About Exhibits

The documents referred to in a statement in a civil matter may be identified by a brief description but in order to provide certainty for the reader about exactly what document the witness was intending to refer to a copy of the document labelled with a unique exhibit mark should be in front of the witness when they are checking and signing their statement and their statement should quote the exhibit mark of each document as it is referred to.

For example a statement might say 

I sent Mr Jones a letter dated 10 September 2020. I refer to this letter marked Exhibit JJS3.

or

I took a photo of the wall on 19 December 2021. I refer to a screenshot of the photo image and metadata marked Exhibit JJS14. 

Quoting an exhibit mark is particularly important in the case of photographs and diagrams. There might have been more than one photo of the wall taken on 19 December 2021 in the above example and the exhibit mark identifies the exact photo which the witness has in mind.

The format of Exhibit Marks

Conventionally exhibit marks are in the form of a serial number prefixed with the three initials of the witness. Three initials are used so as to reduce the likelihood that two witnesses in the same matter have the same initials. Witnesses who are related may have the same surname and it is not unusual for children to have the same first forename as a parent - but nearly always with a second forename which is different.    

So well known is the format of three capital letters followed by a number that it tends to be used even if the witness has only one forename (so exhibits for Paula Smith might be labelled PXS1, PXS2, etc.) or if the individual has more than two forenames (so the exhibits for Patricia Mary Susanna Jones would be labelled PMJ1, PMJ2, etc.). If the witness has a double-barrelled surname then the initial of the second forename may be omitted so as to keep to the three letter format so, for example, exhibits for John Philip Hamilton-Smith might be labelled JHS1, JHS2, etc. If a witness makes more than one statement, the numbering of exhibits runs consecutively so if the first statement of Patricia Mary Jones refers to exhibits PMJ1 to PMJ8, and she makes a second statement referring to two additional documents, they would have exhibit marks of PMJ9 and PMJ10.  The combination of the use of witness initials and use of a serial number running consecutively (and not restarting if there are two or more statements from a particular witness) ensures that each exhibit mark used in a matter is unique. And using witness initials means that you can tell from exhibit marks which witnesses exhibit a particular document. 

The practicalities of labelling and verifying exhibits to be sent to the Land Registry   

Many documents sent to the Land Registry are land transaction deeds (Conveyance, Transfer, Grant, Release, etc.) which are drawn up in a very specific way and executed with certain formalities, and identifying, in a statement, the type of deed, date, and the names of the parties should be enough to ensure that there is no doubt about the document referred to - e.g. Conveyance dated 14 March 1972 between John Smith and Paula Jones. However for other, less formal, documents referred to in statements such as letters, contracts and particularly photos it is better if they are exhibited. 

In the 20th century sometimes original paper documents were actually marked with an exhibit mark but nowadays invariably documents are scanned and the exhibit mark applied to the scanned copy only. Typically a PDF copy is made (by scanning a paper document or doing a "PDF print" of a computer file) with a label containing the exhibit mark included in the PDF (most ordinary PDF software - e.g. PDF X-Change Editor - has an option to apply a label to a PDF which can then be "flattened" to make it permanent).

Ideally the exhibit mark label should be applied to each page of the exhibit PDF and should include the page number and the total number of pages in the exhibit - e.g. Exhibit JJS23 page 1 of 4 - but the exhibit mark should at least be on the first page of the exhibited document .

It is good practice for the exhibit mark label to be signed by the witness, at least on the first page, as a verification that the exhibited document is indeed the document they refer to with that exhibit mark in their statement. 

In some types of application the Land Registry requires statements with exhibits to be filed in paper form. The Land Registry will then themselves scan each paper document in as a PDF. In order to ensure that the Land Registry's scanned PDF copy of each document is as good as it can be, generally it is the original paper statement with "wet ink" signature together with each paper exhibit with "wet ink" signature on the label which would be sent to the Land Registry. (Before sending a PDF scan is taken and kept just in case there is any mishap in the Land Registry's scanning process, as the Land Registry routinely destroy documents after scanning.)

Often, however, the Land Registry will allow and encourage statements and exhibits to be emailed to the office in PDF form. In this case it is generally  a PDF scan of the signed statement, together with  exhibits in PDF form with an unsigned exhibit mark label, which are sent . Exhibit PDFs are usually sent with unsigned labels because in order to send a PDF copy of an exhibit with signed label an extra scan would be needed which would reduce image quality which is undesirable particularly in the case of photos. So the original paper exhibit with "wet ink" signature on the label would not be rescanned but simply kept safe so that, in any case of doubt, it could be produced. Only the PDF copy with unsigned label is sent (together with a PDF copy of the signed statement). 

If, however, a witness prints out a copy of a photo or plan and makes a mark on the paper copy such as an arrow pointing to some feature that they are going to refer to in their statement, or if they draw a diagram on paper from scratch to be used with their statement, they would incorporate an exhibit label, and sign it, in the course of preparing it, so that it is already signed when first scanned as a PDF. So in that case the exhibit PDF which is sent would be signed. The original paper exhibit with "wet ink" signature on the label would be kept safe.  

