Core bundles and skeleton arguments

Harvey Shopfitters Ltd v ADI CA TLR 26 November Core bundles

Paragraph 5.6 of the practice direction to CPR Part 52 provides a checklist of the documents to be filed with the appellant’s notice in every case, except where the notice relates to a claim allocated to the Small Claims Track. Paragraph 5.7 makes it clear that where a document is not ready, the court should be told when it will be ready. Paragraph 5.8 provides that where bundles comprise more than 150 pages, excluding transcripts, only those documents which the court might reasonably be expected to pre-read should be included; the rest of the complete bundle should be brought to court. For the substantive appeal, paragraph 15.11A, which was required reading for all in court, provided that where the total number of pages exceed 750, the parties had to file and serve a core bundle of not more than 150 pages. The Practice Direction did not specify when that should be done, but at the very latest the bundle should be filed seven days before the hearing started.