At a relatively early stage in the litigation process the court or other tribunal issues directions to the parties as to the various steps they need to take to prepare for the eventual Final Hearing (with a deadline for each step directed). The directions will include a method and timeline for "Disclosure" of relevant documents, so having information about which locations would need to be searched for relevant documents, and some indication of the percentage of documents which are likely to turn out to be relevant in that location, and how easy they may be to find, is useful information which you can collect as you are selectively finding and copying documents.
In addition to locations you have actually found relevant documents in, think about what other physical locations may contain paper documents. Also if there are, as often ther will be, a large number of documents on your computer, think about whether there are additional high level folders which relevant documents might be located in. Don't forget folders within your email system and any folders you have in "cloud" storage.
You could also contact any external organisations - such as your conveyancing solicitors in a case concerning land - and, if you are not immediately obtaining copies of documents they hold - at least ask them to provide you with basic information about what they hold and the numbers and form of documents (e.g. whether all computer files or whether partially in paper form).
Write down the information you have found out, as in the example below, so that you have it for future reference. You might need to actually submit it in the form of a Disclosure Report to the court before the court gives directions as to exactly what disclosure directions to give, or it may just be useful in estimating how long the disclosure of all relevant documents might take and therefore how much time you should ask the tribunal to allow for when giving a direction for the disclosure of all relevant documents:
Physical Location Subsets of documents Approx No of Paper/card Percentage likely to be relevant
in location documents or Electronic
original?
John Smith's Galaxy A37 phone Text messages with Mr Smith 30 Electronic 95%
Other text messages 1,600 Electronic 0%
JPG photos 430 Electronic 10%
Other files 100 Electronic 0%
'Mr Jones' file in my filing cabinet 85 Paper 100%
'Mr Smith's file in my filing cabinet 50 Paper 100%
1973 extension project photo album 70 Card 50%
Surface laptop Extension Drawings folder 30 Electronic 90%
Other files 50,000 Electronic 0%
Gmail House extension folder 250 Electronic 50%
Other email folders 2,500 Electronic 1%
etc.
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 June 2026. Disclaimer