What is the Date of this Document?

One of the first things people want to know about a document is its date. This is partly because knowing the date helps to see how it relates to other documents and to events. Also the date is used to identify a document so that two people can check, when talking about a particular document, that they are referring to the same document. If you refer to a letter from John Smith to Paula Jones dated 17 Aug 2020 that is enough to uniquely identify the document since people do not generally send two letters to the same recipient on the same day. In the case of email the time as well as the date needs to be quoted to ensure the reference is unique . 

In the case of a document which does not have the date written on it, you might have to estimate the approximate date based on, for example in the case of an old photo taken with a non-digital camera, the apparent age of people (particularly children) whose year of birth you know who appear in it. Although you may not know the precise date that the photo was taken there is no doubt what we mean by "the date of the photo". In the case of old non-digital photos we mean the date when the photographer pressed the button on the camera which opened the shutter and exposed the section of photographic film within the camera to the light, thus capturing an image of what the camera was pointing at. Of course the actual physical card photo which you have in your hand was not produced on that date, but on a later date, perhaps a few weeks or months later when, every section of the film having been used up, the photographer took the film to a photographic shop which developed and printed it on card. But when people ask what is the date of the photo?  we all understand them to be asking  on what date the photo was taken, not when the particular copy on card was produced. 

The date when the card copy was produced might in fact be of interest because if the photographic shop stamped a date on the back of the card copy you at least know that the photo cannot have been taken later than that date, but the date the card copy was produced is normally of interest only because it helps to establish the approximate date when the original was taken - that is what we are primarily interested in.

Similar considerations apply with most types of document - we instinctively know what is meant by "the date of the document". There are, however, some circumstances in which you may be in doubt as to which of the dates associated with a document should be regarded as the primary identifying "date of the document" and the guidance below is designed to help.

Communications

There should be no difficulty if the document is an email because both the sender's and the recipient's email systems will show, when the email is displayed, the date and time the email was sent,  this being recorded automatically within the email. But in the case of a letter there are a number of different dates. There is the date that the sender wrote and signed the letter - i.e. the date which the letter bears,  the date that they posted the letter, and the date the letter was delivered by the postal system. In this case the convention is that it is the date which the letter bears which is the "date of the letter" because that is the date that can be readily ascertained simply by looking at the document. 

A party in legal proceedings may wish to make some point about other dates.  For example if a letter is written forewarning the addressee of some expected future event then whether it arrived well before, just before, or after, the event, can be significant, but it is the date which the letter bears which is used (together with the names of sender and addressee which it will also contain) to identify the letter so that, whatever point is being made, everyone knows what document is being referred to.

Similar principles apply to other documents, such as invoices, designed to be sent to another person.            

Agreements

A contract does not always have to be in a formal written document and, depending on the circumstances, an email making a contractual offer and a reply accepting that contractual offer, might be binding. But where there is a formal written agreement signed by both parties, it is generally the date of signature by both parties which is the date of the document, and if it is signed by each party on different dates then it will be the date of the last signature which is the date of the document.

Sometimes a formal agreement will commence with words such as THIS DEED IS MADE ON... leaving a space so that the date can be filled in after the document has been signed by the last person to sign. The date at the beginning of the document could be the same date as the last signature date, but sometimes a deed has to be "delivered" as a separate act before it becomes effective and in this case the date filled in at the top should be the date it becomes effective and may be after the date of the last signature on it. 

Sometimes an agreement commences with words such as THIS AGREEMENT IS MADE ON 21 SEPTEMBER 2019... so that the date at the top is already printed before it is signed and in this case it will not normally be effective until it is signed by the last person to sign which might be on the same day or could be a few days later.

As a general rule it is the date which appears at the top of the agreement which is the date of the document unless there is a signature with a later date in which case it is the date of the last signature which should be taken to be the date of the document.  The date by which the document will be referred to in, for example the bookmarks and index (table of contents) of an eBundle, does not necessarily preclude any argument being made about the significance of other dates.               

Other Documents

Some documents are not designed to be immediately sent out as a communication, nor designed to be executed as agreements, but are simply created to record some matter. They made be updated from time to time such as a log of events or incidents. It is the date when the document was last updated which should be treated as the document date. The person updating the document might type into it the date when it was last updated but if not then, if it is a log of events or a list of documents, you can at least tell that the date it was last updated cannot be earlier than the date of the most recent event or document it refers to and you might use that as the document date. Or there may be metadata which show when it was last updated which can, depending on the file type, be displayed by tapping on an "info" or "properties" tab.    

Copies of Documents 

Normally the date a copy of a document was made, though it might appear in the file-system metadata, does not appear as text in the document copy but sometimes it might. For example if you download or print out a copy of a historical Ordnance Survey map from an online service, the date of printing might appear but it is the date (i.e. the month and year, or year if that is all which is provided) of the historical map itself which is the document date, not the date of printing.

