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Home Court filings Brooks v. Thomson Reuters Corporation STIPULATION WITH PROPOSED ORDER filed by Cat Brooks, Rasheed Shabazz.… — Brooks v. Thom…

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STIPULATION WITH PROPOSED ORDER filed by Cat Brooks, Rasheed Shabazz.… — Brooks v. Thomson Reuters Corporation (Dkt. 71)

No. 3:21-cv-01418-EMC · Doc. 71 · Docket on CourtListener

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     Case 3:21-cv-01418-EMC          Document 71       Filed 01/19/22   Page 1 of 20



 1   Eric H. Gibbs (SBN 178658)
     Andre M. Mura (SBN 298541)
 2   Jeffrey B. Kosbie (SBN 305424)
 3   GIBBS LAW GROUP LLP
     505 14th Street, Suite 1110
 4   Oakland, California 94612
     Telephone: (510) 350-9700
 5   Facsimile: (510) 350-9701
     ehg@classlawgroup.com
 6   amm@classlawgroup.com
 7   jbk@classlawgroup.com

 8   Attorneys for Plaintiffs and the Proposed Class

 9   [Additional counsel on signature page]
10

11                        UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE
                            NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA
12                               SAN FRANCISCO DIVISION

13   CAT BROOKS and RASHEED SHABAZZ,                    Case No. 3:21-cv-1418-EMC
     individually and on behalf of all others
14
     similarly situated,
15                                                      ESI STIPULATION AND [PROPOSED]
                           Plaintiffs,                  ORDER
16          v.
                                                        Judge: Hon. Edward M. Chen
17   THOMSON REUTERS CORPORATION,
18
                    Defendant.
19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

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 1           The following ESI Stipulation and [Proposed] Order (“ESI Protocol”) shall govern the

 2   production of documents, including electronically stored information in the above-captioned

 3   matter (the “Litigation”).

 4           To expedite discovery in the Litigation, pursuant to this Court’s authority and with the

 5   consent of the Parties, it is agreed:

 6   1. PURPOSE

 7           This Order will govern discovery of electronically stored information (“ESI”) in this case

 8   as a Supplement to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, this Court’s Guidelines for the

 9   Discovery of Electronically Stored Information, and any other applicable orders and rules.

10   2. COOPERATION

11           The Parties are aware of the importance the Court places on cooperation and commit to

12   cooperate in good faith throughout the matter consistent with this Court’s Guidelines for the

13   Discovery of ESI.

14   3. PROPORTIONALITY

15           The proportionality standard set forth in Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(b)(2)(C) must

16   be applied in this case when formulating a discovery plan. To further the application of the

17   proportionality standard in discovery, requests for production of ESI and related responses should

18   be reasonably targeted, clear, and as specific as possible.

19   4. LIAISON

20           The Parties’ outside counsel each have e-discovery liaisons who are and will be

21   knowledgeable about and responsible for discussing their respective ESI. Each e-discovery

22   liaison will be, or have access to those who are, knowledgeable about the technical aspects of e-

23   discovery, including the location, nature, accessibility, format, collection, search methodologies,

24   and production of ESI in this matter. The Parties will rely on the liaisons, as needed, to confer

25   about ESI and to help resolve disputes without court intervention.

26   5. PRESERVATION

27           The parties have discussed their preservation obligations and needs and agree that

28   preservation of potentially relevant ESI will be reasonable and proportionate. To reduce the costs

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 1   and burdens of preservation and to ensure proper ESI is preserved, the parties agree that:

 2          a)      Only ESI created or received on or after January 1, 2015, and ESI regarding the

 3          creation and development of CLEAR that predates January 1, 2015, will be preserved;

 4          d)      These data sources are not reasonably accessible because of undue burden or cost

 5          pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(b)(2)(B) and ESI from these sources will be preserved but

 6          not searched, reviewed, or produced, absent a showing of good cause:

 7                    i.      Any form of media upon which backup data is maintained in a party’s

 8                            normal or allowed processes, including but not limited to, backup tapes,

 9                            discs, SAN or other form of media

10          e)      Among the sources of data the parties agree are not reasonably accessible, the

11          parties agree not to preserve the following:

12                  i. Deleted, slack, fragmented, or other data only accessible by forensics.

