Opinion

1 JAMES J. YUKEVICH (SBN 159896)

jyukevich@yukelaw.com

2 RAYMOND H. HUA (SBN 222466)

rhua@yukelaw.com

3 JI HONG SOHN (SBN 354482)

jsohn@yukelaw.com

4 YUKEVICH | CAVANAUGH

355 S. Grand Avenue. 15th Floor

5 Los Angeles, California 90071-1560

Telephone: (213) 362-7777

6 Facsimile: (213) 362-7788

Email: eservice@yukelaw.com

7

Attorneys for Defendant

8 GARFIELD BEACH CVS, LLC on behalf

of itself and on behalf of erroneously sued

9 and served CVS PHARMACY, INC.

10 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

11 CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

12 WESTERN DIVISION

13 KECIA SMITH, an individual, CASE NO. 2:25-cv-11450-KS

14 Plaintiff, STIPULATED PROTECTIVE

ORDER

15 vs.

Assigned to Judge Karen L. Stevenson

16 CVS PHARMACY, INC., a Rhode Courtroom 580

Island corporation; GARFIELD

17 BEACH CVS, LLC, a California Trial Date: None Set

limited liability company; and DOES 1-

18 50, inclusive,

19 Defendants.

20

21 1. A. PURPOSES AND LIMITATIONS

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

23 proprietary, or private information for which special protection from public

24 disclosure and from use for any purpose other than prosecuting this litigation may

25 be warranted. Accordingly, the parties hereby stipulate to and petition the Court to

26 enter the following Amended Stipulated Protective Order. The parties acknowledge

27 that this Order does not confer blanket protections on all disclosures or responses to

1 only to the limited information or items that are entitled to confidential treatment

2 under the applicable legal principles. The parties further acknowledge, as set forth in

3 Section 12.3, below, that this Amended Stipulated Protective Order does not entitle

4 them to file confidential information under seal; Civil Local Rule 79-5 sets forth the

5 procedures that must be followed and the standards that will be applied when a party

6 seeks permission from the court to file material under seal.

7 B. GOOD CAUSE STATEMENT

8 This action is likely to involve trade secrets, commercial, and/or proprietary

9 information for which special protection from public disclosure and from use for

10 any purpose other than prosecution of this action is warranted. Such confidential and

11 proprietary materials and information consist of, among other things, confidential

12 business or financial information, information regarding confidential business

13 practices, or commercial information (including information implicating privacy

14 rights of third parties), information otherwise generally unavailable to the public, or

15 which may be privileged or otherwise protected from disclosure under state or

16 federal statutes, court rules, case decisions, or common law. For instance, Defendant

17 is a nationwide pharmacy company, and thus employs numerous employees in each

18 of its stores and also maintains confidential business related records, which may be

19 pertinent to the instant action. Such records and materials may include items such as

20 store surveillance footage, which visually captures images of customers who would

21 be third-parties to their actions and implicates their privacy rights, internal policies

22 which Defendant may not wish customers to be aware of, and timesheets of

23 employees who are also third parties to the action.

24 Accordingly, to expedite the flow of information, to facilitate the prompt

25 resolution of disputes over confidentiality of discovery materials, to adequately

26 protect information the parties are entitled to keep confidential, to ensure that the

27 parties are permitted reasonable necessary uses of such material in preparation for

1 serve the ends of justice, a protective order for such information is justified in this

2 matter. It is the intent of the parties that information will not be designated as

3 confidential for tactical reasons and that nothing be so designated without a good

4 faith belief that it has been maintained in a confidential, non-public manner, and

5 there is good cause why it should not be part of the public record of this case.

6 2. DEFINITIONS

7 2.1 Action: this pending federal law suit.

8 2.2 Challenging Party: a Party or Non-Party that challenges the designation

9 of information or items under this Order.

10 2.3 “CONFIDENTIAL” Information or Items: information (regardless of

11 how it is generated, stored or maintained) or tangible things that qualify for

12 protection under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(c), and as specified above in

13 the Good Cause Statement.

14 2.4 Counsel: Outside Counsel of Record and House Counsel (as well as

15 their support staff).

