Judith Bean v. Walmart Inc.

1 O’HAGAN MEYER

THEODORE C. PETERS (SBN 235115)

2 || SIDORELA DELIU-KERASIOTIS (SBN 297318)

3 2615 Pacific Coast Highway, Suite 300

Hermosa Beach, CA 90254

4 || Tel: 310.807.1100 | Fax: 310.807.1115

Email: tpeters@ohaganmeyer.com

5 Email: sdeliu-kerasiotis@ohaganmeyer.com

6 || Attorney for Defendant

7 || WALMART INC.

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UNITED STATES DISTRIC COURT

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FOR THE CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

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!3 || JUDITH BEAN, an individual, Case No.: 2:24-cv-08871 CAS (RAOx)

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Plaintiff, STIPULATION AND PROPOSED

15 PROTECTIVE ORDER

«16 VS.

17 . .

Complaint Filed: August 20, 2024

18 || WALMART INC., a Delaware Trial Date: June 2, 2026

19 Corporation, and DOES 1-50, Inclusive,

20 Defendants.

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1. PURPOSES AND LIMITATIONS

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Discovery in this action is likely to involve production of confidential,

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6 proprietary or private information for which special protection from public

97 disclosure and from use for any purpose other than pursuing this litigation may be

28 || warranted. Accordingly, the parties hereby stipulate to and petition the Court to

|| enter the following Stipulated Protective Order. The parties acknowledge that this

2 || Order does not confer blanket protections on all disclosures or responses to

3 || discovery and that the protection it affords from public disclosure and use extends

4 |! only to the limited information or items that are entitled to confidential treatment

> || under the applicable legal principles.

° 2. GOOD CAUSE STATEMENT

This action is likely to involve trade secrets, customer and pricing lists and

9 other valuable research, development, commercial, financial, technical and/or

10 proprietary information for which special protection from public disclosure and from

11 |}use for any purpose other than prosecution of this action is warranted. Such

12 |) confidential and proprietary materials and information consist of, among other

things, confidential business or financial information, information regarding

4 confidential business practices, or other confidential research, development, or

. commercial information (including information implicating privacy nights of third

7 parties), information otherwise generally unavailable to the public, or which may be

1g privileged or otherwise protected from disclosure under state or federal statutes,

19 |}court rules, case decisions, or common law. Accordingly, to expedite the flow of

20 || information, to facilitate the prompt resolution of disputes over confidentiality of

71 discovery materials, to adequately protect information the parties are entitled to keep

confidential, to ensure that the parties are permitted reasonable necessary uses of

such material in preparation for and in the conduct of trial, to address their handling

at the end of the litigation, and serve the ends of justice, a protective order for such

26 ||information is justified in this matter. It is the intent of the parties that information

27 || will not be designated as confidential for tactical reasons and that nothing be so

28 || designated without a good faith belief that it has been maintained in a confidential,

, || mon-public manner, and there is good cause why it should not be part of the public

2 ||record of this case.

3 3. ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF UNDER SEAL FILING PROCEDURE

4 The parties further acknowledge, as set forth in Section 14.3, below, that this

> Stipulated Protective Order does not entitle them to file confidential information

° under seal; Local Civil Rule 79-5 sets forth the procedures that must be followed an

the standards that will be applied when a party seeks permission from the court to

9 file material under seal. There is a strong presumption that the public has a right of

10 access to judicial proceedings and records in civil cases. In connection with non-

11 || dispositive motions, good cause must be shown to support a filing under seal. See

12 || Kamakana v. City and County of Honolulu, 447 F.3d 1172, 1176 (9th Cir. 2006),

'3 |! Phillips v. Gen. Motors Corp., 307 F.3d 1206, 1210-11 (9th Cir. 2002), Makar-

4 Welbon v. Sony Electrics, Inc., 187 F.R.D. 576, 577 (E.D. Wis. 1999) (even

. stipulated protective orders require good cause showing), and a specific showing of

7 good cause or compelling reasons with proper evidentiary support and legal

1g ||Justification, must be made with respect to Protected Material that a party seeks to

19 || file under seal. The parties’ mere designation of Disclosure or Discovery Material as

20 || CONFIDENTIAL does not— without the submission of competent evidence by

71 declaration, establishing that the material sought to be filed under seal qualifies as

confidential, privileged, or otherwise protectable—constitute good cause.

