Appendix 19. Model Voluntary Production Confidentiality Letter

• Pages: 451-453

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APPENDIX 19

MODEL VOLUNTARY PRODUCTION

CONFIDENTIALITY LETTER

Dear Mr./Ms. Lawyer:

You have requested a statement regarding the United States

Department of Justice’s ("Department") treatment of sensitive

information which it may receive from your client in response to our

request for the voluntary production of information, including

information provided in an interview and/or memorialized in voluntarily

produced documents. It is in the Department’s interest to protect the

confidentiality of sensitive information provided by its sources, and to

prevent competitively sensitive information from being shared among

competitors. Accordingly, sensitive information will only be used by the

Department for a legitimate law enforcement purpose, and it is the

Department’s policy not to disclose such information unless it is required

by law or necessary to further a legitimate law enforcement purpose. In

the Department’s experience, the need to disclose sensitive material

occurs rarely.

Sensitive information includes "confidential business information"

which means trade secrets or other commercial or financial information

(a) in which the company has a proprietary interest or which the

company received from another entity under an obligation to maintain

the confidentiality of such information, and (b) which the company has

in good faith designated as confidential. The Department’s policy with

regard to confidential business information is to treat it, for ten years, in

the manner set forth in this letter.

In the event of a request by a third party for disclosure of

confidential business information under the Freedom of Information Act,

the Department will act in accordance with its stated policy (28 C.F.R. §

16.8, a copy of which is enclosed) and will assert all exemptions from

disclosure to the extent applicable, including the exemptions set forth in

5 U.S.C. §§ 552 (b)(4), Critical Mass Energy Project v. Nuclear

Regulatory Commission, 975 F.2d 871 (D.C. Cir. 1992) (holding that