A court may subpoena research records containing confidential information if they are viewed as material to the court proceedings. In some cases, when challenged, courts have been willing to protect the identities of research subjects who have been promised confidentiality as a condition of participation in the study during the consent process. The investigator’s identity and the data, stripped of identifiers, are not protected. Investigators whose data are subpoenaed should contact their IRB and Yale’s Office of the General Counsel immediately for further instruction. In some cases the court can be convinced that the burdens of disclosure, including disruption of current research, outweigh the potential benefits of disclosure. Investigators collecting information that could be of interest in court proceedings should consider obtaining a federal Certificate of Confidentiality, which can protect their data from disclosure in certain situations. COCs are described in the Specific Guidance on Special Issues section of this module.