13                  ii. Random access memory (RAM), temporary files, or other ephemeral data that

14                      are difficult to preserve without disabling the operating system.

15                 iii. On-line access data such as temporary internet files, history, cache, cookies,

16                      and the like.

17                 iv. Data in metadata fields that are frequently updated automatically, such as last-

18                      opened dates (see also Section (E)(5)).

19                  v. Server, system or network logs, provided that logs and other data sources

20                      related to or tracking the movement of data accessible through CLEAR shall

21                      be preserved.

22                 vi. Data remaining from systems no longer in use that is unintelligible on the

23                      systems in use or that is no longer in the custody or control of the producing

24                      party.

25                vii. Electronic data (e.g., email, calendars, contact data, and notes) sent to or from

26                         mobile devices (e.g., iPhone, iPad, Android devices), provided that a copy of

27                         all such electronic data is automatically saved in real time elsewhere (such as

28                         on a server, laptop, desktop computer, or “cloud” storage).

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 1                viii. Data regarding individuals and/or businesses available through CLEAR that is

 2                         controlled by third-party sources and is or becomes no longer accessible to

 3                         Thomson Reuters.

 4   6. PRODUCTION MEDIA & PROTOCOL

 5          The production media for document productions shall be secure FTP link provided via

 6   email at the time a production letter is emailed, unless the Parties agree otherwise. If the Parties

 7   agree, production media may be a CD-ROM, DVD, external hard drive (with standard PC

 8   compatible interface), or USB drive, so long as such production media is sent no slower than

 9   overnight delivery via FedEx, UPS, or USPS. Each item of production media (or in the case of

10   FTP productions, each production transmittal letter) shall include: (1) text referencing that it was

11   produced in the Litigation, (2) the production date, and (3) the Bates number range of the

12   materials contained on such production media item.

13   7. DEFINITIONS

14          a.          “Discovery Material” is defined as all products of discovery and all information

15   derived therefrom, including, but not limited to, documents, objects and things, deposition

16   testimony, interrogatory/request for admission responses, and any copies, excerpts or summaries

17   thereof, produced by any party in the above-captioned matter.

18          b.          “Documents” shall have the same definition as set forth in Federal Rule of Civil

19   Procedure 34.

20          c.          “Electronically stored information” or “ESI,” as used herein, means and refers

21   to computer generated information or data of any kind, stored in or on any storage media located

22   on computers, file servers, disks, tape or other real or virtualized devices or media. Non-limiting

23   examples of ESI include the examples listed below. Inclusion in the list does not mean that the

24   Parties possess relevant ESI for every item in the list, nor does it mean that such ESI is relevant in

25   this case or that it would be reasonable and proportional to collect and review such ESI.

26                 i.          Digital communications (e.g., e-mail, voice mail, text messaging, instant

27                             messaging, and ephemeral messaging);

28                ii.          E-Mail Server Stores (e.g., Lotus Domino .NSF or Microsoft Exchange

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 1                                .EDB);

 2                   iii.         Word processed documents (e.g., Word or WordPerfect files and drafts);

 3                   iv.          Spreadsheets and tables (e.g., Excel or Lotus 123 worksheets);

 4                    v.          Accounting Application data (e.g., QuickBooks, Money, Peachtree data);

 5                   vi.          Image and Facsimile Files (e.g., .PDF, .TIFF, .JPEG., .GIF images);

 6                  vii.          Sound Recordings (e.g., .WAV and .MP3 files);

 7                 viii.          Video and animation (e.g., .AVI and .MOV files);

 8                   ix.          Databases (e.g., Access, Oracle, SQL Server Data, SAP);

 9                    x.          Contract and Relationship Management Data (e.g., Outlook, ACT!);

10                   xi.          Calendar and Diary Application Data (e.g., Outlook PS, blog entries);

11                  xii.          Online Access Data (e.g., Temporary Internet Files, History, Cookies);

12                 xiii.          Presentations (e.g., PowerPoint, Corel Presentations);

13                 xiv.           Project Management Application Data;

14                  xv.           Computer Aided Designs/Drawing Files;

15                 xvi.           Backup and Archival Files (e.g., Veritas, .ZIP, .GHO);and

16                 xvii.          Cloud based or other virtualized ESI, including application, infrastructure,

17                                and data.

