Public Law Solicitors

Trial and Authority Bundles

Ensuring that a trial bundle is prepared well and made available to all parties in advance of the hearing will give you an advantage in making a positive impression on the court placing you on good footing with the Judge before the trial even starts.

The purpose of a bundle is to provide the court with all the relevant documentation in the matter which will be referred to by advocate during the hearing. A useful place to find what advocate will be referring to at the hearing is the Skeleton Argument which will provide you with a break down of the arguments to be raised at the hearing. Sidelining of documentation should be achieved using the skeleton argument as reference.

Ensuring all the required documents are in the bundle will allow the hearing to run smoothly and provided it is filed at court in good time will allow the Judge to consider the documents before the hearing so follow your arguments with ease.

The trail bundle is the first chance to provide the judge with the papers in an easy and logical manner, to help him engage with your case.

In addition to including all the documents required by advocate, the Civil Procedure Rules also provides guidance as to what the court will require to be included in a bundle for an appeal. For example, CPR Practice direction 52B 6.4 deals with documents required in appeal bundles in the County Courts and the High Court and it states the following documents must be included where relevant:

“(1) Subject to any order made by the court, the following documents must be included in the appeal bundle–

(a) a copy of the appellant’s notice;

(b) a copy of any respondent’s notice;

(c) a copy of any appellant’s or respondent’s skeleton argument;

(d) a copy of the order under appeal;

(e) a copy of the order of the lower court granting or refusing permission to appeal together with a copy of the judge's reasons, if any, for granting or refusing permission;

(f) a copy of any order allocating the case to a track;

(g) a transcript of the judgment of the lower court or other record of reasons (except in appeals in cases which were allocated to the small claims track and subject to any order of the court).

(2) The following documents should also be considered for inclusion in the appeal bundle but should be included only where relevant to the appeal –

(a) statements of case;

(b) application notices;

(c) other orders made in the case;

(d) a chronology of relevant events;

(e) witness statements made in support of any application made in the appellant’s notice;

(f) other witness statements;

(g) any other documents which any party considers would assist the appeal court.”

Authorities Bundles

In addition the trial bundle you will also be required in most cases to compile an Authorities bundle. This should be agreed between the parties well in advance of the hearing. This will include all the primary and secondary legislation which will be referred to by counsel during the hearing. Again, the usual place to find all the authorities referred to will be the Skeleton Argument.

The authorities must be placed in sections and in date order within each section. The sections will be in the following order:

1. Primary Legislation

2. Secondary Legislation

3. Common law – this will again be divided into sections depending on the court it was decided in and then placed in date order in each section. For example:

a. European Court of Human Rights

b. House of Lords/ Supreme Court

c. Court of Appeal

d. High Court

e. Upper Tribunal.

It is also useful to sideline the paragraphs in particular that advocate will be referring to enable the Judge to locate and consider them with ease.

The authorities bundle, much like the trial bundle must be well prepared and filed at court in good time enabling the court to consider all the relevant material prior to the hearing.
This is not to say that a good bundle will help you win what is otherwise a weak case but a badly prepared bundle could potentially damage what is otherwise a strong case.

The moral of the story – If you want to get off on the wrong foot before the hearing starts – get the bundles wrong; it’s a sure fire way to tick the judge right off.

About the Author

Harbinder Kaur Singh is a Trainee Solicitor in Duncan Lewis' Public Law Department. Harbinder joined the firm and has completed seats in the Housing and Crime Departments in the Dalston office and is now in her final seat in the Public Law Department based in the Harrow office.

Harbinder studied at the University of Greenwich, gaining a 2.1 LLB Honours. She then went on to complete her LPC at the College of Law and successfully achieved a Commendation.