Organising Documents on Caselines DCS for a Court Case

Everything you send or receive during the course of the litigation, including both correspondence about the case and formal litigation documents, will be automatically stored in your email system, but you will find that, as litigation proceeds over many months, you will end up with a large number of emails in your email system, so, whenever you receive, or send out, a key formal litigation document, you should store a copy of it in the appropriate location in Caselines Digital Case System (DCS), as described below, so that you can easily locate these important documents when needed as the case proceeds, and not have to search for them in your email system.

In addition to what is created by the litigation process itself (i.e. formal litigation documents and correspondence about the case), you will be sent by the other party, at the Disclosure of Documents stage, copies of their documentary evidence – e.g. photographs or documents which came into existence in the ordinary course of events in the past such as letters, invoices, written agreements, emails, diaries, logs etc. which are probative of issues in dispute in the litigation. These items of documentary evidence should be stored in as separate DCS “case” as should your own documentary evidence.

A word about terminology. The whole of the litigation is referred to as a "case" and the court will allocate a case number. But the DCS system also uses the word "case" to refer to a collection of documents (from which, if necessary, a "bundle" can easily be produced). So there will be several DCS cases for your single court case.

Storing the above documents in DCS in the way described not only allows you to find key important documents quickly but also means that you can use the DCS system to generate a Disclosure list (at the Disclosure of Documents stage) automatically and, most importantly, will allow you to deal with the process of the production of a Trial Bundle. Because the process of production of the Trial Bundle is a collaborative task between the parties, and the other party might be inefficient, it is essential to have all documents which might need to be included in the Trial Bundle ready in Caselines so that, if necessary, the Trial Bundle (or a Supplementary Trial Bundle if the other side is producing the Trial Bundle and refuses to include documents you require) can be produced quickly in time to meet the deadline for delivery just before the trial.

Also the DCS system is where I will look, from now on once you have set it up, for certain key documents as the litigation proceeds and you ask me to carry out work at each stage. Now that litigation is continuing, it would not be cost-effective for me to search through your cloud storage, so don't give me access to your cloud storage, but instead you should put copies of the key documents and relevant documentary evidence, in DCS as explained below.

You will be granting me access to the DCS Case Management and Proofs of Evidence and Offers cases and Documentary Evidence cases, as described below, so that I can use them for reference each time you ask me to do the next piece of work as the litigation proceeds. I do not need access to your own cloud storage such as Google Drive - indeed it it best if you do not grant me access to your own cloud storage as, because of the way the human mind works, if I have access to your cloud storage you may start to think - perhaps subconsciously - that when doing each piece of work you ask me to do, I will be considering everything contained in your cloud storage when, in fact, it is only the documents in the DCS Case Management and Proofs of Evidence and Offers cases and documentary evidence cases which I will be considering (together with any email message and attachments you provide to me at the point where you ask me to carry out the next piece of work in your case). Ensuring that I do not have access to your cloud storage will remind you that it is your responsibility to ensure that the DCS Case Management and Proofs of Evidence and Offers cases are up to date with the key documents they are designed to hold (but no other documents) and that all relevant disclosed documents (but only relevant documents) are in the DCS documentary evidence cases.

Contents

1 Organising documents in Caselines DCS
2 Organising Your Email Folders
3 Paper files you should keep
1. 3.1 Original signed formal litigation documents
2. 3.2 Disclosure Documentation in two ring binders
4 Disclaimer

Organising documents in Caselines DCS

In the Caselines Digital Case System (DCS) groups of documents are organised into what are called cases and, within each case, documents can be further divided into sections. As shown below, you will initially need to create three or four DCS cases for your court case, and you may need, later on, to create further DCS cases to produce bundles for the trial and for any other court hearings. How to load documents to DCS is explained here.

The documents to be stored in each DCS case are shown in the tables below. As well as making sure you do store the key formal litigation documents in the correct sections in the Case Management case as soon as you send or receive them, it is equally important that you do not store, in a Caselines section, a document which does not belong there. If, for example, you were to store every piece of correspondence sent or received, into the sections of the Case Management intended for formal litigation documents, “just in case”, that would defeat the object because the important documents would be lost among the mass of more routine correspondence.

