IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF OHIO

EASTERN (COLUMBUS) DIVISION

Brian Garrett,

Edward Gonzales,

Kent Kilgore,

Adam Plouse, and

John Does 1-35, individually and 

on behalf of all others similarly situated,

Plaintiffs,

vs. Civil Case 2:18-cv-00692-MHW-EPD

The Ohio State University, 

Defendant.

CLASS ACTION

STIPULATED PROTECTIVE ORDER

I. INTRODUCTION

The parties, by their undersigned counsel, pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(c)(1), hereby 

request the Court to enter this Stipulated Protective Order. 

In the course of discovery in this action, the parties may be required to produce 

information that constitutes, in whole or in part, confidential personal or private identifying 

information of victims of sexual abuse, former students, and employees. The parties recognize 

that unrestricted disclosure of such confidential and private information may cause harm to the 

parties or non-parties. The parties request entry of a Stipulated Protective Order to prevent 

unnecessary disclosure or dissemination of such confidential and private information, and have 

established good cause for entry of the Stipulated Protective Order.

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II. SCOPE OF PROTECTED INFORMATION

The parties anticipate production of the following categories of protected information: 

a. Personnel files and other personal information relating to Defendant and/or its

employees, such as date of birth or home address; and

b. Personal information about Plaintiffs or other third parties provided with an 

expectation of confidence, including student educational, employment, 

personnel, medical, and/or mental health records, some of which would be 

protected by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and/or 

the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

III. DESIGNATION OF PROTECTED INFORMATION

A. Scope: This Order governs the production and handling of any protected 

information this action. Any party or non-party who produces protected information in this 

action may designate it as “Confidential” consistent with the terms of this Order. “Designating 

Party” means the party or non-party who so designates the protected information; “Receiving 

Party” means the party or non-party to whom such information was produced or disclosed. 

Whenever possible, the Designating Party must designate only those portions of a document, 

deposition, transcript, or other material that contain the protected information and refrain from 

designating entire documents. Regardless of any designations made hereunder, the Designating 

Party is not otherwise restricted from use or disclosure of its protected information outside of this 

action. In addition, any party may move to modify or seek other relief from any of the terms of 

this Order if it has first tried in writing and in good faith to resolve its needs or disputes with the 

other party(ies) pursuant to the terms of this Order and S.D. Ohio Civ. R. 37-1.

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B. Application to Non-Parties: Before a non-party is given copies of designated 

information as permitted hereunder, it must first sign the acknowledgment to be bound to these 

terms that is attached hereto as Exhibit A; if it fails to do so, the parties to this action must 

resolve any such dispute before making disclosure of designated information as permitted 

hereunder to the non-party. If a non-party wishes to make designations hereunder, it must first 

sign the acknowledgment to be bound to these terms that is attached hereto as Exhibit A. 

C. Timing and Provisional Protection: Designations may be made at any time. To 

avoid potential waiver of protection hereunder, the Designating Party should designate 

information at the time of production or disclosure, including on the record during the taking of 

any testimony. Deposition testimony will be deemed provisionally protected for a period of 

fifteen (15) days after the transcript is released to the parties by the court reporter, although the 

parties may agree at any time to different timelines of provisional protection of information as 

Confidential as part of one or more specific depositions. To retain any designations beyond the 

provisional period, a Designating Party must designate specific pages and lines of deposition 

testimony before the provisional period has expired. Such designations must be made in writing 

so that all counsel and court reporters may append the designation to all copies of the transcripts.

Any Party may file designated information with the Court under a provisional seal of 

fifteen (15) days, during which the Designating Party shall file a motion to maintain the seal. 

Any Party objecting to the seal must file any objection within seven (7) days of the filing of a 

motion to maintain the seal.

D. Manner of Designation: The producing party or non-party may designate 

documents as containing Confidential Information and therefore subject to protection under this 

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ment and on all copies in a manner that will not interfere with the legibility of the document. As 

used in this Order, “copies” includes electronic images, duplicates, extracts, summaries or 

descriptions that contain the Confidential Information. The marking will be applied prior to or at 

the time the documents are produced or disclosed. For interrogatories, requests to admit or any 

other written responses to discovery requests, the Designating Party shall designate pages that 

contain Confidential information by stamping or labeling each page containing such matter with 

the marking. Applying the marking to a document does not mean that the document has any 

status or protection by statute or otherwise except to the extent and for the purposes of this 

Order. Copies that are made of any designated documents must also bear the marking, except 

that indices, electronic databases, or lists of documents that do not contain substantial portions or 

images of the text of marked documents and do not otherwise disclose the substance of the 

Confidential Information are not required to be marked. By marking a designated document as 

Confidential, the designating attorney thereby certifies that the document contains Confidential 

Information as defined in this Order.

