CBCA 7915

PROTECTIVE ORDER AMENDMENT: May 7, 2026 CBCA 7915, 8303 VENERGY GROUP, LLC, Appellant, v. DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS, Respondent. John M. Manfredonia of Manfredonia Law Offices, LLC, Cresskill, NJ, counsel for Appellant. Jennifer L. Hedge, Office of General Counsel, Department of Veterans Affairs, Pittsburgh, PA; and Jared M. Levin, Office of General Counsel, Department of Veterans Affairs, Brockton, MA, counsel for Respondent. LESTER, Board Judge. ORDER1 Respondent, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), has requested permission to provide to the VA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) and other agencies materials that are 1 This order is being published to assist in providing greater transparency to the public about the manner in which the Board has addressed issues in cases before it. Although single-judge orders like this one are binding in the appeals in which they are issued, they are, consistent with Board Rule 1(d)(2) (48 CFR 6101.1(d)(2) (2025)), not precedential in other appeals before the Board. CBCA 7915, 8303 2 the subject of a protective order that the Board previously entered in these appeals. Because the existing protective order allows the VA to provide documents to other federal agencies for “official use,” the VA does not need the Board’s permission to provide the protected materials to those agencies or to the Inspector General (IG) for the purposes that it has identified. Even if it did not, we could not, in light of the authority provided the VA OIG by the Inspector General Act (IG Act), 5 U.S.C. § 406 (2024), preclude the VA from providing the VA OIG with materials in the VA’s possession. Nevertheless, to alleviate any concerns that counsel for the VA may have, we amend the existing protective order expressly to permit the VA OIG and other agencies to receive protected material for the purposes that the VA has identified. Background I. The Board’s Protective Order The Board issued a protective order in these consolidated appeals on March 19, 2025, which allows a party to designate documents or information being produced to the opposing party or filed with the Board as “protected.” The protection applies to particular types of information, as follows: The term “protected material” as used in this protective order shall mean documents, information, or other tangible items that (a) constitute or contain confidential research, confidential financial information and commercially sensitive information, proprietary commercial information, and/or trade secrets, the disclosure of which might, with reasonable probability, adversely affect a party’s or non-party’s competitive business position and/or affect a party’s or non-party’s legally protected rights and (b) are designated protected material by the procedures set forth in this order. Corrected Protective Order ¶ 1. If a party receives protected material from the opposing side, it can use it only for purposes of this litigation and “specifically not for any other litigation, business, or other purposes unless approved in writing by the parties to this order.” Id. ¶ 9. “Except to the extent that a party or individual has received independently from this action one or more of the exhibits marked . . . as protected,” the only persons initially allowed access to the protected material were (1) counsel for the appellant, his staff, and appellant’s employees; (2) “[e]mployees of the respondent agency, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), including counsel for the VA”; (3) “the Board, its employees, and designated court reporters”; and (4) if the Board’s final decision is appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, employees of the United States Department of Justice. CBCA 7915, 8303 3 Corrected Protective Order ¶ 10. Other individuals, such as expert witnesses and consultants, can obtain (and have obtained) access to protected material either by agreement of the parties or through execution of a non-disclosure agreement maintained by the receiving party’s counsel, subject to the distribution and use limitations set forth in the protective order.