Requirements and best practice for producing bundles

General guidance on bundles

1. 1. No hard copy bundles should be filed with the Court, only electronic bundles, unless requested by the judge.
   2. It is the duty of all legal representatives to co-operate at a high level for the preparation of bundles.
   3. For trial bundles, and any matter where it would be useful, a core bundle should be provided containing the key documents in the case.
   4. The file name for each .pdf file of the bundle, should contain the Claim No., a short version of the name of the case, and an indication of the number/letter of the bundle(s) e.g. Bundle A CL-2024-000123, Smith v Jones.

Format of Court compliant bundles

1. 1. Hearing bundles, other than the core bundles and authorities bundle(s), should be combined into one single .pdf file.
   2. In large case, it may be sensible to combine separate categories or sections of the bundle into separate .pdf files (especially if the single .pdf file is larger than 500MB).
   3. Each bundle should have a hyperlinked and searchable index.
   4. Chronological bundles of contemporaneous correspondence need not be indexed if an index is unlikely to be useful.
   5. All documents in the bundle should be bookmarked for ease of navigation. The bookmark should match the entry in the index and should contain the page number of the document.
   6. No more than one copy of any one document should be included, unless there is good reason for doing.
   7. Contemporaneous documents and correspondence should be included in chronological order.
   8. Bundles should be paginated clearly in the bottom right-hand corner.
   9. Pagination should begin afresh at the beginning of each bundle (page 1 of the index) and should correspond to the pages of the .pdf file.
   10. Where possible, page numbers should be preceded by the letter of the bundle.
   11. All documents, where possible, should be subject to OCR (optical character recognition) to ensure that the text in the document is word-searchable.
   12. Documents should generally appear in portrait mode – except documents that would be better read in landscape mode (for example cost budget documents , DRD and spreadsheets).
   13. The default view (zoom) for all pages should be 100 per cent.

Cross Margin Referencing

1. 1. Witness statements, affidavits, statement of case, and opening skeletons, unless clearly unnecessary, should contain cross margin referencing to show where the document referred to may be found.
   2. Unless otherwise agreed, it is the responsibility of the party that served the statement of case or witness statement to provide a cross referenced copy.

Authorities bundle(s) and core bundle

1. 1. Any authorities bundle(s) should be produced as a separate pdf document.
   2. Usually, Counsel will create the authorities bundle(s), but the legal team will be responsible for any updates and amendments.
   3. If there is more than one authorities bundle, these should be provided as a combined single .pdf file.
   4. Authorities bundle(s) should be separately paginated.
   5. All authorities in the bundle should be bookmarked for ease of navigation. The bookmark should match the entry in the index and should contain the page number of the document.
   6. A separate hyperlinked index should be provided.
   7. A core bundle should always be produced as a separate pdf document.
   8. A core bundle should be separately paginated, but each page should also bear its main bundle and page number reference.
   9. A core bundle should be lodged with the Court , or provided directly to the judge’s clerk, at the latest by 4pm on the working day before the first reading date for the trial or application hearing.
   10. All key documents should be bookmarked for ease of navigation. The bookmark should match the entry in the index and should contain the page number of the document.
   11. A separate hyperlinked index should be provided.

Delivery of bundles for hearings

1. 1. All documents should be delivered:
      1. • by upload to CE file, if possible (which may depend on file sizes);
         • by email to the judge’s clerk either (a) attaching the bundle(s) or (b) giving access to a secure download site;
         • by using the Document Upload Centre by prior arrangement with the Court
         • by providing the judge with personal secure and confidential access to shared digital workspace hosting the case materials.
   2. Where file sizes are large, the temptation to break sensibly bundled documents into smaller bundle just for ease of transmission should be avoided.

   3. The maximum aggregate size of attached files capable of being received is 36MB (justice,gov email addresses) or 150MB (ejudiciary.net email addresses).
   4.  If bundles are transmitted by email, the email subject line should provide the following detail:

(1)        Case number,

(2)        Case name (short version)

(3)        Hearing date

(4)        Judge name (if known) ; and

(5)        The words in capitals “REMOTE HEARING” where applicable.

5. Once a bundle has been served on the Court, it should not be assumed that a substitute bundle will be accepted, because the judge may have started to mark up the original.

6. Any further documents should be provided separately, in a separate .pdf file.