Court trial bundle

[Dennis01]

Hello,
Can someone tell me whether it is only the Claimant that prepares the Court Trial Bundle and if so, what goes into it?
Thanks

[Pezza54]

CPR 39.5
Unless otherwise directed by the court, the claimant prepares the court bundle
The court bundle must be delivered to the court no sooner than 7 days before and no later than 3 days before the date set for the final hearing
PD 39A lists the documents that go into a court bundle which is best presented in a lever- arch file
Court bundles are not required on the small claims track, cpr 39.5 is omitted under cpr 27

[echat11]

If you want something included in the 'Bundle', let the other party know, if they are preparing the 'bundle'.

They will have an advantage if you don't include relevant documents to your case.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/Do...le%20index.pdf

[ITGeekTN]

Hi! First time poster. This looks like a handy thread for future reference.

I was in the county court earlier this week (observing) and picked up on a few things that might be worth knowing (or debating!).

1. One judge preferred using their computer and was whizzing through e-bundles like a proper digital native, and didn't even touch the hard copy. Another judge was completely the other way round - didn't touch the keyboard or mouse, and used only the papers (while the LiPs in the room were both using laptops).

2. The tech-using judge said that a common problem with e-bundles is the page numbering - and the bigger the bundle gets, the worse it is. But it isn't helped by PD32 compliance being somewhat predicated on having an Adobe PDF Writer Pro subscription as if nothing else will do. You try finding a court approved guide that works with any one of the billion alternatives out there, and actually ticks all the boxes.

3. The chief reason why e-bundles aren't mandated in Small Claims is that someone suing for a £100 refund on something is not going to subscribe for a PDF bundling tool for £20/month just to produce that one bundle for that one court case.

4. Another reason is, even a review of guidance across the different tracks that was performed late last year said it's all got a bit too unwieldy. One party in a very low value small claim reads the 2013 handbook for litigants in person and goes down a massive rabbit hole, over-engineering it, while their opponent reads PD51R and a few one-pagers and reckons it's going to be like Judge Judy.

5. On the courts side, there's a lot of "bring your own device" so don't expect consistency of kit from the staff in the courtroom.

6. If the email chains for a low value small claim run to over 100 pages, a judge might think you're at least taking the whole thing seriously as a plaintiff if you do prepare a bundle and a skeleton argument as the court date approaches, and weed out the duplications. But whether or not it's practical to attempt this depends on how cooperative the other side is going to be.

PRACTICE DIRECTION 32 – EVIDENCE – Civil Procedure Rules (justice.gov.uk)

General guidance on electronic court bundles - Courts and Tribunals Judiciary

Ebundling Guide - James M Turner QC.pdf (quadrantchambers.com) - handy if you have Acrobat Reader Pro on subscription, which you probably won't ever have if you're an unrepresented LiP.

[Pezza54]

Hi
Welcome to LB
Please read the article at http://www.smallclaimscourtgenie.co....t-proceedings/
Interesting that the article states a claimant can be ordered to prepare an electronic bundle and there are rules to follow when preparing it
I find it very difficult to believe that a judge would order an elderly lip to prepare an electronic bundle, but nothing would surprise me

[pc52straw]

But the whole point of OCMC eventually is to have document management and workflow all rolled into the digital service. Especially for LVSC.

FUTURE STATE:

1. LBA becomes redundant. The Claim Form getting automatically sent to the defendant digitally AND by post replaces the LBA, and unlike the old setup there's full traceability of who's seen and done what.

2. Got a new doc to append to the bundle? Just upload it to Dropbox or the OCMC portal. Notification automatically sent to other party and court. Job done.

The court is the only place I've seen in twenty years that expects PDFs to be combined then printed out with consecutive page numbers... And I deal with relational contracts where clients and third parties would go absolutely ballistic if you did that with master contract + annexes + schedules + invoices etc etc. running into hundreds of pages.

In unrepresented Small Claims it kills far more trees than necessary (HMCTS aren't going to hit an esg target this way)... and that must be a major contribution to the backlog of cases.