WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW IN A MINUTE OR LESS Any party to litigation in court or before an arbitral tribunal will, at some point, likely need to produce documents. Before producing documents that contain sensitive information (such as trade secrets or medical records), the producing party should ensure that a protective order is in place to prevent sensitive information from being made public or shared with a competitor. Parties generally have leeway to draft a tailored protective order that can be submitted for approval by the court or arbitral tribunal in which the parties stipulate to how confidential information within produced documents should be treated.