Guide for litigants in person on compiling of bundles for hearing in family courts

Introduction

If you are in court proceedings, you will usually be either ‘the applicant’ (the person who brings/starts the proceedings) or ‘the respondent’ (person who is responding to the application) and collectively referred to as ‘the parties’.  For the purposes of this guide, we will refer to the other party as ‘the other person’ which can be, in terms of divorce or separation, your former partner/spouse/civil partner.

For more help on legal terms used in court proceedings, we have produced a glossary of legal terms.

In most, if not all hearings in the family court, parties must prepare a bundle of papers for use during the hearing.  The parties and the judge will all need a copy of the same bundle which will need to be paginated (numbered) and indexed clearly.  The index is a table of contents that will be at the front of the bundle and will set out the documents the bundle includes and their order.

Whose responsibility is it to prepare the bundle?

As a Litigant in Person (a person who is representing themselves) you will be notified by the court if it is your duty to do this.  Usually where the other person is legally represented it is for their solicitor to prepare the bundle.  However, there may be circumstances where you are asked to do this. For example:

• You might instruct a Direct Access barrister and you are the applicant.
• The court specifies that you must do this (where, for instance, you have a Direct Access barrister and the other party has no representation at all).

What should the bundle contain?

Family proceedings are governed by Practice Directions – protocols that parties to proceedings are obliged to follow.  There is a Practice Direction (PD), known as PD27A, that you will see referenced in almost all court orders and this PD relates to the compiling of bundles. It sets out the documents that need to go into the bundle.

We have provided an outline summary of the documents that the Practice Direction requires below.

Index and suggested headings

The bundle should contain an index. A bundle is usually divided into sections A, B, C and D. The suggested description for each section and what it should contain is set out below. The documents within each section should be arranged in chronological order (date order, earliest first) order from the front.

 Section A: Preliminary documents

• For financial remedy proceedings only: Efficiency Statements (known as “ES1” and “ES2”). These are designed to be quick reference guides for the judge.  The documents are usually prepared by the applicant and should be sent to the respondent to insert their details/comments in advance of the hearing (suggest two weeks prior).  If at all possible, they should be included within the bundle, at the very latest they will need to be filed separately from the bundle no later than one working day before the hearing.  Both should be agreed or where there is disagreement this should be clearly marked on the forms.
  • ES1 contains key information on the case including basic information relating to the parties, what the case concerns and what the key issues are, costs incurred and estimated and what orders the parties are asking the judge to make.
  • ES2 is a schedule of parties’ assets, liabilities and income that parties should be able to complete from the financial disclosure that they would have exchanged earlier in proceedings.  Parties are given the opportunity to present their own figures and then to agree or disagree with what the other party is saying about theirs.

You can find links to the forms and to the guidance on how to complete them here.

• A case summary – a concise and short narrative statement, setting out the background and events that led to the proceedings. Relevant detail could perhaps include a summary of the relationship, the events leading to breakdown of the relationship and how the application has come to be made/received.
• Statement of issues to be determined – a list of the issues that are in dispute and on which the parties require the judge to assist them with.
• Chronology – a list of important dates in chronological order such as date of birth of the parties and any children, date of the marriage/separation/divorce application etc.
• Position statement – a short note to the judge setting out a summary of your position as at that date and the order you are asking the court to make.

Section B: Applications and orders

• The initial application which you completed (or which the other party completed) to start the proceedings.
• Court orders and notice of hearings.
• Any other applications/notices.
• Form FM5. This is a short statement setting out each party’s position on using non-court dispute resolution (ie mediation, collaborative law or another process aimed at settling matters outside of court).

**place these in chronological order, with the earliest document first

Section C: Statements

To include statements the parties may have made in support of and/or in response to an application, witness statements that have been directed by the court, and/or Schedule of Allegations.

D Care plans (if appropriate)

E Expert reports and other reports

For example any letters/reports from Cafcass in Children Act matters; or accountant reports in financial relief matters as directed by the court.

F Other documents

For example, relevant correspondence between parties that concerns the issues.