18           d.            “Metadata” means and refers to the structural information of a file that contains

19   data about the file, as opposed to describing the content of a file. Sedona Conference Glossary,

20   5th Ed., The Sedona Conference Journal, Vol. 21 at 337.

21           e.         “Native Format” means the format of ESI in which it was generated and/or as

22   used by the Producing Party in the usual course of its business and in its regularly conducted

23   activities.

24           f.         “OCR Text” means text generated through an Optical Character Recognition

25   Process.

26           g.         “Plaintiffs” as used herein shall refer to Cat Brooks, Rasheed Shabazz, and any

27   and all other individually named Plaintiffs in this case.

28           h.         “Producing Party” means a party or any third-party from which production of

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 1   Documents is sought.

 2          i.        “Requesting Party” means a party seeking production of documents.

 3          j.           “Thomson Reuters Corporation” and “Defendant” as used herein shall mean

 4   Defendant Thomson Reuters Corporation, as identified in the Litigation, and any subsequently

 5   named defendant affiliated with Defendant Thomson Reuters Corporation and represented by the

 6   same counsel.

 7   8. SEARCH METHODOLOGIES

 8          a.        Information to be exchanged. Within a reasonable time after entry of this Order,

 9   and within a reasonable time after service of any subsequent request for production of documents,

10   unless the Parties agree the exchange is not necessary, the Parties agree to exchange information

11   regarding:

12                  i.         The identity and job title of custodians or categories of custodians

13                             possessing relevant information and from whom documents will be

14                             collected or produced;

15                ii.          The location(s) and description(s) of relevant data sources, including

16                             custodial and non-custodial data sources, structured data sources, and

17                             applications;

18                iii.         A description of any potentially discoverable ESI that the party is aware of

19                             having been lost or destroyed; and,

20                iv.          A description of any potentially discoverable ESI that the party contends is

21                             inaccessible or only of limited accessibility and, hence, not producible by

22                             that party without undue burden and/or expense, including:

23                             1.    The reasons for the party’s contention regarding accessibility; and,

24                             2.    The proposed capture and retrieval process available (if any) for

25                                   identification and/or recovery of the information deemed

26                                   inaccessible (including cost estimates if readily available).

27          b.        ESI Search. The parties agree that in responding to an initial or subsequent Fed.

28   R. Civ. P. 34 request, or earlier if appropriate, they will meet and confer about methods to search

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 1   ESI in order to identify ESI that is subject to production in discovery and filter out ESI that is not

 2   subject to discovery. Agreement on a search methodology does not relieve a party of its

 3   obligations under the Federal Rules to conduct a reasonable search and produce all documents

 4   and ESI that are non-privileged, relevant, and responsive of which it is aware. Except as provided

 5   in the following paragraph, such documents should be produced promptly and should not be

 6   withheld pending agreements regarding (or production of) other aspects of discovery.

 7          The Parties agree to meet and confer in good faith before a party uses predictive coding,

 8   continuous active learning, or any other technology-assisted review or advanced analytics

 9   (collectively, “TAR”) to streamline the document production required by a Requesting Party. The

10   Parties shall attempt to resolve any objections to the use of TAR and to agree to a protocol

11   governing the implementation and use of TAR before seeking relief from the Court. A party will

12   not use TAR before any objections to such use are resolved.

13   9. TESTING AND VALIDATION

14          If a party uses agreed upon search terms to identify documents responsive to requests for

15   production and produces more than 10,000 documents in the litigation that were identified

16   through those search terms, at the substantial completion of the document review process, that

17   party shall disclose the number of documents that hit on the agreed search terms, the number of

18   documents produced or withheld as privileged, the number of documents identified as non-

19   responsive during the course of review, and the process for quality control and validation of

20   review results. If the other party believes additional testing or validation is required, including but

21   not limited to a quality check of the data that is not manually reviewed (the Null Set) by selecting

22   a statistically random sample of documents from the Null Set, the parties agree to meet and confer

23   in good faith regarding a testing and validation protocol that is appropriately informed by the

24   technology and process used to conduct the review.

