This column reports on discovery decisions filed in October and November in New York area federal courts. The Second Circuit affirmed a District Court’s modification of a protective order unsealing deposition testimony, finding that the general presumption against modification was not applicable where the order was entered after the confidential testimony was given. Southern District Magistrate Judge Douglas F. Eaton applied the amendments to Fed. R. Civ. P. 26 in denying a discovery request as unjustified and duplicative. Other decisions of note include an opinion by Southern District Magistrate Judge James C. Francis permitting, but limiting discovery of nonparty customers in a trademark dispute, and a sanctions order by Southern District Magistrate Judge Theodore H. Katz precluding a defendant from opposing a claim relating to documents defendant had failed to produce. Finally, Southern District Judge Richard M. Berman found that the court retained jurisdiction to consider a motion to compel return of a document following dismissal of a lawsuit, but that absent evidence that the document had been improperly obtained, there was no basis to order its return.
Protective Orders