The Royal Mail website allows you to enter a tracking number and display a Proof of Delivery. There is no specific facility to download a PDF copy so to obtain a PDF copy people naturally use the "print" function on their browser to "print" a copy to a PDF. On some browsers this causes the date and time of the "print" to appear in the top or bottom margin of each page, but it is, of course, the date and time of delivery shown which is the document date, not the date of "printing".    

If you obtain an official copy of a document from an official public register there may be an official stamp or frontsheet giving the date the copy was made. And for certain important documents a solicitor may add a manuscript endorsement to the copy document saying "I certify that this is a true copy of..." and then sign and date the endorsement. But it is, of course, the date of the original document which should be considered to be the document date, not the date that the copy was made even if the date of copying is stamped or endorsed on the document copy.        

Screenshots of Metadata

Electronic documents - i.e. documents which a party originally had as computer files (or files on a phone or tablet) - as distinct from paper documents which were scanned in as PDFs only because of the litigation - may contain metadata  which a party wishes to rely on. A common example is JPG photos. Particularly if a photo taken in the past does not have the date/time as part of the image a party will normally want to rely, in order to show when the image was taken, on the date/time-taken information in the EXIF metadata of the JPG. and will want to make a screenshot showing the metadata like this:

The document date of a screenshot of the metadata of an electronic document is the same as the date of the electronic document itself - not the later date the screenshot was actually taken which is essentially arbitrary.

Special Cases

Most documents can be identified by the document date (established as explained above) together with a concise document description such as Letter from John Smith to Paula Jones but sometimes an additional date associated with the document needs to be given as well to avoid misunderstanding.

Delayed posting

Even if you happen to know that you did not send out a letter on the date that you signed it, but a day later, you would normally still use the date the letter bears as the document date. This is because that is the date that will be used when people are referring to the letter. Everybody knows that letters do not arrive instantly so everybody will expect that the letter will have arrived a day or two after the date it bears. However if you happen to know that there was an unusually long delay between the date on the letter and the date it was posted you should still use the document date exactly as it is on the letter, but as part of the document description you should enter both that date and, in brackets, also the date that it was posted:

Date of Letter known to be a mistake

Sometimes a document bears a date which is clearly a mistake. For example a letter may bear the date “5th January 2012” but commence “Thank you for your letter of 28th December 2012...”. In such a case the document date you use should be what is believed to be the true date - e.g. 5th January 2013 - and the date the document actually bears should be given in brackets:

Land Registry - Register of Title

An Official Copy of the Register of Title for land, obtained from the Land Registry, will have an edition date which is the date of the current edition but it will also state, just below that, a later date which is the latest date the information is known to be correct for - normally the date the copy was issued but if there are pending applications it will be the date and time immediately before the date/time of the oldest application which is still pending - e.g. This official copy shows the entries on the register of title on 03 August 2020 at 17:22:15. It is this date which should normally be used as the document date because the Register of Title is not just a record of entries made but constitutes the official registered title as at the date stated, with certain legal consequences under the Land Registration Act 2002.

Land Registry - Title Plan

An Official Copy of the Title Plan for a registered title to land, obtained from the Land Registry will have an initial page saying e.g. This official copy... shows the state of this title plan on 03 August 2018 at 17:22:15. The Title Plan itself may or may not have an indication of when the current version of the plan was created (there might be a circular "stamp" on the bottom right) but it is the official copy date (not any circular stamp date) which should be used as the document date because a Land Registry Title Plan is not just a copy of a plan prepared on a particular date in the past but constitutes the official registered title as at the time of stated, with certain legal consequences under the Land Registration Act 2002.

Application Plans

When a formal application is made to a public body such as the Land Registry or a local authority planning department the application form may be accompanied by one or more plans, specifically drawn up or marked up, to accompany the application, showing the area of land and/or development proposal, concerned. Such a plan may or may not  have an indication of when it was drawn up and, if it does, that might be the date that the final marked up version was drawn, or it might be the date the base plan was originally drawn before it was later marked up in order to be used for the application, but generally the most useful and appropriate date will be the date that the plan was received by the public body which is a date which will usually be displayed on the public body's website when the document is downloaded.  

When the date you received a document is important and significantly later that the document date 

Where the date you received a document is significantly later than the date it was created/signed, it can sometimes - not always but sometimes - be important to add, in brackets at the end of the document description, the date that you received the document (the exact date if you know it or otherwise the approximate date as best you can ascertain it) as shown below. 

The date you received/obtained a document might be important if, for example, you thought for a long time that you owned land but as a result of seeing the document you started to wonder, or if someone told you something and you only discovered otherwise when later you saw the document, or you made an agreement with someone and you only received their standard terms and conditions - or some document referred to in the agreement - after you had made the agreement.

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 will not be applicable to every case: it is intended to be used only in conjunction with more 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 November 2023 Disclaimer