25   10. PRODUCTION FORMATS

26          a.      Production Format/TIFFs. Unless the Parties agree to a different format,

27   documents should be produced with TIFF images and named according to the Bates number of

28   the corresponding TIFF image. Each .tiff file should be assigned a unique name matching the

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 1   Bates number of the corresponding image. The Bates number should be consistent across the

 2   production, contain no special characters, and be numerically sequential within a given document.

 3   Attachments to documents should be assigned Bates numbers that directly follow in sequential

 4   order the Bates numbers on the documents to which they were attached. If a Bates number or set

 5   of Bates numbers is skipped, the skipped number or set of numbers should be noted, for example

 6   with a placeholder. All images should be provided in a single-page Group IV TIFF with a

 7   resolution of 300 DPI. Bates numbers and confidentiality designations should be electronically

 8   branded on each produced .tiff image. These .tiff images should be provided in a separate folder

 9   and the number of TIFF files per folder should be limited to 1,000 files.

10          b.      Text Files. All unredacted documents should be provided with complete

11   document-level extracted text files, where extracted text is available. Where extracted text is not

12   available, OCR text will be provided where reasonably feasible. Document-level OCR text files

13   should be provided for any unredacted portions of redacted documents and for all hard copy

14   scanned documents and other imaged documents that do not have extracted text. If a party is not

15   providing OCR for a set of documents, it will identify those documents by Bates number at the

16   time of production. The extracted full text and/or OCR text for all deliverables should be in

17   separate document-level TXT files. These TXT files may either be provided in a separate folder

18   or included in the same folder as the corresponding images. The number of TXT files per folder

19   should be limited to 1,000 files.

20          c.      Native File Production.

21                 i.       Responsive spreadsheets (e.g., Excel), presentation files (e.g., PowerPoint),

22                          audio files, and video files shall be produced in native format.

23                ii.       A TIFF placeholder embossed with the corresponding confidentiality

24                          designation and Bates number shall be produced for all ESI produced in

25                          native format. The TIFF placeholder should include the words “Document

26                          produced in native format.”

27               iii.       The file name for documents produced in native should be the Bates

28                          number for the document along with the applicable confidentiality

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 1                       designation (e.g., “TR000000001 – Confidential”), with the original file

 2                       name identified in the File Name metadata field specified in Exhibit A.

 3             iv.       Native files will not be produced for redacted documents, except for Excel

 4                       or similar documents, which shall be natively redacted if the original

 5                       metadata (less redacted text) can be preserved and produced. Documents

 6                       that cannot be natively redacted may be produced as TIFF images with

 7                       OCR text files in lieu of a native file. Responsive ESI produced in native

 8                       format shall be produced with all the metadata contained in or associated

 9                       with that file to the extent technologically possible. If a party identifies

10                       other forms of responsive ESI that it would prefer to produce or receive in

11                       native format, the producing and receiving parties shall meet and confer in

12                       good faith to address the issue.

13             v.        Extracted text taken from native files will be provided at a document level.

14                       There will be one text file per document, using the same name as the

15                       beginning Bates number (Document ID) of the document. The extracted

16                       text file for a document will reside in the same location (file directory) as

17                       the images for that document. The text file associated with any redacted

18                       document will exclude redacted text (i.e., the Producing Party can OCR the

19                       redacted image of the unstructured ESI and replace the original extracted

20                       text).

21             vi.       No party may attach to any pleading or any correspondence or submit as an

22                       exhibit or in any other manner use at a deposition or any other judicial

23                       proceeding a copy of any native format document produced by any party

24                       without ensuring that either the corresponding slip sheet is attached to the

25                       document or the corresponding Bates number and confidentiality legend, as

26                       designated by the Producing Party, appears on or is associated with the

27                       document.

28        d.      Embedded Objects. If documents contain embedded objects (e.g., a spreadsheet

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 1   embedded in a word processing document), the Parties will produce embedded objects as separate

 2   files and treat them as an attachment to the parent document, with the exception of embedded

 3   signatures, including logos or images that are contained within such signatures. If a Party

 4   identifies other embedded objects with no independent value, the Parties agree to meet and confer

 5   as to whether it must be produced.