Smith v Jones - Case Management case

Name of Section	Order by	What documents should be stored in it
Pleadings	Date	Pleading documents, otherwise known collectively as statements of case, are the documents in which each side seeks to define, at a summary level, the assertions it makes and to what extent it agrees with or disputes the assertions made by the other party. Pleading documents go by different names. In every contested case there will be at least a Claim Form and Particulars of Claim, and there will always be a Defence or a Defence and Counterclaim. In addition there may be further pleading documents such as a Reply to Defence, Reply to Defence and Defence to Counterclaim, Reply to Defence to Counterclaim, Answer to Request for Further Information, or Part 18 Answer. Claim Form 30 Jan 16 Particulars of Claim 30 Jan 16 Defence 23 Feb 16
Court Orders	Date	Orders made by the court (e.g. about how the parties are to prepare for trial) and notices issued by the court such as a Notice of Hearing - e.g. Order 27 Feb 16
Claimant’s Expert Report	Date	Where the court gives the Claimant permission for an expert to be used, the Claimant’s expert’s report and the replies the expert gives to subsequent questions sent by either party are stored here – e.g. Expert Report Mr Jenkins 14 Mar 16 Supplementary Expert Report Mr Jenkins 10 Apr 16 Mr Jenkins Replies to Questions 23 Apr 16
Defendant’s Expert Report	Date	Where the court gives the Defendant permission for an expert to be used, the Defendant’s expert’s report and the replies the expert gives to subsequent questions sent by either party are stored here.
Claimant’s Witness Statements	Date	Signed witness statements of the Claimant and each of the Claimant’s witnesses, which have been served (or are about to be served) Witness Statement of John Smith 1st 02 May 16 Witness Statement of Paul Davis 2nd 14 May 16 Any witness statements (and exhibits) - or equivalent: statutory declaration, Land Registry Statement of Truth, etc - for other, previous litigation are not stored here. If they are relevant to the current proceedings they will be stored in the Smith v Jones - Documentary Evidence case - see below. Any witness statements already used in the current proceedings for some purely procedural application (e.g. a witness statement from a process server explaining how documents were personally served) are not stored here if they will not need to be used at trial (they will have been stored in the DCS case used for the application hearing - see Cases for Hearings below).
Defendant’s Witness Statements	Date	Signed witness statements of the Defendant and each of the Defendant’s witnesses, which have been served (or are about to be served) Witness Statement of Jeremy Jones 1st 03 May 16 Witness Statement of Pamela Jenkins 1st 10 May 16 Any witness statements (and exhibits) - or equivalent: statutory declaration, Land Registry Statement of Truth, etc - for other, previous litigation are not stored here. If they are relevant to the current proceedings they will be stored in the Smith v Jones - Documentary Evidence case - see below. Any witness statements already used in the current proceedings for some purely procedural application (e.g. a witness statement from a process server explaining how documents were personally served) are not stored here if they will not need to be used at trial (they will have been stored in the DCS case used for the application hearing - see Cases for Hearings below).
NOTICES FOR VIDEOS and AUDIO FILES	Date	If there are video and/or audio files you will need to serve a CPR 33.6 Notice if you want to use them at trial. Store the Notice here and also store here any similar notices served on you by the other side. Notice under CPR 33.6 19 Jun 16 If there are video and/or audio files but no CPR 33.6 Notices have yet been served by either party, create this section (with nothing in it) just to remind you not to forget them. Omit this section if there are no video or audio files. Change section name if only videos and no audio or vice versa.
Other Notices about Evidence	Date	Notices about evidence sent by one party to another, other than those relating to video and audio files, are stored here. This includes Notices under CPR Rule 33.6 regarding photographs and plans, and CPR 32.19 notices challenging the authenticity of documents. Notice under CPR 33.6 30 May 16 NB This section is for notices about evidence sent by one party to the other; it is not for notices of hearings sent out by the court which should be stored not in this section but in the Court Orders section.

Smith v Jones - Proofs of Evidence and Offers case

Name of Section

Order by

What documents should be stored in it

Offers

Date

Offers from one party to the other (whether open offers, Part 36 offers, without prejudice except as to costs offers, or Calderbank offers) and any responses (e.g. explaining why an offer is not accepted, requesting further information, etc). If one party proposes mediation but mediation does not take place then the letter proposing mediation and any reply declining mediation.

Letter Defendant to Claimant 28 Feb 15

NB Offers and responses which are unqualifiedly without prejudice (i.e. without prejudice rather than without prejudice except as to costs) are not stored here.

