The District of Delaware generally permits parties to file things under seal without a motion to seal, and requires parties to file a redacted version within 7 days. Usually, the Court permits parties to handle redactions without judicial intervention (although not always).
As we've written about repeatedly, Judge Andrews regularly rejects redacted versions of filings that take the easy way out and simply redact entire exhibits rather than doing line-by-line redactions.
While we were out last month, the Court issued a similar order in a case before Judge Hall:
DEFICIENCY NOTICE by the Court issued re 238 Redacted Document. The redacted filing (D.I. 238) is REJECTED because parts of it are redacted in its entirety. Absent a compelling reason, supported by a statement under oath by a party, redactions in their entirety are impermissible; redactions must be done so as to redact the least possible amount of the materials submitted. Failure to make a good faith attempt at such redactions may result in sanctions, the most common of which would be simply unsealing the entire filing. Redacting in its entirety a document, or parts of it, that contains publicly available materials is prima facie evidence of bad faith. A revised redacted filing is DUE within five business days (ceg) (Entered: 03/12/2024)
Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. et al v. Mylan Laboratories Limited, C.A. No. 22-464 (D. Del. Mar. 12, 2024).
I believe this is the first time the Court has rejected such a filing in a case before Judge Hall. But it's a good thing to know if you have cases before her.
You may think this is a silly thing to post about, but if so, my guess is that you've never been forced to do line-by-line redactions on 6,778 pages of exhibits.
By the way, the best way not to have to do line-by-line redactions for a ridiculous number of pages is to avoid filing them in the first place. Several of our judges have encouraged parties to excerpt / cut back their exhibits to just the relevant or cited material, and that's usually a good idea.
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