Further, if a party requests sealing related to a dispositive motion or trial, then

05 compelling reasons, not only good cause, for the sealing must be shown, and the

26 || relief sought shall be narrowly tailored to serve the specific interest to be protected.

27 || See Pintos v. Pacific Creditors Ass’n., 605 F.3d 665, 677-79 (9th Cir. 2010). For

28 || each item or type of information, document, or thing sought to be filed or introduced

, under seal, the party seeking protection must articulate compelling reasons,

2 ||supported by specific facts and legal justification, for the requested sealing order.

3 || Again, competent evidence supporting the application to file documents under seal

4 || must be provided by declaration.

> Any document that is not confidential, privileged, or otherwise protectable in

° its entirety will not be filed under seal if the confidential portions can be redacted. If

documents can be redacted, then a redacted version for public viewing, omitting

9 only the confidential, privileged, or otherwise protectable portions of the document,

10 ||Shall be filed. Any application that seeks to file documents under seal in their

11 entirety should include an explanation of why redaction is not feasible.

12 4. DEFINITIONS

8 4.1 Action: Judith Bean v. Walmart Inc. Case No. 2:24-cv-08871 CAS

aRaox)

2 «15

4.2 Challenging Party: a Party or Non-Party that challenges the designation

7 of information or items under this Order.

18 4.3. “CONFIDENTIAL” Information or Items: information

19 (regardless of how it is generated, stored or maintained) or tangible things that

20 || qualify for protection under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(c), and as specified

21 || above in the Good Cause Statement.

4.4 Counsel: Outside Counsel of Record and House Counsel (as well as

their support staff).

95 4.5 Designating Party: a Party or Non-Party that designates information or

26 items that it produces in disclosures or in responses to discovery as

27 ||“CONFIDENTIAL.”

28 4.6 Disclosure or Discovery Material: all items or information, regardless of

, || the medium or manner in which it is generated, stored, or maintained (including,

2 |}among other things, testimony, transcripts, and tangible things), that are produced or

3 || generated in disclosures or responses to discovery.

4 4.7 Expert: a person with specialized knowledge or experience in a matter

> pertinent to the litigation who has been retained by a Party or its counsel to serve as

° an expert witness or as a consultant in this Action.

4.8 House Counsel: attorneys who are employees of a party to this Action.

g || House Counsel does not include Outside Counsel of Record or any other outside

19 ||counsel.

11 4.9 Non-Party: any natural person, partnership, corporation, association or

12 |) other legal entity not named as a Party to this action.

13 4.10 Outside Counsel of Record: attorneys who are not employees of a party

"4 to this Action but are retained to represent a party to this Action and have appeared

. in this Action on behalf of that party or are affiliated with a law firm that has

7 appeared on behalf of that party, and includes support staff.

18 4.11 Party: any party to this Action, including all of its officers, directors,

19 |}employees, consultants, retained experts, and Outside Counsel of Record (and their

20 || support staffs).

71 4.12 Producing Party: a Party or Non-Party that produces Disclosure or

Discovery Material in this Action.

4.13 Professional Vendors: persons or entities that provide litigation support

95 services (e.g., photocopying, videotaping, translating, preparing exhibits or

26 || demonstrations, and organizing, storing, or retrieving data in any form or medium)

27 ||and their employees and subcontractors.

28 4.14 Protected Material: any Disclosure or Discovery Material that is

|| designated as “CONFIDENTIAL.”

2 4.15 Receiving Party: a Party that receives Disclosure or Discovery Material

3 || from a Producing Party.

