preparing the e-bundle for online hearing

[Sterling]

Hello

Being the claimant I am required to prepare an e-bundle of all documents to be submitted at the online hearing which is due to take place in under 2 weeks time.
I wrote to the defendant stating that I was required to produce an e-bundle of all documents to be presented at the hearing. I requested that he email to me, in a PDF format, any documents that he wished to present at the hearing and that I would include them in the bundle, I gave him 14 days in which to do this. I also included a draft of the trial bundle index.
This morning (The 15th day) I received in the post a file, marked Claimant, of A4 documents, half of them being copies of those which I had already sent him in the past and which are listed on the trial bundle index.
There was no covering letter, no witness statement, or any explanation of the file contents or what he expected me to do with them. Each document is labeled A,B C etc.
What do I do? I only have limited time next week to finalize the bundle and it needs to be submitted to the court in 9 days time at the latest.
Many thanks

[Sam101]

Perhaps explain in more detail what is needed, as obviously you have not done this. Try and speak with the defendant as soon as you can. You may need to apply for more time.

[Sterling]

Thank you for your response SAM101. This case has been dragging along for over 9 months now and the defendant has failed to engage with me throughout the process. I am a one man band business and the defendant is a second hand car dealer, who sold me a van, the subject of this claim.

Back in January we had an online hearing where I had to ask the courts permission to use expert witness. The defendant failed to register for that hearing and therefore did not attend, permission was granted. The preparation for that hearing was the same as for this one and the same letter requesting documentation for inclusion in the bundle was sent to the defendant, he was also sent the complete electronic document bundle prior to that hearing so I take it that by now he knows the format.

Surely it is not my responsibilty to run his defence for him. He would have received the same court paperwork as myself and, if he had read it, would see the required process. It is only with the help of this forum that I have managed to navigate my way through this process, there was nothing stopping him from taking advice.

I am thinking of creating PDF files of the documents he sent me and just tacking them on the end of the bundle as 'documents received by post from the defendant'

Any advice as to the best course of action would be appreciated.

[atticus]

If you have been directed by the court to prepare the hearing bundle, then that is what you must do. If you have the facility to do so, I suggest that you scan the additional documents to add to tge bundle.

Your suggestion in the penultimate paragraph of the previous post seems sensible.

[Sterling]

Thank you ATTICUS. I feel that is is important to appear reasonable so I am going to number, scan and list his documents on the index and include them in the bundle.