16 2.5 Designating Party: a Party or Non-Party that designates information or

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

18 “CONFIDENTIAL.”

19 2.6 Disclosure or Discovery Material: all items or information, regardless

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

21 among other things, testimony, transcripts, and tangible things), that are produced or

22 generated in disclosures or responses to discovery in this matter.

23 2.7 Expert: a person with specialized knowledge or experience in a matter

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

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

26 2.8 House Counsel: attorneys who are employees of a party to this Action.

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

1 2.9 Non-Party: any natural person, partnership, corporation, association, or

2 other legal entity not named as a Party to this action.

3 2.10 Outside Counsel of Record: attorneys who are not employees of a party

4 to this Action but are retained to represent or advise a party to this Action and have

5 appeared in this Action on behalf of that party or are affiliated with a law firm which

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

7 2.11 Party: any party to this Action, including all of its officers, directors,

8 employees, consultants, retained experts, and Outside Counsel of Record (and their

9 support staffs).

10 2.12 Producing Party: a Party or Non-Party that produces Disclosure or

11 Discovery Material in this Action.

12 2.13 Professional Vendors: persons or entities that provide litigation support

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

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

15 and their employees and subcontractors.

16 2.14 Protected Material: any Disclosure or Discovery Material that is

17 designated as “CONFIDENTIAL.”

18 2.15 Receiving Party: a Party that receives Disclosure or Discovery Material

19 from a Producing Party.

20 3. SCOPE

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

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

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

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

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

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

27 trial judge. This Order does not govern the use of Protected Material at trial.

1 4. DURATION

2 Once a case proceeds to trial, all of the information that was designated as

3 confidential or maintained pursuant to this protective order becomes public and will

4 be presumptively available to all members of the public, including the press, unless

5 compelling reasons supported by specific factual findings to proceed otherwise are

6 made to the trial judge in advance of the trial. See Kamakana v. City and County of

7 Honolulu, 447 F.3d 1172, 1180-81 (9th Cir. 2006) (distinguishing “good cause”

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

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

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

11 5. DESIGNATING PROTECTED MATERIAL

12 5.1 Exercise of Restraint and Care in Designating Material for Protection.

13 Each Party or Non-Party that designates information or items for protection under

14 this Order must take care to limit any such designation to specific material that

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

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

17 communications that qualify so that other portions of the material, documents,

18 items, or communications for which protection is not warranted are not swept

19 unjustifiably within the ambit of this Order.

20 Mass, indiscriminate, or routinized designations are prohibited. Designations

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

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

23 unnecessary expenses and burdens on other parties) may expose the Designating

24 Party to sanctions.

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

26 designated for protection do not qualify for protection, that Designating Party must

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

1 this Order (see, e.g., second paragraph of section 5.2(a) below), or as otherwise

2 stipulated or ordered, Disclosure or Discovery Material that qualifies for protection

3 under this Order must be clearly so designated before the material is disclosed or

4 produced.

5 Designation in conformity with this Order requires:

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

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

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

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

10 portion or portions of the material on a page qualifies for protection, the Producing

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

12 markings in the margins).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

20 producing the specified documents, the Producing Party must affix the

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

22 portion or portions of the material on a page qualifies for protection, the Producing

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

24 markings in the margins).

25 (b) for testimony given in depositions that the Designating Party identify the

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

27 protected testimony.

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

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

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

4 protection, the Producing Party, to the extent practicable, shall identify the protected

5 portion(s).

6 5.3 Inadvertent Failures to Designate. If timely corrected, an inadvertent

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

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

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

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

11 Order.

12 6. CHALLENGING CONFIDENTIALITY DESIGNATIONS

13 6.1 Timing of Challenges. Any Party or Non-Party may challenge a

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

15 Scheduling Order.

16 6.2 Meet and Confer. The Challenging Party shall initiate the dispute

17 resolution process under Local Rule 37.1 et seq.

18 6.3 The burden of persuasion in any such challenge proceeding shall be on

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

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

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

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

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

24 entitled under the Producing Party’s designation until the Court rules on the

25 challenge.

