Following a rapidly accelerating trend, the Court in Loy v. BMW of N. Am., No. 4:19-CV-00184 JAR, 2021 WL 3930501 (E.D. Mo. September 2, 2021) called Stipulated Protective Orders by their true names: "Confidentiality Orders." They are orders written and submitted by the parties for the purpose of asking the courts to protect certain materials exchanged in discovery. That is what they are.
That is all they are.
This practice is a trend accelerating in a crescendo of opinions, and it is a contemporary trend followed in the Third Circuit in particular. Let it be followed everywhere; nothing will be lost, something will be gained and that something is how the issue is framed: Confidentiality and the Rules of Civil Procedure.
Parenthetically, the Court addressed two motions which implicated the "Confidentiality Orders" previously entered in that case. One of the motions is of particular interest here. It was a motion for contempt and sanctions, as to which the Court declined to strike affirmative defenses but reserved ruling on whether to award attorney's fees and costs in the future for discovery violations described in the opinion.
Along with the motion for contempt and sanctions, the plaintiffs requested that the Court remove the "Confidentiality" designation from certain presentation slides which BMW designated as "Confidential" after BMW at first denied that the slides even existed. The Court ordered BMW to submit the slides for the Court's in camera inspection.
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