The President of the Family Division has issued this practice direction to achieve consistency across the country in the Family Court and the Family Division of the High Court in the preparation of court bundles and other related matters.

In his 4th View from the President's Chambers: An update, Sir James Munby P, says:

'We shall need in future to distinguish more clearly between documents that are filed, documents that are served but not filed, documents that are listed but not served or filed, and documents that are included in the bundle...

Not every document that has been served or filed needs to be included in the bundle. Many do not. Surely, for the future, bundles should contain only those documents that the court needs to read or which will actually be referred to during the hearing. Everything else should be omitted. I suspect that a single lever-arch file will suffice for the majority of care cases.'

The Practice Direction gives details about how bundles should be presented, by whom and where and when they should be lodged.

The Practice Direction is available to download here.

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