Pagination and numbering

Once you have agreed the contents of the bundle and documents are in order it will need to be paginated (numbered).  The court requires Arabic numbering throughout, ie, 1, 2, 3, 4 and so on.  Numbering should be at the bottom right hand corner of the page.  If you have to add pages in after you have paginated the bundle, add them in the appropriate place chronologically (in date order) and continue the numbering with letters, eg you need to add a document behind page 60 of the bundle so mark it 60 a) 60 b) etc.

Hard copy or electronic bundle?

It’s always best to ask the court to specify clearly which format it wants and, ensure you know which email address if sending it electronically and/or which postal address if the court requires hard copies.

If the court requires a hard copy, make sure you know how many copies you are required to produce.  If it’s a final hearing or other trial (such as a fact finding hearing) at which evidence will be given, you will need to prepare a bundle for the judge/magistrates (and legal adviser if the hearing is before the magistrates’ court) and also one for any witness/es.

There are a couple of useful websites that provide free guidance on preparation of ebundles:

• Resolution guide for litigants in person on ebundles
• Casedo.com

Courts are quite specific in their requirements for ebundles:

• The ebundle must be in pdf format.
• The numbering must be computer generated as opposed to hand-written.
• The numbering should start at page 1 being the first page of the bundle and the numbering must follow sequentially to the last page, so that the pagination matches the pdf numbering. If a hard copy is produced, the pagination must match the e-bundle.
• Each entry in the Index must be hyperlinked to the indexed document.

How many pages and is there a limit?

• If it’s a paper bundle, then it should be no more than 350 pages in length.
• Whether a paper bundle or, an electronic bundle, the requirement is that in all documents size 12 font is used and that there is a minimum of 1 line spacing.
• If you are asked to file a paper bundle, you will need to place the documents into one lever arch folder.  If you feel that your bundle is going to exceed 350 pages, you will need the court’s permission for this so let the court know in advance.

Who needs a copy of the bundle?

As mentioned, all parties to the proceedings will need a copy as will the court so the judge who will be hearing your case has access to their own copy in advance of and at the hearing.

Who decides what goes into the bundle?

What is written below is guidance.  The court may give directions specific to your case as to what should go into the bundle that are not quite the same as what is written here so, if you have specific court directions follow those.

The contents of the bundle should be agreed wherever possible for all hearings.  The bundle must be agreed for a Final Hearing.  If you are the person responsible for the bundle  it is a good idea to draft your index and to send that to the other side well in advance of the hearing date.  A suggested index is attached at Appendix 1.

Timing

You need to get a fully paginated bundle to the court no later than 2 working days before the hearing.  So, working backwards, you should make contact with the other side/their representatives and send them a draft index, at least 10-12 days before the hearing.  Let them know a date by which you wish to receive their amendments.  So, a suggested timetable:

• Two weeks before the hearing date, send an email to the other side including your draft index. Ask them to let you have any proposed amendments within 2/3 days of your sending them your draft.
• Finalise the index at least one week before the hearing date. If you have not heard from the other party , go ahead and prepare your bundle and you can let the court know, when you attend, that you tried to communicate with the other side but, you did not hear from them.
• If the other side are responsive, agree the index and then finalise the bundle based on that index. If the other party wish to include documents that you agree to include, ask them to send you copies so that you can put them in.
• Two working days before the hearing date, take the paper bundle/send the ebundle to court. You will need a bundle for yourself!

If there is a dispute as to what a document/s should be included in the bundle put all disputed documents into a separate bundle and mark each bundle clearly as either “agreed” or “not agreed – documents in dispute”.  The judge may wish to hear from both parties as to why one party considers the document relevant and why the other objects to it before it will be admitted/considered further.

Appendix 1: sample index

Case Number:  BV……

IN THE [] FAMILY COURT

IN THE MATTER OF THE CHILDREN ACT 1989/MATRIMONIAL CAUSES ACT 1973

BETWEEN:

John Doe

Applicant

And

Jane Doe

Respondent

__________________________________________________________

INDEX TO BUNDLE FOR HEARING LISTED ON [] AT []

______________________________________________________________