4 5S. SCOPE

> The protections conferred by this Stipulation and Order cover not only

° Protected Material (as defined above), but also (1) any information copied or

extracted from Protected Material; (2) all copies, excerpts, summaries, or

9 compilations of Protected Material; and (3) any testimony, conversations, or

10 presentations by Parties or their Counsel that might reveal Protected Material.

11 || Any use of Protected Material at trial shall be governed by the orders of the trial

12 || judge and other applicable authorities. This Order does not govern the use of

'3 | Protected Material at trial.

6. DURATION

. Once a case proceeds to trial, information that was designated as

7 CONFIDENTIAL or maintained pursuant to this protective order used or introduced

1g ||as an exhibit at trial becomes public and will be presumptively available to all

19 |}members of the public, including the press, unless compelling reasons supported by

20 || specific factual findings to proceed otherwise are made to the trial judge in advance

| of the trial. See Kamakana, 447 F.3d at 1180-81 (distinguishing “good cause”

showing for sealing documents produced in discovery from “compelling reasons”

standard when merits-related documents are part of court record). Accordingly, the

terms of this protective order do not extend beyond the commencement of the trial.

%6 7. DESIGNATING PROTECTED MATERIAL

27 7.1 Exercise of Restraint and Care in Designating Material for Protection.

28 Each Party or Non-Party that designates information or items for protection

, || under this Order must take care to limit any such designation to specific material that

2 || qualifies under the appropriate standards. The Designating Party must designate for

3 || protection only those parts of material, documents, items or oral or written

4 || communications that qualify so thatother portions of the material, documents, items

> || or communications for which protection is not warranted are not swept unjustifiably

° within the ambit of this Order.

Mass, indiscriminate or routinized designations are prohibited. Designations

9 that are shown to be clearly unjustified or that have been made for an improper

10 purpose (e.g., to unnecessarily encumber the case development process or to impose

11 |}unnecessary expenses and burdens on other parties) may expose the Designating

12 |) Party to sanctions.

If it comes to a Designating Party’s attention that information or items that it

"4 designated for protection do not qualify for protection, that Designating Party must

. promptly notify all other Parties that it is withdrawing the inapplicable designation.

7 7.2 Manner and Timing of Designations. Except as otherwise provided in

1g ||this Order, or as otherwise stipulated or ordered, Disclosure of Discovery Material

19 that qualifies for protection under this Order must be clearly so designated before the

20 || material is disclosed or produced.

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Designation in conformity with this Order requires:

(a) for information in documentary form (e.g., paper or electronic documents,

but excluding transcripts of depositions or other pretrial or trial proceedings), that

the Producing Party affix at a minimum, the legend “CONFIDENTIAL” (hereinafter

“CONFIDENTIAL legend”), to each page that contains protected material. If only a

°° portion of the material on a page qualifies for protection, the Producing Party also

must clearly identify the protected portion(s) (e.g., by making appropriate markings

1 |}in the margins).

2 A Party or Non-Party that makes original documents available for inspection

3 ||need not designate them for protection until after the inspecting Party has indicated

4 which documents it would like copied and produced. During the inspection and

5 || before the designation, all of the material made available for inspection shall be

6 deemed “CONFIDENTIAL.” After the inspecting Party has identified the

7 ||documents it wants copied and produced, the Producing Party must determine which

8 documents, or portions thereof, qualify for protection under this Order. Then, before

9 || producing the specified documents, the Producing Party must affix the

10 || “CONFIDENTIAL legend” to each page that contains Protected Material. If only a

11 || portion of the material on a page qualifies for protection, the Producing Party also

12 must clearly identify the protected portion(s) (e.g., by making appropriate markings

13 |/in the margins).

2 14 (b) for testimony given in depositions that the Designating Party identifies the

15 || Disclosure or Discovery Material on the record, before the close of the deposition all

; ||protected testimony.

