Opinion ID: 548
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Second Protective Order

Text: The second protective order, entered December 8, 2004, involved a number of former clients of Merrill Scott, including Dr. Gerber. It provided that all Confidential Information supplied by these former clients would be used solely for purposes directly related to this Action and for no other purpose. Id. at 131. The Confidential Information would not be disclosed, repeated, given, shown, made available, or communicated in any way to anyone other than ... (f) the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Utah or any other department or agency of the federal government.  Id. at 132 (emphasis added). In negotiating the terms of the order with the SEC and the receiver, the former Merrill Scott clients did not agree to the language permitting disclosure to departments or agencies of the federal government other than the United States Attorney's Office. The SEC and the receiver nevertheless approved the order as to form and forwarded it to the district court, which signed it. The former investors subsequently filed an objection to the order as entered with the district court. They contended, among other things, that the disputed language was improper because the district court had previously ruled that disclosure would be limited to the U.S. Justice Department, for the reason that the [SEC] was under statutory obligation [to make such disclosures], but that disclosure should be made to no other federal agency. Id. at 140. On December 21, 2004, the district court entered an order removing the reference to any other department or agency of the federal government, id. at 146, and otherwise left the language of the order in place. This second order also provided that it could be modified for good cause.