Opinion ID: 218877
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The concern for protecting foreign parties

Text: Another of Company 1's arguments is that the subpoenas are unreasonable because allowing the government to obtain a foreign party's documents from civil proceedings in the United States will damage the rights of foreign sovereigns and foreign parties. According to Company 1, allowing this practice will force foreign parties to object to civildiscovery requests and, if such objections are denied, to face sanctions if the party ultimately refrains from producing documents in the United States. But Company 1 fails to recognize that the risk it faces by engaging in civil litigation in the United States is not unique to foreign parties. Rather, materials generated in civil litigation are generally available for use in future criminal prosecutions. For example, [u]ncoerced testimony given in a civil action may provide important and relevant information to a grand jury investigation. In re Grand Jury Subpoena, 836 F.2d 1468, 1475 (4th Cir.1988) (holding that a civil protective order did not prevent a grand jury from obtaining civil depositions). That Company 1 might face adverse criminal consequences as a result of its participation in the Civil Litigation is therefore not the type of extraordinary circumstance that Company 1 claims.