A Stipulated Protective Order was signed in the insurance case of Bedivere Ins. Co. v. Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Kansas, Inc. & Allied World Specialty Ins. Co., Nos. 18-cv-02371 & 18-cv-02515, 2020 WL 1140394 (D. Kan. March 9, 2020) (O'Hara, USMJ). It was written by the parties, all of them insurance companies, and their lawyers of course. The lawyers of record came from Miami and Chicago and California, as well as local counsel from Kansas. They came bearing a proposed stipulated protective order.
The Clerk wrote this on the Docket Entry for the proposed order, which Westlaw did not pick up in its report: "AGREED PROTECTIVE ORDER. The court finds good cause to enter the order submitted by the parties. Signed by Magistrate Judge James P. O'Hara on 3/9/2020." Bedvidere Ins. Co. v. Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Kansas, Inc., Case Nos. 18-cv-02371-DDC & 18-cv-02515-DDC, DE #88, proposed "Agreed Protective Order," filed March 9, 2020.
The ones who wrote the proposed order said that their "Agreed Protective Order is based on the District of Kansas Model Protective Order." Bedvidere, 2020 WL 1140394, at *1. Except that it isn't.
The lawyers included three categories of protection for "confidentiality" that the lawyers select in the first place. Interestingly, the lawyers wrote categories of confidentiality based on lawyers and not on their clients seeing the materials: "In particular, the parties have included three levels of confidentiality -- Confidential, Confidential -- Attorneys' Eyes Only, and Confidential -- Outside Counsel Only[.]" Bedvidere, 2020 WL 1140394, at *1. The District of Kansas Model Protective Order does not include such categories of secrecy, and neither do the District of Kansas Guidelines for the Model Protective Order.
And what was so important that it has to be kept secret and available only in these two consolidated lawsuits and no others? This is an insurance coverage case. It involves competing coverages under Directors' and Officers' and Errors and Omissions insurance policies. See Download Bedvidere Ins. Co. v. Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Kansas Inc. No. 18-cv-02371-DDC DE #55 Amended Complaint filed 10.14.19 (D. Kan.).
Very hush-hush indeed.
Seriously, though: If you can get a stipulated protective order signed to keep your insurance coverage secrets, then what if anything must be disclosed?
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