 6          e.      Color. ESI containing color (for example, graphs, pictures, or color marketing

 7   materials) will be produced as color images for each such document if color is necessary to

 8   reasonably understand the content of the ESI (e.g., color charts). Otherwise, a Party may request

 9   the Producing Party to Produce particular documents or categories of documents in color where

10   reasonable.

11          f.      Bates numbering. All Documents must be assigned a Bates number that must be

12   unique across the entire document production and sequentially numbered within a given

13   document. Producing Parties must emboss Bates numbers on all image files in a manner that does

14   not obscure any part of the underlying image and is, to the extent possible, oriented in the same

15   manner as the majority of the text on the page. The Parties shall cooperate with reasonable

16   requests regarding Bates number formatting necessary for litigation support application use. Each

17   Bates number shall be no more than 18 characters in length and include leading zeros so that all

18   Bates numbers produced by a Party have the same number of digits.

19          g.      De-duplication. The Parties shall make reasonable efforts to de-duplicate ESI.

20   ESI shall be de-duplicated horizontally across custodians. ESI will be considered duplicative if it

21   has the same MD5 or SHA-1 hash value at the family level. Attachments should not be eliminated

22   as duplicates for purposes of production, unless the parent and all attachments are also duplicates.

23   An email that contains content in the BCC or other blind copy field shall not be treated as a

24   duplicate of an email that does not contain identical content in those fields, even if all remaining

25   content in the email is identical. All custodians who were in possession of a de-duplicated

26   document must be identified in the Custodians metadata field specified in Exhibit A.

27          h.      Confidentiality Endorsements. Except for documents produced in native format,

28   the Producing Party must brand any confidentiality or similar endorsements in a corner of the

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 1   TIFF images pursuant to any protective order entered in this case. Those endorsements must be in

 2   a consistent font type and size, and must not obscure any part of the underlying image or Bates

 3   number, to the extent possible.

 4          i.      Email Threading. The Parties may utilize “email thread suppression.” Email

 5   thread suppression means reducing duplicative production of email threads by producing the most

 6   inclusive email in a thread of emails, as well as any emails that have unique attachments or

 7   senders/recipients (including blind copy).

 8          j.      Metadata fields and Processing. Each of the metadata and index fields set forth

 9   in Exhibit A will be produced for that document. If the Producing Party becomes aware of an

10   issue extracting metadata or any other processing, the Producing Party must notify the other party

11   and meet and confer to arrive at a mutually acceptable resolution of the issue. The Parties are not

12   obligated to create or manually code any of the fields in Exhibit A if such fields cannot be

13   extracted from a document, with the exception of metadata referring to characteristics of the

14   document production process itself, such as Bates numbers, confidentiality designations, and

15   redactions.

16          k.      Parent-Child Relationships. Parent-child relationships refer to the association

17   between an attachment and its parent document. Parent-child relationships must be preserved.

18   Family relationships often exist between an email and its attachments, but can also be found

19   amongst stand-alone documents and files originally contained within that parent document, which

20   are subsequently de-embedded as part of discovery processing. For example, a PowerPoint

21   document with embedded Excel spreadsheets, for which the spreadsheets would be treated as

22   attachments to the PowerPoint.

23          l.      Attachments. The Parties agree to produce complete documents when any part of

24   the document (including parents or attachments) is responsive. If the Producing Party withholds

25   entire files within a document family but not the entire family (e.g., an email parent and some but

26   not all of the corresponding attachments), the Producing Party shall produce a Bates numbered

27   slip sheet for each withheld file stating the basis on which the document is withheld. Slip sheets

28   need not be produced for families that are withheld in their entirety.

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 1           m.      Redaction. The Parties agree that where Documents and ESI need to be redacted,

 2   they shall be produced solely in TIFF with each redaction clearly indicated, except in cases where

 3   the documents cannot be rendered to TIFF in a reasonably usable manner (such as Excel

 4   spreadsheets). In that case, the document may be redacted natively as long as a pristine copy of

 5   the original document is maintained. If the items redacted and partially withheld from production

 6   are audio/visual files, the Producing Party shall provide the unredacted portions of the content,

 7   where reasonably feasible. If a party redacts Documents or ESI, the Producing Party will identify

 8   that the document has been redacted and the basis for the redaction (e.g., “Privileged—ACC,”

 9   “Privileged—WP,” “Privileged—Both ACC/WP,” “PII,” or “PHI”) in the Redactions metadata

10   field identified in Exhibit A. The redaction also shall be clearly visible on the face of the

11   document. A Party may not redact information on the basis it believes such information to be

12   irrelevant or nonresponsive.