Initial letters proposing/or refusing mediation are normally without prejudice except as to costs and so would be stored here, but any documents produced during, or in preparation for, mediation itself will be unqualifiedly without prejudice (even if they do not explicitly say so) and are not stored here.

Proofs of Evidence

Title

You may have recently (i.e. after litigation commenced or when it was being contemplated) written down what you remember in a Proof of Evidence. The difference between a Proof of Evidence (which is stored here) and a Witness Statement, which has been signed and served (which is stored not here but in the Case Management case - see above) is that your Proof of Evidence is the full account of what you can remember but a Witness Statement contains only the subjects which you need to give evidence about (e.g. if an issue turns out to be not in dispute between the parties it will be omitted from the Witness Statement to save time and costs). But until the Witness Statement is drafted, signed and served (and even after then in case some issue arises which it was previously thought was not in dispute) it is useful to have the Proofs of Evidence readily available which is why they are stored here.

After Witness Statements have been exchanged you and/or your witnesses may have paragraph-by-paragraph comments on what the other side's witnesses say in their witness statements. These are also stored here.

John Smith - Letter 05 Mar 16

John Smith - Proof of Evidence 12 Mar 16

John Smith - comments on statement of Jeremy Jones 15 Jun 16

Paula Smith - comments on statement of Jeremy Jones 16 Jun 16

Smith v Jones - Documentary Evidence cases

In addition to the two “cases” described above, there should be three separate DCS “cases” (why?) for documentary evidence named:

Smith v Jones - Documentary Evidence which Came into my Possession in the Past for documents you obtained in the past and documents you created in the past

Smith v Jones - Documentary Evidence Recently Come into my Possession for relevant documents you have recently obtained from sources other than the other side (e.g. from public registers) and also relevant documents you created recently which are either not privileged or for which you want to waive privilege (such as some recently taken photos)

Smith v Jones - Documentary Evidence Disclosed by Other Side for documents you have recently obtained from the other party (or their solicitors) as part of disclosure (voluntary or compulsory)

The sections for each of the three "cases" should use unique section numbers - e.g. if you number the sections in the first case A to F, number the sections in the second "case" starting with G, etc.

Each of the above could potentially contain documents like this

Name of Section	Section number	Order by	Examples of documents which might be stored in section
Photographs and Videos	A	Date	Photo of Orchard 17 Jun 99 Photo of Orchard 23 May 14 Video of Orchard 01 22 Nov 14 Note: for those photographs which have already been used as exhibits the document PDF will include the exhibit frontsheet and the exhibit number will be included in the name: Exhibit JJS3 - Photo of Orchard. 31 Jan 15
AB123456 Title Deeds	B	Date	Conveyance 10 Apr 1999 Register of Title AB123456 31 Oct 2016 Title Plan AB123456 31 Oct 2016
CD654321 Title Deeds	C	Date	Conveyance 15 Mar 1998 Register of Title CD654321 31 Oct 2016 Title Plan CD654321 31 Oct 2016
Other Documents	D	Date	Letter John Smith to Lucy Jones 15 Aug 12 Agreement John Smith and Lucy Jones 20 Sep 12 Email at 10.20 John Smith to Peter Jones 15 Aug 13

Usually the main run of documents are best arranged chronologically regardless of the document type, whether contract, purchase order, invoice, letter, email etc. in the Other Documents section, so that the sequence of events can be seen. However sometimes certain limited groups of documents (such as title deeds for different properties as shown in the example above) are best organised separately from the main run of documents – still organised chronologically but separately.

Important Note It is important that you do not store, in the Caselines cases and sections shown above, documents which do not belong there. If, for example, you were to store every piece of correspondence sent or received, into the sections of the Case Management case intended for formal litigation documents, “just in case”, that would defeat the object because the important documents would be lost among the mass of more routine correspondence. You may need, when the times comes, to create a bundle containing documents directly relating to a particular forthcoming hearing but this should be done by creating a new and separate Caselines case, to contain the documents required for that hearing (some of which may be copied from the above cases), not by adding documents to the above cases and sections which do not belong there.

