Filed 04/30/2007

Page 1 of 2

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF FEDERAL CLAIMS No. 03-2684L and No. 01-568L (consolidated) (Filed: April 30, 2007) ____________________________________ ) SHELDON PETERS WOLFCHILD, et al., ) ) Plaintiffs, ) ) v. ) ) UNITED STATES, ) ) Defendant. ) ___________________________________ )

PROTECTIVE ORDER RESPECTING ANONYMOUS PLAINTIFFS AND ANONYMOUS INTERVENING PLAINTIFFS On December 29, 2004, this court entered a protective order for anonymous plaintiffs in the Wolfchild case, accepting a text jointly stipulated by the government and plaintiffs on December 15, 2004. That protective order was extended to the persons granted intervention as anonymous plaintiffs by this court's Opinion and Order of August 22, 2006. See Wolfchild v. United States, 72 Fed. Cl. 511, 540 (2006). The following protective order supersedes and supplants the protective order of December 15, 2004, as extended by the Opinion and Order of August 22, 2006. It is ORDERED that: 1. Each anonymous plaintiff and anonymous intervening plaintiff shall be separately designated with a specific identifier such as Doe No. 1, Blair Doe No. 1, Robinette Doe No. 1, etc. On or before May 25, 2007, plaintiffs and intervening plaintiffs shall provide to defendant and to the court, under seal, a list of each anonymous plaintiff's name matched with his or her respective pseudonym. In the course of the proceedings in the Wolfchild case, knowledge of the true identity of the anonymous plaintiffs and anonymous intervening plaintiffs might become necessary in evaluating genealogy or helpful in addressing other issues. In this respect, plaintiffs 1

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Case 1:03-cv-02684-CFL

Document 457

Filed 04/30/2007

Page 2 of 2

and all intervening plaintiffs may be required to make available to all counsel of record the true identity of the anonymous plaintiffs and intervening plaintiffs, at a future time and under conditions to be established by court order. Until that time, neither plaintiffs nor intervening plaintiffs shall disclose the true identity of anonymous plaintiffs or anonymous intervening plaintiffs to any other plaintiff or anonymous intervening plaintiff, i.e., to any party other than defendant. 4. The participation of anonymous plaintiffs and anonymous intervening plaintiffs in this case shall be kept strictly confidential by the parties' attorneys, agents and employees, and their participation shall not be disclosed, made public, or made available to anyone except as specifically provided in this Protective Order or by such further order as the court may enter. (a.) Documentary information that (1) includes true names of the anonymous plaintiffs or anonymous intervening plaintiffs, or any of them, and (2) would be likely to reveal the fact that such individual was a plaintiff or intervening plaintiff in this case shall be submitted according to the following procedures. Such documents to be submitted to the court shall be filed in paper form under seal. Each such document submitted to the court under seal shall bear the legend "Confidential Material ­ Subject to Protective Order" in the bottom margin of each page. Where such documents are being filed by a party other than defendant, similarly marked unredacted copies of such documents shall also be served in paper form upon defendant. (b.) The party filing documents under seal shall also provide to the court and serve on the other parties a redacted copy of the same document or documents submitted for use in the publicly available records of the court. Such filing and service shall be accomplished by electronic means. Each redacted document filed with the court and served on other parties shall bear the legend "Redacted Copy" in the bottom margin of each page. (c.) Any party receiving service of a redacted document may seek from the court an order requiring disclosure of the true names that were redacted from the document as electronically filed and served, setting forth the basis for the relief sought. 6. If any party discovers that the name of an anonymous plaintiff or anonymous intervening plaintiff has been disclosed, the parties shall meet and confer. The parties shall determine whether maintenance of these provisions for the pertinent anonymous plaintiff or anonymous intervening plaintiff is appropriate and whether additional safeguards or mitigation are needed. After conferring, disputes may be presented to the court.

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s/ Charles F. Lettow Judge

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