13           n.      Load Files. Documents must be provided with (1) a delimited metadata file (.dat

14   or .txt); (2) an image load file (.lfp or .opt); and (3) a text file.

15           o.      File Size Limitation/Non-Standard Files. The Parties will meet and confer in

16   good faith to discuss the format of production for structured data such as Microsoft Access

17   databases, non-standard electronic files, and large files or files requiring proprietary software to

18   view, to determine the optimal production format. A Producing Party that desires to produce less

19   than the entire data source will provide the Requesting Party with information about the data

20   sources sufficient to facilitate an informed discussion of the appropriate form or production. This

21   may include information such as database schema, tables and fields, codes, abbreviations, and

22   available report formats.

23           p.      Compressed Files. Compressed file types will be decompressed in a reiterative

24   manner to ensure that a zip within a zip is decompressed to the lowest possible compression

25   resulting in individual folders and/or files.

26           q.      Scanning of Hard-Copy Documents. Hard copy documents will be scanned and

27   processed as .tiff images with OCR. The Parties will use best efforts to unitize documents (i.e.,

28   distinct documents should not be merged into a single record, and a single document should not

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 1   be split into multiple records) and maintain document relationships.

 2          r.      Encryption. To maximize the security of information in transit, any media on

 3   which documents are produced may be encrypted by the Producing Party. In such cases, the

 4   Producing Party shall transmit the encryption key or password to the Requesting Party, under

 5   separate cover, reasonably contemporaneously with sending the encrypted media.

 6   11. SPECIAL ESI ISSUES

 7          a.      Password-Protected or Encrypted. The Producing Party will take reasonable

 8   steps to unlock or decrypt any password-protected or encrypted documents so they can be

 9   reviewed and/or produced. In the event that a Producing Party is unable to access the content of

10   documents that are reasonably likely to be responsive to a discovery request, the Producing Party

11   shall produce a Bates numbered slip sheet for each document that cannot be accessed that

12   contains the following language: “Document Cannot be Opened Due to Encryption or Password

13   Protection.” The Producing Party shall produce any available metadata for each document that

14   cannot be accessed.

15          b.          Hidden Text. ESI items shall be processed in a manner that preserves hidden

16   columns or rows, hidden text or worksheets, speaker notes, tracked changes, and comments, all of

17   which shall be rendered visible on any documents not produced in native format.

18          c.       System Files. ESI productions should be de-NISTed using the industry standard

19   list of such files maintained in the National Software Reference Library by the National Institute

20   of Standards & Technology. Other file types may be added or removed from the list of excluded

21   files by agreement of the Parties. This provision is not intended to waive the Parties’ right to seek

22   production of specific files or file types that otherwise would be excluded by this provision.

23   12. PRIVILEGE

24          a.      Privileged Documents That Need Not Be Logged

25                 i.          General. Defendant shall have no obligation to log correspondence

26                             concerning the litigation exchanged on or after December 3, 2020,

27                             exclusively between employees (including in-house attorneys) and outside

28                             counsel, including their respective support staff, paralegals, and secretarial

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 1                        personnel. Plaintiffs Cat Brooks and Rasheed Shabazz shall have no

 2                        obligation to log correspondence concerning this litigation exchanged on or

 3                        after December 3, 2020, exclusively between themselves and outside

 4                        counsel, including their respective support staff, paralegals, and secretarial

 5                        personnel. Any other Parties joined in the future, if any, shall have no

 6                        obligation to log correspondence concerning the litigation exchanged with

 7                        counsel after the date on which a duty to preserve was triggered.

 8         b.       Format and Contents of Privilege Log

 9                i.      General. Privilege logs shall be produced as Excel spreadsheets.

10                        Producing Parties shall produce privilege log(s) at time(s) that comport

11                        with the requirements of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

12              ii.       General Contents. Subject to the limits specified above, documents that a

13                        party withholds on the basis of privilege or another discovery protection

14                        shall be logged on a privilege log on a document-by-document basis.