17 (c) for information produced in some form other than documentary and for

18 any other tangible items, that the Producing Party affix in a prominent place on the

19 exterior of the container or containers in which the information is stored the legend

20 || “CONFIDENTIAL.” If only a portion or portions of the information warrants

21 || protection, the Producing Party, to the extent practicable, shall identify the protected

22 portion(s).

23 7.3. Inadvertent Failures to Designate. If timely corrected, an inadvertent

24 || failure to designate qualified information or items does not, standing alone, waive

25 ||the Designating Party’s right to secure protection under this Order for such material.

26 || Upon timely correction of a designation, the Receiving Party must make reasonable

27 efforts to assure that the material is treated in accordance with the provisions of this

28 || Order.

1 8. CHALLENGING CONFIDENTIALITY DESIGNATIONS

2 8.1. Timing of Challenges. Any Party or Non-Party may challenge a

3 ||designation of confidentiality at any time that is consistent with the Court’s

4 || Scheduling Order.

5 8.2 Meet and Confer. The Challenging Party shall initiate the dispute

6 || resolution process under Local Rule 37-1 et seq.

7 8.3 Joint Stipulation. Any challenge submitted to the Court shall be via a

8 |] joint stipulation pursuant to Local Rule 37-2.

9 8.4 The burden of persuasion in any such challenge proceeding shall be on

10 || the Designating Party. Frivolous challenges, and those made for an improper

11 || purpose (e.g., to harass or impose unnecessary expenses and burdens on other

12 || parties) may expose the Challenging Party to sanctions. Unless the Designating

13 || Party has waived or withdrawn the confidentiality designation, all parties shall

2 14 continue to afford the material in question the level of protection to which it is

15 |} entitled under the Producing Party’s designation until the Court rules on the

> 16 |/challenge.

17 9. ACCESS TO AND USE OF PROTECTED MATERIAL

18 9.1 Basic Principles. A Receiving Party may use Protected Material that is

19 || disclosed or produced by another Party or by a Non-Party in connection with this

20 |) Action only for prosecuting, defending or attempting to settle this Action. Such

21 || Protected Material may be disclosed only to the categories of persons and under the

22 ||conditions described in this Order. When the Action has been terminated, a

23 || Receiving Party must comply with the provisions of section 15 below (FINAL

24 || DISPOSITION).

25 Protected Material must be stored and maintained by a Receiving Party at a

26 location and in a secure manner that ensures that access is limited to the persons

27 || authorized under this Order.

28 || ///

1 9.2 Disclosure of “CONFIDENTIAL” Information or Items. Unless

2 otherwise ordered by the court or permitted in writing by the Designating Party, a

3 || Receiving Party may disclose any information or item designated

4 ||“CONFIDENTIAL” only to:

5 (a) the Receiving Party’s Outside Counsel of Record in this Action, as well as

6 ||employees of said Outside Counsel of Record to whom it is reasonably necessary to

7 || disclose the information for this Action;

8 (b) the officers, directors, and employees (including House Counsel) of the

9 ||Receiving Party to whom disclosure is reasonably necessary for this Action;

10 (c) Experts (as defined in this Order) of the Receiving Party to whom

11 || disclosure is reasonably necessary for this Action and who have signed the

12 ||“Acknowledgment and Agreement to Be Bound” (Exhibit A) [TO BE

13 || NEGOTIATED AND PREPARED BY PARTIES AND ATTACHED TO

14 || STIPULATION AND PROPOSED ORDER];

15 (d) the court and its personnel;

16 (e) court reporters and their staff;

17 (f) professional jury or trial consultants, mock jurors, and Professional

18 || Vendors to whom disclosure is reasonably necessary for this Action and who have

19 || signed the “Acknowledgment and Agreement to Be Bound” (Exhibit A);

20 (g) the author recipient of a document containing the

21 |/information or a custodian or other person who otherwise possessed or knew

22 || the information;

23 (h) during their depositions, witnesses, and attorneys for witnesses, in the

24 || Action to whom disclosure is reasonably necessary provided: (1) the deposing party

25 ||requests that the witness sign the form attached as Exhibit A hereto; and (2) they

26 || will not be permitted to keep any confidential information unless they sign the

27 ||““Acknowledgment and Agreement to Be Bound” (Exhibit A), unless otherwise

28 ||agreed by the Designating Party or ordered by the court. Pages of transcribed

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1 || deposition testimony or exhibits to depositions that reveal Protected Material may be

2 ||separately bound by the court reporter and may not be disclosed to anyone except as

3 || permitted under this Stipulated Protective Order; and

4 (1) any mediators or settlement officers and their supporting personnel,

5 || mutually agreed upon by any of the parties engaged in settlement discussions.