IV. CHALLENGES TO DESIGNATED INFORMATION

In the event that a Receiving Party disagrees at any time with any designation(s) made by 

the Designating Party, the Receiving Party must first try to resolve such challenge in good faith 

on an informal basis with the Designating Party pursuant to S.D. Ohio L.R. 37-1. The Receiving 

Party must provide written notice of the challenge and the grounds therefor to the Designating 

Party, who must respond in writing to the challenge within fifteen (15) days. At all times, the 

Designating Party carries the burden of establishing good cause for the designation and 

protection level. Unless and until the challenge is resolved by the parties or ruled upon by the 

Court, the designated information will remain protected under this Order. The failure of any

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Receiving Party to challenge a designation does not constitute a concession that the designation 

is proper or an admission that the designated information is otherwise competent, relevant, or 

material.

V. LIMITED ACCESS/USE OF PROTECTED INFORMATION

A. Restricted Use: Information that is produced or exchanged in the course of this 

action and designated under this Order may be used solely for the preparation, trial, and any 

appeal of this action, as well as related settlement negotiations, and for no other purpose, without 

the written consent of the Designating Party. No designated information may be disclosed to any 

person except in accordance with the terms of this Order. All persons in possession of 

designated information agree to exercise reasonable care with regard to the custody, use, or 

storage of such information to ensure that its confidentiality is maintained. This obligation 

includes, but is not limited to, the Receiving Party providing to the Designating Party prompt 

notice of the receipt of any subpoena that seeks production or disclosure of any designated 

information. Any use or disclosure of Confidential information in violation of the terms of this 

Order may subject the disclosing person or party to sanctions.

B. Access to “Confidential” Information: The parties and all persons subject to this 

Order agree that information designated as “Confidential” may only be accessed or reviewed by 

the following:

1. The Court, its personnel, jurors, and court reporters;

2. Counsel of record for any party in this action and their employees who assist 

counsel of record in this action and are informed of the duties hereunder;

3. The parties, including their agents and employees who are assisting or have 

reason to know of this action, so long as each such agent or employee has 

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signed the acknowledgment to be bound to these terms that is attached hereto 

as Exhibit A;

4. Experts or consultants employed by the parties or their counsel for purposes of 

this action, so long as each such expert or consultant has signed the 

acknowledgment to be bound to these terms that is attached hereto as Exhibit 

A; and

5. Any deponent (who will then be subject to this Order);

6. Any person (a) who was involved in the preparation of the document or other 

tangible medium containing the Confidential Information and/or who is 

shown on the face of “Confidential” material to have authored or received it, 

or (b) who is specifically referenced by name and substantively discussed in 

the “Confidential” material;

7. Court reporter and/or videographer;

8. Other witnesses or persons with the Designating Party’s consent or by Court 

Order.

C. Review of Witness Acknowledgments: At any time and for any purpose, 

including to monitor compliance with the terms hereof, any Designating Party may demand to 

review all copies of Exhibit A in any Receiving Party’s possession. The Receiving Party must, 

within 3 business days of the demand, provide all such copies to the Designating Party making 

the demand. Notwithstanding the foregoing, if the Receiving Party has retained an expert whose 

identity has not yet been disclosed to the Designating Party, the Receiving Party may generically 

identify how many acknowledgments that it has in its possession attributable to non-disclosed 

experts, whose acknowledgements must later be provided contemporaneously with any reports 

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issued by one or more of said experts. If a Receiving Party is not required to disclose the identity 

of any consulting experts, it may not be compelled to produce any acknowledgments from those 

experts to the Designating Party. However, if the Designating Party provides to the Court 

evidence of breach of this Order via unauthorized leak of designated information, the Court may 

require an in camera production of all acknowledgments held by a Receiving Party in order to 

determine breach and consider enforcement of this Order.

D. Non-Waiver Effect of Designations: Neither the taking of, nor the failure to take, 

any action to enforce the provisions of this Order, nor the failure to object to any designation, 

will constitute a waiver of any party’s claim or defense in this action or any other action or 

proceeding, including but not limited to a claim or defense that any designated information is or 

is not confidential, is or is not entitled to particular protection, or embodies or does not embody 

information protectable by law. 

E. In-Court Use of Designated Information: This Protective Order does not control 

the use of Designated Information at court hearings or trial. If a party files a document under 

seal, it must comply with S.D. Ohio Civ. R. 5.2.1(a) and (unless excused by the Court) file a 

public-record version that excludes any Confidential information.