15                        Consistent with Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(b)(5), the following

16                        information should be provided (as applicable) in the privilege log for each

17                        document: (1) Bates-number range, or if no Bates-number range, a unique

18                        document identification number; (2) document type; (3) family

19                        relationship; (4) document date; (5) all senders and recipients, including

20                        copyees and blind copyees, with attorneys and their staff denoted by an

21                        asterisk (*) on the log; (6) all custodians known to have been furnished the

22                        document; (7) privilege or protection claimed; and (8) description of the

23                        subject matter of the withheld Document or electronically stored

24                        information sufficient to enable the Requesting Party to assess the validity

25                        of the privilege claim.

26              iii.      Documents Redacted for Privilege. Parties need not provide a log of

27                        documents redacted on the basis of privilege or another discovery

28                        protection so long as (1) the Party complies with the provisions of this ESI

                        ESI STIPULATION AND [PROPOSED] ORDER
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                                CASE NO. 3:21-CV-1418-EMC
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 1                          Stipulation concerning redactions, including providing a metadata field that

 2                          lists the basis of the redaction, and (2) the contents and metadata produced

 3                          with the redacted document together contain all of the information that

 4                          would otherwise be included on a privilege log.

 5              iv.         Email Strings. If the Producing Party is withholding any part of an email

 6                          thread based on a claim of privilege or other protection, that party must

 7                          produce all parts of the thread that are not privileged. Each withheld

 8                          communication in an email string shall be separately logged as described

 9                          above, including identifying all other documents in the same email string

10                          or document family by Bates number or privilege ID.

11         c.      Challenges to Privilege Log

12               i.         General. If a Requesting Party believes that one or more items

13                          in a Producing Party’s privilege log should be produced, then it shall raise

14                          the issue as to each log entry or category of log entries with the Producing

15                          Party in writing with reasonably sufficient detail so that the Producing

16                          Party may understand the Requesting Party’s position. The Producing Party

17                          shall respond in writing within 10 business days, unless otherwise agreed

18                          by the Parties. Agreement to reasonable requests for extension shall not be

19                          unreasonably withheld. If the response does not satisfy the Requesting

20                          Party, the Parties shall meet and confer and if the dispute as to the

21                          privileged nature of the material cannot be resolved, then the Requesting

22                          Party may seek relief from the Court, following the procedures of any

23                          applicable standing orders or rules.

24         d.         Rule 502(d)

25               i.         Pursuant to Fed. R. Evid. 502(d), the production of any documents in this

26                          proceeding shall not, for the purposes of this or any other federal or state

27                          proceeding, constitute a waiver by the Producing Party of any privilege

28                          applicable to those documents, including the attorney-client privilege,

                          ESI STIPULATION AND [PROPOSED] ORDER
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                                  CASE NO. 3:21-CV-1418-EMC
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 1                    attorney work-product protection, or any other privilege or protection

 2                    recognized by law. Information produced in discovery that is protected as

 3                    privileged or work product shall be immediately returned to the producing

 4                    party and all physical and digital copies destroyed, and its production shall

 5                    not constitute a waiver of such protection.

 6

 7

 8

 9

10

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13

14

15

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21

22

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                     ESI STIPULATION AND [PROPOSED] ORDER
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                             CASE NO. 3:21-CV-1418-EMC
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 1                                              EXHIBIT A

 2                                            Metadata Fields

 3   A.     Default Production Fields

 4          The following default fields will be provided for all documents in the production.

 5                      Field Name                      Description
 6
      Begin Bates                                       Beginning Bates Number of the Email,
 7                                                      Application File, or Paper Document

 8    End Bates                                         Ending Bates Number of the Email,
                                                        Application File, or Paper Document
 9

10    Begin/End Attachment                              Bates Range for Full Family

11    Att Count                                         Number of attachments to an email
12    Parent/Child ID                                   Bates Number of either the Attachment (if
13                                                      Parent Email) of Parent Email (if Attachment)
      Confidentiality                                   Field populated with the appropriate
14                                                      confidentiality designation for the Document.

