Dow v. County of Snohomish

Opinion

THE HONORABLE JOHN C. COUGHENOUR 1 2 3 4 5 6 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 7 WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON 8 AT SEATTLE 9 ESTATE OF ADAM CHRISTOPHER CASE NO. C20-1320-JCC JENSEN, by the Personal Representative 10 PAULA DOW, et al., ORDER 11 Plaintiffs, 12 v. 13 COUNTY OF SNOHOMISH, et al., 14 Defendants. 15

16 This matter comes before the Court on the parties’ stipulated motion to file confidential 17 material under seal (Dkt. No. 59). Having considered the motion and the relevant record and 18 finding good cause, the Court hereby GRANTS the motion for the reasons described below. 19 Related to the Snohomish County Defendants’ anticipated response to the Court’s request 20 for supplemental briefing regarding application of the “sham affidavit rule” (Dkt. No. 58), 21 Defendants wish to file under seal an audio recording, Bates numbered Jensen_001196. (Dkt. 22 No. 59 at 2.) This recording has been designated “Confidential.” (Id.) 23 Parties may seek to file a document under seal pursuant to Local Civil Rule 5(g). While 24 there is a strong presumption of public access to the Court’s files, a document designated as 25 “confidential” in discovery that a party seeks to attach to a dispositive motion may be filed under 26 seal so long as the party shows “compelling reasons” to do so. See Kamakana v. City and Cnty. 1 of Honolulu, 447 F.3d 1172, 1178-81 (9th Cir. 2006). 2 The recording Defendants seek to file contains confidential information that, if publicly 3 disclosed prior to trial, may result in the formation of improper bias by potential jurors. (Dkt. No. 4 59 at 2.) This is a sufficiently compelling reason to maintain such information under seal and that 5 reason outweighs the public’s interest in its disclosure. See Karpenski v. Am. Gen. Life Cos., 6 LLC, 2013 WL 5588312, slip. op. at 1 (W.D. Wash. 2013). 7 Accordingly, the Court GRANTS the stipulated motion to seal (Dkt. No. 59) the audio 8 recording, Bates numbered Jensen_001196. 9 10 DATED this 20th day of May 2021. A 11 12 13 John C. Coughenour 14 UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

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