26 7. ACCESS TO AND USE OF PROTECTED MATERIAL

27 7.1 Basic Principles. A Receiving Party may use Protected Material that is

1 Action only for prosecuting, defending, or attempting to settle this Action. Such

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

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

4 Receiving Party must comply with the provisions of section 13 below (FINAL

5 DISPOSITION).

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

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

8 authorized under this Order.

9 7.2 Disclosure of “CONFIDENTIAL” Information or Items. Unless

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

11 Receiving Party may disclose any information or item designated

12 “CONFIDENTIAL” only to:

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

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

15 disclose the information for this Action;

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

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

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

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

20 “Acknowledgment and Agreement to Be Bound” (Exhibit A);

21 (d) the court and its personnel;

22 (e) court reporters and their staff;

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

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

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

26 (g) the author or recipient of a document containing the information or a

27 custodian or other person who otherwise possessed or knew the information;

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

2 requests that the witness sign the form attached as Exhibit 1 hereto; and (2) they will

3 not be permitted to keep any confidential information unless they sign the

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

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

6 deposition testimony or exhibits to depositions that reveal Protected Material may

7 be separately bound by the court reporter and may not be disclosed to anyone except

8 as permitted under this Amended Stipulated Protective Order; and

9 (i) any mediator or settlement officer, and their supporting personnel,

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

11 8. PROTECTED MATERIAL SUBPOENAED OR ORDERED PRODUCED

12 IN OTHER LITIGATION

13 If a Party is served with a subpoena or a court order issued in other litigation

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

15 “CONFIDENTIAL,” that Party must:

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

17 include a copy of the subpoena or court order;

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

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

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

21 this Amended Stipulated Protective Order; and

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

23 by the Designating Party whose Protected Material may be affected.

24 If the Designating Party timely seeks a protective order, the Party served with

25 the subpoena or court order shall not produce any information designated in this

26 action as “CONFIDENTIAL” before a determination by the court from which the

27 subpoena or order issued, unless the Party has obtained the Designating Party’s

1 protection in that court of its confidential material and nothing in these provisions

2 should be construed as authorizing or encouraging a Receiving Party in this Action

3 to disobey a lawful directive from another court.

4 9. A NON-PARTY’S PROTECTED MATERIAL SOUGHT TO BE

5 PRODUCED IN THIS LITIGATION

6 (a) The terms of this Order are applicable to information produced by a Non-

7 Party in this Action and designated as “CONFIDENTIAL.” Such information

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

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

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

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

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

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

14 confidential information, then the Party shall:

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

16 that some or all of the information requested is subject to a confidentiality

17 agreement with a Non-Party;

18 (2) promptly provide the Non-Party with a copy of the Amended

19 Stipulated Protective Order in this Action, the relevant discovery request(s), and a

20 reasonably specific description of the information requested; and

21 (3) make the information requested available for inspection by the Non-

22 Party, if requested.

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

24 days of receiving the notice and accompanying information, the Receiving Party

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

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

27 not produce any information in its possession or control that is subject to the

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

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

3 10. UNAUTHORIZED DISCLOSURE OF PROTECTED MATERIAL

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

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

6 Amended Stipulated Protective Order, the Receiving Party must immediately (a)

7 notify in writing the Designating Party of the unauthorized disclosures, (b) use its

8 best efforts to retrieve all unauthorized copies of the Protected Material, (c) inform

9 the person or persons to whom unauthorized disclosures were made of all the terms

10 of this Order, and (d) request such person or persons to execute the

11 “Acknowledgment and Agreement to Be Bound” that is attached hereto as Exhibit

12 A.

13 11. INADVERTENT PRODUCTION OF PRIVILEGED OR OTHERWISE

14 PROTECTED MATERIAL

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

16 inadvertently produced material is subject to a claim of privilege or other protection,

17 the obligations of the Receiving Parties are those set forth in Federal Rule of Civil

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

19 may be established in an e-discovery order that provides for production without

20 prior privilege review. Pursuant to Federal Rule of Evidence 502(d) and (e), insofar

21 as the parties reach an agreement on the effect of disclosure of a communication or

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

23 parties may incorporate their agreement in the amended stipulated protective order

24 submitted to the court.