15    Custodians                                        Multi-value field for custodians identified
                                                        during collection. All documents should have
16
                                                        a custodian value present. Multiple custodians
17                                                      should be separated by a “,”. If multiple
                                                        documents dedupe during processing, this
18                                                      field should be populated with all custodian
                                                        values available.
19
      Page Count                                        The number of pages in the Document.
20

21    Redacted                                          Field indicating whether the Document
                                                        contains redactions and the basis for the
22                                                      redaction (e.g., privileged, etc.).
23
     B.     Metadata Fields
24
            The Parties will exchange the following metadata fields associated with email messages
25
     and non-email files (including email attachments) as indicated, except to the extent that
26
     information in the field reveals information that is privileged or otherwise protected against
27
     disclosure.
28

                         ESI STIPULATION AND [PROPOSED] ORDER
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 1
              Field Name            Email or Non-Email               Description
 2
      Subject/Title              Email                     Subject line of the email
 3    File name                  Non-Email                 Name of the Application File

 4    File Extension             Non-Email                 File extension
 5    Sent Date                  Email                     Email Sent date
 6
      Received Date              Email                     Email Received date
 7
      Created Date               Non-Email                 Date Application File was
 8                                                         created.
 9
      Modified Date              Non-Email                 Date Application File was last
10                                                         modified

11    Modified Time              Non-Email                 Time Application File was last
                                                           modified
12

13    Author/From                Both                      Author of the Application File
                                                           or sender of the Email
14
      Recipient/To               Email                     Recipients of the Email
15
      Copyee                     Email                     CCs of the Email
16

17    BCC                        Email                     BCCs of the Email

18    File Type                  Both                      Email, Spreadsheet, Word
                                                           Processing Document, etc.
19

20    File Path                  Both                      Location of the File Within the
                                                           system
21    Path to Native             Both                      Location of the File within the
                                                           Production
22
      Path to Text               Both                      Location of the file within the
23
                                                           Production
24
      Document Type              Both                      Type of file—Email,
25                                                         Attachment, or other file type
26    Email Sent Time            Email                     Time Email was sent
27
      Email Received Time        Email                     Time Email was received
28

                        ESI STIPULATION AND [PROPOSED] ORDER
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 1    File Created Time            Non-Email                      Time Application File was
                                                                  created
 2

 3    Native File Name             Non-Email                      The file name of the native file
                                                                  as produced (e.g.,
 4                                                                TR000000001_Confidential.xls
                                                                  (in contrast to File Name,
 5                                                                which is the original name of
                                                                  the file)
 6

 7    MD5 Hash                     Non-mail                       Value commonly used to de-
                                                                  duplicate files or identify
 8                                                                duplicates
 9

10

11     Dated: January 19, 2022                 PERKINS COIE LLP

12

13                                            By: /s/ Susan D. Fahringer
                                                  Susan D. Fahringer
14
                                                  Attorneys for Defendant
15                                                Thomson Reuters Corporation
16

17     Dated: January 19, 2022                 GIBBS LAW GROUP LLP

18

19                                            By: /s/ Andre M. Mura
                                                  Andre M. Mura
20
                                                  Attorneys for Plaintiffs Cat Brooks and
21                                                Rasheed Shabazz and the Proposed Class

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

                          ESI STIPULATION AND [PROPOSED] ORDER
                                                                                                18
                                  CASE NO. 3:21-CV-1418-EMC
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 1                                         [PROPOSED] ORDER
 2

 3   PURSUANT TO STIPULATION, IT IS SO ORDERED.

 4

 5   Dated:    _______________, 2022                _______________________________________
                                                             Honorable Edward M. Chen
 6                                                           United States District Court
 7

 8
                                            ECF ATTESTATION
 9
              I, Andre Mura, am the ECF User whose ID and password are being used to file this ESI
10
     STIPULATION AND [PROPOSED] ORDER. In compliance with Civil Local Rule 5-1(i)(3),
11
     I hereby attest that all signatories concur in the filing of this document.
12

13
       Dated: January 19, 2022                             GIBBS LAW GROUP LLP
14

15
                                                           By: /s/ Andre M. Mura
16                                                               Andre M. Mura

17                                                               Attorneys for Plaintiffs

18

19

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                          ESI STIPULATION AND [PROPOSED] ORDER
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                                  CASE NO. 3:21-CV-1418-EMC


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