Arranging documents with the hardcopy in mind
Arranging documents with the hardcopy in mind
When arranging documents and sections in an eBundle, although ease of use for the user of the PDF is the main concern, the hardcopy should also be borne in mind.
Sometimes it makes sense to arrange the position of documents in the eBundle with half an eye to making the eventual production of the hardcopy easier. For example if there are many documents which will need to be printed on A3 paper in landscape they could be grouped together in a separate section so that when the time comes they can be printed easily and perhaps placed in a suitable binder as a separate volume. Arranging documents for ease of producing the eventual hardcopy must not be done at the expense of making the position of documents in the bundle illogical or unhelpful but arranging A3 documents together often makes sense anyway. For example maps are often landscape A3 and the purpose of maps is to show features of land which are unlikely to be subject to frequent change. So the exact month that a map happened to be published is less important than the general timeframe and consequently it is usually more helpful if historical maps are collected together in a section by themselves, arranged chronologically within that section, rather than being included amongst the bulk of other documents.
But the tail must not wag the dog and there may be some particular A3 documents which really need to be placed in chronological position among the bulk of documents which will be printed on A4.
It is normal to have the sections containing statements in a different volume from the sections containing the documents the statements refer to, so that both can be open at the same time. Subject to this requirement, consecutive sections are allocated to hardcopy volumes with the following principles in mind:
a volume can contain more than one section but sections do not normally span volumes (unless this is unavoidable due to the size of the section).
each volume binder should not contain so many pages that it is difficult to handle - generally no more than 300 sheets - this is 600 pages if the intention is to print double-sided and generally double-sided printing is best to save weight and space (except perhaps for A3 pages which are to be folded).
Most tribunals require at least one "official" hardcopy to be produced by the party producing the eBundle for the use of witnesses when giving evidence at the final hearing, and may require further official hardcopies to be produced by that party for the use of the judge, any other tribunal members, and the other side. Some tribunals require these hardcopies to be printed double-sided, some require single-sided printing, but usually it is left to the party producing the official hardcopies to decide.
Anyone printing an additional hardcopy for their own use will want to arrange their hardcopy to match the "official" hardcopies so that, for example, if a witness at the final hearing is referred to volume 2, the user can also look in their own volume 2 knowing that it contains the same page range, hence the need to decide, and indicate in printing instructions to be contained within the bundle, which sections should be assembled in which hardcopy volumes. Even if, unusually, there are no "official" hardcopies at all it is still useful to have a recommended allocation of sections to hardcopy volumes so that if two or more people are printing their own hardcopy for their own use they can both use the same suggested volume arrangement.
If colour coding is used it makes it easy for everyone at the hearing who is using a hardcopy to be able to immediately tell, if someone else picks up a volume to refer to, which volume they are looking in. When choosing colours try to avoid using colours which will be used by any other type of bundle there may be - for example authorities bundles often have green covers so don't use green. You may also want to consider whether, when you later come to produce the hardcopies, you will be using D-ring bunders or comb-binding as D-ring binders may not be available in all colours whereas comb-binding uses card covers which are available in any colour.
Once you have decided which sections should go in which hardcopy volumes, amend the descriptions of each section to indicate the volume, identifying volumes with a number, and sections with a letter - e.g.:
A - Statements of Case (Vol 1 blue)
B - Applicant's Witness Statements (Vol 1 blue)
As mentioned above sometimes it makes sense for documents which will eventually need to be printed on A3 paper to be grouped together in a separate section so that they can be printed easily but there may be some particular A3 landscape documents which really need to be placed in chronological position among the bulk of documents most of which will be printed on A4. Where there is a whole section to be printed A3, add A3 to the end of the section name. In other sections any particular document which is to be printed A3 landscape should have A3 added to the end of its Document Name.
The eBundle should include printing instructions so that any recipient of the eBundle can print out their own hardcopy.
This information page is designed to be used by clients of John Antell who have entered into a written agreement for the provision of legal services.
Any explanation about naming conventions or other matters in the context of legal procedure is only an overview and in order to be reasonably concise I have had to leave some details out - details which are likely to affect what the procedural law would say about your own situation. Also, even as an overview, the information will not be applicable to every case as procedures vary between different courts and other tribunals and any tribunal may give alternative procedural directions in an individual case. So please do not rely on the above but contact me for advice.
Any information about specific computer techniques is provided for information purposes only and you should satisfy yourself, before using any techniques, software or services mentioned, that the techniques are appropriate for your purposes and that the software or service is reliable.
Every reasonable effort has been made to ensure that the information in this page 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.
This page was lasted updated in December 2025 Disclaimer