25 12. MISCELLANEOUS

26 12.1 Right to Further Relief. Nothing in this Order abridges the right of any

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

1 Protective Order no Party waives any right it otherwise would have to object to

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

3 Amended Stipulated Protective Order. Similarly, no Party waives any right to object

4 on any ground to use in evidence of any of the material covered by this Protective

5 Order.

6 12.3 Filing Protected Material. A Party that seeks to file under seal any

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

8 only be filed under seal pursuant to a court order authorizing the sealing of the

9 specific Protected Material at issue. If a Party’s request to file Protected Material

10 under seal is denied by the court, then the Receiving Party may file the information

11 in the public record unless otherwise instructed by the court.

12 13. FINAL DISPOSITION

13 After the final disposition of this Action, as defined in paragraph 4, within 60

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

15 all Protected Material to the Producing Party or destroy such material. As used in

16 this subdivision, “all Protected Material” includes all copies, abstracts, compilations,

17 summaries, and any other format reproducing or capturing any of the Protected

18 Material. Whether the Protected Material is returned or destroyed, the Receiving

19 Party must submit a written certification to the Producing Party (and, if not the same

20 person or entity, to the Designating Party) by the 60 day deadline that (1) identifies

21 (by category, where appropriate) all the Protected Material that was returned or

22 destroyed and (2)affirms that the Receiving Party has not retained any copies,

23 abstracts, compilations, summaries or any other format reproducing or capturing any

24 of the Protected Material. Notwithstanding this provision, Counsel are entitled to

25 retain an archival copy of all pleadings, motion papers, trial, deposition, and hearing

26 transcripts, legal memoranda, correspondence, deposition and trial exhibits, expert

27 reports, attorney work product, and consultant and expert work product, even if such

1 || constitute Protected Material remain subject to this Protective Order as set forth in

2 || Section 4 (DURATION).

3 14. Any violation of this Order may be punished by any and all appropriate

4 || measures including, without limitation, contempt proceedings and/or monetary

5 || sanctions.

IT IS SO STIPULATED, THROUGH COUNSEL OF RECORD.

7 || DATED May 06, 2026

8

te

|| Vanessa Fantasia _

Attorneys for Plaintiff KECIA SMITH

11

12

DATED:May 6, 2026

13

©

Raymond H. Hua

4 2 16|| Ji Hong Sohn

Attorneys for Defendant GARFIELD BEACH CVS, L.L.C.

g 17

18

19 FOR GOOD CAUSE SHOWN, IT IS SO ORDERED.

20

54 DATED:_, May 7, 2026

auen_ 1 ieosansn

22

Hon. Karen L. Stevenson □

23 || United States Distret4Vlagistrate Judge

24

25

26

27

28

1 EXHIBIT A

2 ACKNOWLEDGMENT AND AGREEMENT TO BE BOUND

3 I, _____________________________ [print or type full name], of

4 _________________ [print or type full address], declare under penalty of perjury

5 that I have read in its entirety and understand the Stipulated Protective Order that

6 was issued by the United States District Court for the Central District of California

7 on [date] in the case of ___________ [insert formal name of the case and the

8 number and initials assigned to it by the court]. I agree to comply with and to be

9 bound by all the terms of this Stipulated Protective Order and I understand and

10 acknowledge that failure to so comply could expose me to sanctions and punishment

11 in the nature of contempt. I solemnly promise that I will not disclose in any manner

12 any information or item that is subject to this Stipulated Protective Order to any

13 person or entity except in strict compliance with the provisions of this Order.

14 I further agree to submit to the jurisdiction of the United States District Court

15 for the Central District of California for the purpose of enforcing the terms of this

16 Stipulated Protective Order, even if such enforcement proceedings occur after

17 termination of this action. I hereby appoint __________________________ [print or

18 type full name] of _______________________________________ [print or type

19 full address and telephone number] as my California agent for service of process in

20 connection with this action or any proceedings related to enforcement of this

21 Stipulated Protective Order.

22

23 Date: ______________________________________

24 City and State where sworn and signed: _________________________________

25 Printed name: _______________________________

26 Signature: __________________________________

27