Audio and Video file placeholders

Documentary evidence includes not only written documents but also any relevant audio or video files (e.g. mp3 and mp4 files). You should store these on cloud storage. Google Drive is a very convenient (and free) cloud storage system though you should note that it, like all Google systems (including Gmail), is hosted outside the United Kingdom and so may not be subject to the same data protection standards as apply in the United Kingdom. For each video or audio file, create a one page placeholder, select Get Shareable Link, and paste the link into the placeholder page so that the placeholder page looks something like this:

Store the placeholder file in the Photographs and Videos section of the appropriate Documentary Evidence case.

DCS Cases for Hearings

As well as the two or three DCS cases shown above – which are for general reference throughout the case - you may need, when the times comes, to create a DCS case specifically to produce a bundle for a particular court hearing.

During the course of litigation, before the trial, one side or the other might make an application to the court for an interim order to, for example, preserve the status quo or give temporary relief pending the trial, and an application bundle case named e.g. Smith v Jones - Bundle 2017-06 - Application Hearing will be required for the application hearing. Note that all bundle cases should have the word Bundle and and the month and year in yyyy-mm format immediately following the the name of the proceedings (e.g. Smith v Jones). This will ensure that they are listed chronologically in the DCS system.

As well as specific applications made to the court which are in some sense contentious, there may be, early on in the litigation, a case management hearing - usually called a Case Management Conference or CMC - which is more administrative in nature and may be concerned with giving directions about how the parties are to prepare, over the coming months, for the eventual trial, setting appropriate deadlines for each step. To save costs in cases where the directions are likely to be relatively straightforward, the court may simply read each party's proposed directions (which each party submits with the Directions Questionnaire) and issue directions without holding a case management hearing (if this happens the parties have the right, upon receiving the order giving the directions, to ask the court to re-consider). If there is to be a hearing a short hearing bundle will be required. If the court is going to decide "on the papers" without a hearing, the court may still require the claimant to assemble and lodge a bundle for the judge's/master's use when making the decision on the papers because that is quicker and easier to use than looking through the court file.

These DCS cases for applications and short hearings should be kept intact after the hearings they were produced for because although an application or a CMC results in a court order, and it is normally only the order which needs subsequently to be referred to, occasionally it happens that some occurrence in the future means that some document used in the earlier application hearing or directions hearing, which is not contained in the other DCS cases, needs to be consulted.

A trial bundle case would be named e.g. Smith v Jones - Bundle 2017-07 - Trial and, after you have created the basic Trial Bundle case in DCS you would normally ask me to populate it with the documents which will be required (by copying selected documents from the two or three general reference cases shown above). Even if it is the other side, rather than you, which has been directed to assemble a trial bundle, you will need to tell the other side what documents you require to be included in it and in practice this is best done by creating a Smith v Jones – Documents to be Included in Trial Bundle case in Caselines.

Once the trial has ended and the judge has pronounced judgment, that it normally the end of the litigation (barring any enforcement action which may be necessary, and any assessment of costs if that was not carried out at the end of the trial) but occasionally one side or the other may appeal to a higher court and, in that case, an appeal bundle case will be necessary.

At any stage of the litigation a party can make an offer to settle. Often it is agreed that there will be a formal mediation, conducted by a professional mediator, and, if there is a mediation, usually a mediation bundle is produced to be used by the parties and the mediator.

Saving PDF copies of Bundles

As explained above, whenever there is a court hearing a hearing bundle will need to be produced, either by you or by the other side. If the hearing bundle is produced by you using Caselines DCS it will be produced in PDF form before it is printed and you should save the bundle PDF (on your computer or in cloud storage). Although, once used for a hearing, a case bundle should be kept intact and unchanged in DCS, there is always the possibility of it being changed by mistake (you might amend it by mistake when you intended to update one of the general reference cases for example), so you should retain the bundle PDF as it was when you printed it out and created the hardcopy bundle, so that for each hearing you have an exact copy of what the hardcopy bundle contained.

Organising Your Email Folders

Virtually all correspondence you send or receive in the course of litigation will be automatically stored in your email system. This even includes much correspondence received by post because some of that you will be emailing that to me to ask me to advise. Likewise you will be emailing to me PDF copies of any signed letters you send out by post which you have asked me to draft. Because searchable email folders are so convenient, people sometimes, even if they have no other reason to send by email, scan things in as PDFs and email them to themselves so that they can store them in a convenient email folder. For example if you receive an invoice for a disbursement by post, you could scan it in, email it to yourself, and store it in the CostsDisbursementsEvidence folder (as well as keeping the paper original).