6 10. PROTECTED MATERIAL SUBPOENAED OR ORDERED

7 PRODUCED IN OTHER LITIGATION

8 Ifa Party is served with a subpoena or a court order issued in other litigation

9 that compels disclosure of any information or items designated in this Action as

10 || “CONFIDENTIAL,” that Party must:

11 (a) promptly notify in writing the Designating Party. Such notification shall

12 ||include a copy of the subpoena or court order;

13 (b) promptly notify in writing the party who caused the subpoena or order to

2 14 issue in the other litigation that some or all of the material covered by the subpoena

15 |/or order is subject to this Protective Order. Such notification shall include a copy of

16 this Stipulated Protective Order; and

17 (c) cooperate with respect to all reasonable procedures sought to be

18 pursued by the Designating Party whose Protected Material may be affected. If he

19 |) Designating Party timely seeks a protective order, the Party served with the

20 ||subpoena or court order shall not produce any information designated in this action

21 |Jas “CONFIDENTIAL” before a determination by the court from which the □□□□□□□□□

22 |/or order issued, unless the Party has obtained the Designating Party’s permission.

23 || The Designating Party shall bear the burden and expense of seeking protection in

24 that court of its confidential material and nothing in these provisions should be

25 ||construed as authorizing or encouraging a Receiving Party in this Action to disobey

26 ||a lawful directive from another court.

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28 || ///

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1 11. A NON-PARTY’S PROTECTED MATERIAL SOUGHT TO BE

2 PRODUCED IN THIS LITIGATION

3 (a) The terms of this Order are applicable to information produced by a

4 ||Non-Party in this Action and designated as “CONFIDENTIAL.” Such information

5 || produced by Non-Parties in connection with this litigation is protected by the

6 ||remedies and relief provided by this Order. Nothing in these provisions should be

7 ||construed as prohibiting a Non-Party from seeking additional protections.

8 (b) In the event that a Party is required, by a valid discovery request, to

9 || produce a Non-Party’s confidential information in its possession, and the Party is

10 subject to an agreement with the Non-Party not to produce the Non-Party’s

11 ||}confidential information, then the Party shall:

12 (1) promptly notify in writing the Requesting Party and the Non-Party that

13 |}some or all of the information requested is subject to a confidentiality agreement

2 14 with a Non-Party;

15 (2) promptly provide the Non-Party with a copy of the Stipulated Protective

16 || Order in this Action, the relevant discovery request(s), and a reasonably specific

17 description of the information requested; and

18 (3) make the information requested available for inspection by the Non-Party,

19 |/if requested.

20 (c) If the Non-Party fails to seek a protective order from this court within 14

21 || days of receiving the notice and accompanying information, the Receiving Party

22 ||may produce the Non-Party’s confidential information responsive to the discovery

23 ||request. If the Non-Party timely seeks a protective order, the Receiving Party shall

24 |/not produce any information in its possession or control that is subject to the

25 ||confidentiality agreement with the Non-Party before a determination by the court.

26 || Absent a court order to the contrary, the Non-Party shall bear the burden and

27 expense of seeking protection in this court of its Protected Material.