Note: the above refers to exhibits accompanying ordinary statements. If there is a statutory declaration or affidavit the procedure is different.

Labelling and verifying exhibits for tribunal proceedings

For statements to be used in tribunal proceedings the main differences are:

1. Most tribunals allow statements and exhibits to be emailed to the tribunal office (or uploaded using the tribunal's website) so that it is not necessary to send them in paper form. The original paper documents which were originally scanned to create the paper exhibits in the first place, together with each original paper exhibit with "wet ink" signature on the label, and the original "wet ink" signed paper statements, are kept safe so as to be available to be produced if necessary. The rules may require all these to be brought to the tribunal hearing though they would only need to be referred to in the unlikely event of some query about the copies in the eBundle used at the hearing. It is usual for statements within the eBundle to be annotated in the right hand margin, opposite each exhibit mark referred to, with the eBundle page number of that exhibit - so that someone reading through the statement within the eBundle can easily refer to each exhibit mentioned wherever it is within the eBundle (it will usually be in a section further on in the eBundle together with other evidential documents in chronological sequence). The annotation will be hyperlinked. In addition the index and bookmarks should identify the exhibit marks of each document in the eBundle. A hardcopy, of course, has no hyperlinks or bookmarks, so when using a hardcopy of the eBundle it is necessary to rely on the index and/or page number annotation to find an exhibit. If there were to be any doubt about the accuracy of a particular page number annotation, it could normally be cleared up by referring to the labelled copy of the exhibit which accompanied the witness statement when that was first sent to the other party (at the same time as it was sent to the tribunal office) so that it would only be in a rare case that the original paper exhibit with "wet ink" signature on the label would need to be checked.  

2. Depending on the type of civil matter, rules may specify quite precisely how exhibits are to be labelled and verified and may specify additional details which are required to be to be written on the first page of each exhibit accompanying the statement of a witness. In some tribunals these additional details are quite extensive. For example the requirements for exhibits in the High Court and County Court in England and Wales have expanded over the years. A 1983 Practice Direction for affidavits in the High Court required (1) the party on whose behalf the statement referring to the exhibit is filed - e.g. Claimant, (2) the initials and surname of the witness, (3) whether the exhibit was served with that witness's first, second, third etc, statement, and (4) the date of that statement, to be written in the top right hand corner of the first page of each exhibit "where space allows", and required every page of the exhibit to be numbered, bottom centre (unless the exhibit only consists of a single page). When that Practice Direction was superseded by the Civil Procedure Rules 1998 most of those requirements were extended to all exhibits, both those used with affidavits and those used with witness statements, and without the qualification "where space allows", and the 1998 rules now apply to the County Court as well as the High Court so that it is invariably the case that a frontsheet has to be used for most exhibits in these courts . In fact, a practice has grown up in the High Court of always using frontsheets for exhibits even where there would be space on the first page of an exhibited document.

3. In most litigation there is a Disclosure of Documents stage at which each side sends a numbered list of its documents, together with copies of the documents, to the other side. A numbered list of key documents may already have been provided earlier on with each side's statement of case in which case the document numbering of a party's disclosure list would carry on where the key documents list left off. In witness statements made by the parties themselves documents can be referred to using a list reference within square brackets instead of an exhibit mark reference - e.g. [A51] for item 51 on the Applicant's disclosure list. This saves having to create a copy of the document with an exhibit label and means that documents referred to only by witnesses who are parties only need to have one reference stated in the index and in bookmarks (rather than multiple exhibit marks if the document is referred to by more than one witness).  The usual convention if a document appears on the disclosure list of both sides is that it is the reference on the Applicant's (or Claimant's) list which is used by both sides.  

4. Third-party witnesses (i.e. witnesses who can give relevant evidence but are not themselves parties to the litigation) may well not be familiar with disclosure lists submitted by the parties in the proceedings. For land transaction deeds (Conveyance, Transfer, Grant, Release, etc.) which are drawn up in a very specific way and executed with certain formalities, the type of deed, date, and the names of the parties should be enough to ensure that there is no doubt about the document referred to - e.g. Conveyance dated 14 March 1972 between John Smith and Paula Jones  which I am informed is document [A51] on the Applicant's disclosure list. However for other, less formal, documents it is better if they are exhibited. If a third-party witness refers to a video or audio recording then they will have to refer to it using a list reference and in this case it is usual to also state the length of the recording, as well as the list reference, to reduce the risk of mistake over which file is intended  - e.g.  I took a video of the leak on 15 July 2023 [R26]. The video is 5 minutes 23 seconds long. 

5. Technically any object which contains information is a "document" but if the object itself needs to be exhibited (whether or not it counts as a "document") then the usual procedure is that very small objects should be placed in a marked container and larger objects should have the exhibit mark securely attached to the object itself. Object exhibits are generally less convenient to handle and in many (though not all) cases it is possible for photos of the object to be exhibited rather than the object itself.

Note: the above refers to exhibits accompanying ordinary statements. For affidavits the procedure is different.

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This page was lasted updated in April 2023. Disclaimer