Eunice Youmans v. Chelan-Douglas Land Trust; Doe(s) 1-100 employees of Chelan-Douglas Land Trust; and Corporation(s) XYZ 1-100

Summary

This document is an order of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington adopting the parties’ stipulated protective order in Eunice Youmans v. Chelan-Douglas Land Trust, et al. It governs the designation, use, disclosure, challenge, filing, and return or destruction of confidential discovery materials, including medical, financial, personnel, and membership information.

Holdings

1. The parties established good cause for protecting the specified categories of confidential discovery materials, and the court adopted the stipulated protective order.
2. After a threshold showing of good cause, the court must balance public and private interests and determine whether less restrictive alternatives, such as redaction, can ameliorate the asserted harm.
3. The protective order does not provide blanket protection for all disclosures and does not presumptively entitle the parties to file confidential information under seal; the party seeking continued confidentiality or sealing bears the applicable burden and must obtain court permission.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the parties established good cause for a stipulated protective order covering specified medical, financial, personnel, and membership-list information.
2. Whether the proposed protective order appropriately limited confidentiality protections to material entitled to protection and preserved the requirement of court approval before filing material under seal.

Disposition

approved