28 ///

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1 12, UNAUTHORIZED DISCLOSURE OF PROTECTED MATERIAL

2 If a Receiving Party learns that, by inadvertence or otherwise, it has disclosed

3 || Protected Material to any person or in any circumstance not authorized under this

4 || Stipulated Protective Order, the Receiving Party must immediately (a) notify in

5 || writing the Designating Party of the unauthorized disclosures, (b) use its best efforts

6 to retrieve all unauthorized copies of the Protected Material, (c) inform the person or

7 ||persons to whom unauthorized disclosures were made of all the terms of this Order,

8 and (d) request such person or persons to execute the “Acknowledgment an

9 || Agreement to Be Bound” attached hereto as Exhibit A.

10 13. INADVERTENT PRODUCTION OF PRIVILEGED OR

11 OTHERWISE PROTECTED MATERIAL

12 When a Producing Party gives notice to Receiving Parties that certain

13 |}inadvertently produced material is subject to a claim of privilege or other protection,

2 14 the obligations of the Receiving Parties are those set forth in Federal Rule of Civil\

15 || Procedure 26(b)(5)(B). This provision is not intended to modify whatever procedure

16 ||may be established in an e-discovery order that provides for production without prio

17 || privilege review. Pursuant to Federal Rule of Evidence 502(d) and (ce), insofar as the

18 || parties reach an agreement on the effect of disclosure of a communication or

19 ||information covered by the attorney-client privilege or work product protection, the

20 parties may incorporate their agreement in the stipulated protective order submitted

21 || to the court.

22 14. MISCELLANEOUS

23 14.1 Right to Further Relief. Nothing in this Order abridges the nght of any

24 person to seek its modification by the Court in the future.

25 14.2 Right to Assert Other Objections. By stipulating to the entry of this

26 || Protective Order, no Party waives any right it otherwise would have to object to

27 || disclosing or producing any information or item on any ground not addressed in this

28 || Stipulated Protective Order. Similarly, no Party waives any right to object on any

12

1 || ground to use in evidence of any of the material covered by this Protective Order.

2 14.3 Filing Protected Material. A Party that seeks to file under seal any

3 || Protected Material must comply with Local Civil Rule 79-5. Protected Material may

4 only be filed under seal pursuant to a court order authorizing the

5 sealing of the specific Protected Material. If a Party’s request to file Protected

6 || Material under seal is denied by the court, then the Receiving Party may file the

7 ||information in the public record unless otherwise instructed by the court.

8 15. FINAL DISPOSITION

9 After the final disposition of this Action, as defined in paragraph 6, within 60

10 days of a written request by the Designating Party, each Receiving Party must return

11 |/all Protected Material to the Producing Party or destroy such retain an archival copy

12 |/of all pleadings, motion papers, trial, deposition, and hearing transcripts, legal

13 ||memoranda, correspondence, deposition and trial exhibits, expert reports, attorney

2 14 work product, and consultant and expert work product, even if such materials

15 |}contain Protected Material. Any such archival copies that contain or constitute

16 || Protected Material remain subject to this Protective Order as set forth in Section 6

> 17 ||(DURATION).

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1A

1 16. VIOLATION

2 Any violation of this Order may be punished by appropriate measures

3 |{including, without limitation, contempt proceedings and/or monetary sanctions.

4 ||IT IS SO STIPULATED, THROUGH COUNSEL OF RECORD.

5

6 Respectfully submitted,

7 || Dated: April 22, 2025 THE KIZZIE FIRM, APC

8

By: /s/Antonio K. Kizzie

9 ANTONIO K. KIZZIE

'0 JSGM LAW LLP

11 By: /s/Jon M. Steiner

D JON M. STEINER

B Attorneys for PLAINTIFF JUDITH

BEAN, an individual

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DATED: April 23, 2025 Respectfully submitted,

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O’HAGAN MEYER

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21 By: _/s/ Theodore C. Peters

THEODORE C. PETERS

SIDORELA DELIU-KERASIOTIS

23 Attorneys for Defendant

4 WALMART INC.

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FOR GOOD CAUSE SHOWN, IT IS SO ORDERED

3 || DATED: 5/14/2025

Raylls a, □□□

HON. ROZELLA A. OLIVER

6 UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE

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