I would suggest that you have a high-level folder for emails relating to the case (named - e.g. Smith v Jones) to keep them separate from other emails, such as your personal emails, and that below that high-level folder you have at least the following sub-folders.

Service	Any emails from me advising how to validly file and serve formal documents. Also any correspondence sent by you or received by you which notifies an address for service or a change of address for service of formal documents (including any correspondence notifying a change of solicitor representing the other party). Any notification by the court of a change of address of the court centre dealing with the case.
ServiceEvidence	Evidence of how and when you served particular documents on parties. This includes both documents provided to you by others - such as a certificate of posting provided by the Post Office - and Certificates of Service which you complete and sign. Usually these never need to be referred to but occasionally they can be important. For example, if a court grants an injunction then the court order will normally need to be personally served on the person to whom the court order applies and a Certificate of Service completed. If, at some time in the future, the person disobeys the court order then the Certificate of Service will be needed for a committal application, but in 99% of cases court orders are obeyed (as nobody wants to go to prison) so that the Certificate of Service is not usually needed.
Advices	Opinions and Advices written by me.
Settlement	Correspondence between parties which aims to achieve a settlement.
CostsStatements	Costs budgets, estimates of costs, and statements of costs filed by either party as the case proceeds. Also Disclosure Reports (giving estimate of costs of disclosure of documents).
CostsDisbursementsEvidence	Supporting evidence of disbursements in the case. This may include invoices from barristers, expert witnesses, mediators and from any commercial document scanning or printing service you use, and for court fees. Also any invoices associated with obtaining evidence – e.g. charges for copies of historical aerial photographs. Invoices can include expenditure before proceedings commenced (e.g. pre-action advice from a barrister or solicitor).
CostsOther	Most people, in order to increase the likelihood of the trial judge carrying out a (fast) summary assessment of costs at the end of the trial will put forward a Statement of Costs for Summary Assessment at the trial which just includes disbursements (on the basis that if it includes small items as well the judge may be more inclined to order the long and costly process of Detailed Assessment for which a specialist Costs Lawyer would need to be engaged). However if, for whatever reason, Detailed Assessment is ordered normally information about all expenditure (not just Disbusements) is provided to the Costs Lawyer and to cater for this possibility all emails relevant to expenditure, however small, can be stored here.
CostsBehaviour	Any correspondence in which one party accuses the other of unreasonable litigation behaviour. Most cases are about behaviour which could be described as unreasonable but if the way a party behaves in the litigation itself is unreasonable (e.g. missing deadlines or bombarding the other party with long repetitive emails) relevant emails would be stored here as they may be relevant to the order the court eventually makes about who should pay the costs of the litigation itself.

If a matter arises in the litigation which you ask my advice on, I might ask you to quickly provide me with PDF copies of the relevant emails which you have sent or received, particularly if an application is to be made for an interim order. You could simply create PDF copies of emails when I request them but, in case something arises urgently and time is short, you might want to plan ahead and set up Cloud HQ to ensure that whenever you send or receive an email a PDF copy is automatically created in your cloud storage (e.g. in Google Drive) so that if I should ever need to ask for a PDF copy of any email, you can quickly send it to me. Note that using CloudHQ will result in your data being processed outside the United Kingdom.

Paper files you should keep

Original signed formal litigation documents

The original signed copies of court documents which have been filed/served (e.g. pleadings and witness statements) should be kept in a paper file in case the court should require them to be produced.

Disclosure Documentation in two ring binders

You should also keep paper copies of all disclosure documentation (both documentation received on paper and documentation received electronically) in two ring binders .

Disclaimer

This information page is designed to be used only by clients of John Antell who have entered into an agreement for the provision of legal services. The information in it is necessarily of a general nature and is intended to be used only in conjunction with specific advice to the individual client about the individual case. This information page should not be used by, or relied on, by anyone else.

The information on this page about specific computer techniques is provided for information purposes only. Every reasonable effort has been made to ensure that the information is accurate and up to date at the time it was written but no responsibility for its accuracy, or for any consequences of relying on it, is assumed by me. You should satisfy yourself, before using any of the techniques, software or services described, that the techniques are appropriate for your purposes and that the software or service is reliable.

This page was lasted updated in September 2017 Disclaimer

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