Nothing in this Order shall be construed as a waiver by a party of any objections that may be 

raised as to the admissibility at trial of any evidentiary materials.

VI. CLAW-BACK REQUESTS

A. Failure to Make Designation: If, at any time, a party or non-party discovers that it 

produced or disclosed protected information without designation, it may promptly notify the 

Receiving Party and identify with particularity the information to be designated and the level of 

designation (the claw-back notification). The Receiving Party may then request substitute 

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production of the newly-designated information. Within 10 days of receiving the claw-back 

notification, the Receiving Party must (1) certify to the Designating Party it has appropriately 

marked or, if substitute production has been requested, destroyed all unmarked copies that it 

received, made, and/or distributed; and (2) if it was practicably unable to mark or destroy any 

information because disclosures occurred while the Receiving Party was under no duty of 

confidentiality under the terms of this Order regarding that information, the Receiving Party 

must reasonably provide as much information as practicable to aid the Designating Party in 

protecting the information, consistent with the Receiving Party’s attorney-client, work-product, 

and/or trial-preparation privileges. It shall be understood, however, that no person, party, or nonparty shall incur any liability hereunder with respect to disclosure that occurred prior to receipt 

of a belated designation.

VII. DURATION/CONTINUED RESTRICTIONS

A. Handling of Designated Information Upon Conclusion of Action: Upon 

conclusion of this action, including all appeals, the Designating Party(ies) is/are responsible for 

ensuring that any party or person to whom the party shared or disclosed designated information 

in this action returns or destroys all of its copies, regardless of the medium in which it was 

stored. Within 30 days after the later of dismissal of this action or expiration of all deadlines for 

appeal, the Receiving Party(ies) must certify to each Designating Party that all designated 

information hereunder has been destroyed by all parties and witnesses for whom that party is 

responsible. No witness or party may retain designated information that it received from any 

other party or non-party under this Order; only counsel of record are the authorized agents who 

may retain one copy for their respective legal files, and who must also describe to the 

Designating Party the extra steps taken to seal its legal file containing paper and/or electronic 

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copies of the designated information so that it is not accessed, used, or disclosed inconsistently 

with the obligations under this Order. This provision does not apply to the Court or Court staff.

B. Continued Restrictions Under this Order: The restrictions on disclosure and use 

of confidential information survive the conclusion of this action. 

Respectfully submitted: 

For Plaintiffs: For Defendant:

/s/ Simina Vourlis

Simina Vourlis

The Law Office of Simina Vourlis

856 Pullman Way

Columbus, OH 43212

Tel. (614) 487-5900 

Fax: (614) 487-5901

svourlis@voirlislaw.com

Rex A. Sharp

Ryan C. Hudson

Scott B. Goodger

Larkin Walsh

Sarah T. Bradshaw

REX. A. SHARP, P.A.

5301 W. 75th Street

Prairie Village, KS 66208

(913) 901-0505

(913) 901-0419 fax

rsharp@midwest-law.com 

rhudson@midwest-law.com

sgoodger@midwest-law.com

lwalsh@midwest-law.com 

sbradshaw@midwest-law.com

/s/ Michael Carpenter

Michael H. Carpenter 

Timothy R. Bricker 

David J. Barthel

Stephen E. Dutton 

Carpenter Lipps and Leland, LLP

280 Plaza, Suite 1300 

280 North High Street 

Columbus, OH 43215 

carpenter@carpenterlipps.com

bricker@carpenterlipps.com

barthel@carpenterlipps.com

dutton@carpetnerlipps.com

IT IS SO ORDERED.

____________________________

Magistrate Judge Elizabeth A. Preston Deavers

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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF OHIO

EASTERN (COLUMBUS) DIVISION

Brian Garrett,

Edward Gonzales,

Kent Kilgore,

Adam Plouse, and

John Does 1-35, individually and 

on behalf of all others similarly situated,

Plaintiffs,

vs. Civil Case 2:18-cv-00692-MHW-EPD

The Ohio State University, 

Defendant.

CLASS ACTION

AGREEMENT TO BE BOUND BY PROTECTIVE ORDER

EXHIBIT A

The undersigned acknowledges having been provided with and having read the “Stipulated

Protective Order” in this matter ("Protective Order"). The undersigned further agrees he/she (i) 

is bound under the Protective Order, (ii) will comply with all of its provisions, and (iii) is subject 

to the jurisdiction of the Court for all purposes arising under the Protective Order, including 

enforcement of its terms. The undersigned further agrees to subject himself/herself to the 

jurisdiction of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, Eastern 

(Columbus) Division, regarding resolution of any matter pertaining to the Protective Order. 

________________________

(Name)

________________________

 Date

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