Opinion ID: 548
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Return of Documents

Text: The February 2, 2004 protective order requires that within 45 days of the conclusion of litigation, the Confidential Information be returned to counsel for Dr. Gerber, or destroyed. Aplt.App. at 123. The district court denied Dr. Gerber's request that the Confidential Information in the hands of the IRS be returned to him. It noted that [w]hen the Protective Orders were issued, the court clearly contemplated that the SEC could and would turn over the material to the U.S. Attorney's Office and the DOJ for law enforcement purposes and that the material would not be returned. Id. at 367. Again, this interpretation runs contrary to the plain language of the first protective order. On the rationale advanced in its order, the district court's decision to permit the IRS to keep the Confidential Information represents an abuse of discretion, for the reasons we have outlined in this opinion.