Introduction to eBundles

For most hearings a civil court or other civil tribunal will require an eBundle to be produced by one of the parties so that the statements and evidential documents needed for that hearing are available at the hearing in a convenient form with page numbers. Every party and the judge(s) are provided with identical copies of the eBundle - an electronic "bundle" of documents in PDF form. This type of eBundle is known as a Hearing Bundle. If the hearing is the Final Hearing then it is known as the Final Hearing Bundle or Trial Bundle. 

In addition an "Authorities Bundle" may be provided by each side's barrister for the hearing. This contains the authorities (e.g. legislation and case-law) which either party's barristers will be relying on. 

An eBundle, whatever type of eBundle it is, will have each page numbered consecutively and will include an Index (table of contents) at the front listing every section, and every document within each section, with its page number.

In the eBundle the Index (table of contents) is hyperlinked so that you can click on the entry for any section or any individual document in the index and it will take you to the start of the section or document itself. There will also be PDF bookmarks (each with a zoom factor set to inherit) for each section and for each document which also act as a kind of table of contents. PDF bookmarks generally appear on the left hand side of a PDF viewer panel and can be scrolled up and down independently of the main PDF viewer display. This makes bookmarks easier to use than the index, but the index is still important not least because it provides a common reference point for those using the eBundle itself and anyone using a hardcopy of it (which, of course, only has the index and not bookmarks printed). 

You can produce an eBundle using PDF software or using a document management system specifically designed for the legal sector such as Bundledocs or eBrief Ready. Systems such as Bundledocs and eBrief Ready have the advantage that they not only produce the Hearing eBundle PDF as needed at the end of the litigation process but store documents in their native form throughout the litigation process so as to support the document disclosure stage for example. Using PDF software, on the other hand, only addresses the eBundle production process itself and the process has to be substantially redone every time the draft of an eBundle needs to be adjusted.

But, on the other hand, Authorities Bundles are often better produced using PDF software as it may handle highlighting more simply than a system such as Bundledocs and eBrief Ready can.       

Contents, layout and appearance of an eBundle

Layout

Index. This is a clickable list showing each of the sections and each document within each section, with page numbers. 

How many sections there are following the index depends on the type of hearing and type of eBundle. If the eBundle is an Authorities eBundle it will typically contain two sections after the Index:

Cases

Legislation

Pagination

It is important that the page number imprinted on each page matches the electronic page number - i.e. if you type in 27 in the box at the top or bottom of any PDF viewer it should take you to the 27th page which should have 27 imprinted at the bottom of the page.

Title Page 

The cover of a hardcopy conventionally is a page containing the name and number of the case in the top half of the page and, below that in tramlines, the title (e.g. "CLAIMANT'S  AUTHORITIES for hearing on 11 OCTOBER 2024"). 

The function of the cover of a hardcopy volume is, of course (like the cover of a book), to enable the volume to be easily identified if, for example, it is on a table with other volumes. Such considerations do not apply to the eBundle PDF itself - which will be located by its filename - but most tribunals nevertheless prefer the eBundle to have a Title Page as the first page in the PDF,  so that eBundle and hardcopy match exactly. The Title Page is produced as a single-page Word document and combined with the other documents when creating the eBundle PDF. 

Creating the eBundle

Whatever PDF software you are using to create the eBundle the basic idea is that you start with copies of the individual documents with each copy having a filename which is a concise description of the document - a description suitable for use as a bookmark and in an index such as:

Roberts v Swangrove Estates [2007] EWHC 513 (Ch); 2 P&CR 17.pdf

in the case of an Authorities bundle. Regarding document descriptions in a Final Hearing Bundle see here.

You combine the documents into a single PDF using a function of the software which automatically creates a bookmark for each document from its filename, and generates a table of contents from the bookmarks.

Three examples of how to do this - two using BunTool and one using PDF X-Change Editor are explained below. BunTool has the advantage that it allows a date to be assigned to each document which then appears in a separate column in the index - an important feature when creating a Final Hearing Bundle. On the other hand BunTool only accepts PDF format documents (so that documents in other formats have to be converted to PDF first) whereas PDF X-Change Editor accepts most common document types.

PDF X-Change Editor is a program which runs on your own computer whereas BunTool is a web service.    

Other PDF software can be used as long as it has the equivalent functionality including, crucially, the ability to generate a table of contents from bookmarks. Note that Adobe Acrobat does not have this functionality.

Using BunTool  to create an Authorities Bundle 

BunTool has the ability to sort the documents loaded to it alphabetically or chronologically but the sort always acts on all the documents within it - you can't sort each section separately. Thus, except for single-section bundles, the BunTool sort feature has to be combined with some clicking and dragging. A consequence of this is that when creating bundles with more than one section - and most bundles do have more than one section - the practicalities of creating a bundle with few documents, such as an  Authorities Bundle differ markedly from the practicalities of creating a bundle with a large number of documents such as a Final Hearing Bundle. 

An Authorities Bundle typically has two sections and less than 20 documents included in it so creating using BunTool is relatively simple. It can usually be created from scratch in one go without going through the process of producing drafts so it does not really matter that the sort button sorts globally rather than by section because the position of documents can be adjusted using click-and-drag.  

By contrast a Final Hearing Bundle may contain hundreds of documents and several sections and it may need to go through several drafts as adjustments are made. I am told that the developer plans, in a future version of BunTool, to allow the order of documents within it to be saved so that the next time it is invoked the user can carry on where they left off, but for the moment, with the current version without such a facility, it is very important that matters are arranged so that the documents start off in the required order grouped in sections (or mostly in the right order) every time BunTool is invoked, so that the requirement for click-and-drag each time is minimised. 

How to use BunTool to create a Final Hearing Bundle is explained in the next section. To create an Authorities Bundle using BunTool you can do the following:-

Preliminaries 

1. Create a Title Page Word document for the eBundle you are about to create and save a PDF version of it.

2. Create, in a folder, a PDF copy of each document which is to be included in the eBundle. Ensure each PDF is OCRed. Make sure that the document description in the filename of each PDF copy is suitable for use in the index (and bookmarks) of the eBundle you are about to create.

Loading the PDFs to BunTool

3.  In BunTool in Step 2, load all the PDFs. Tap the sort button to put them in alphabetical order.

4. Use Add Section Break to create section headings which will appear in the generated index. Then click-and-drag documents to the desired position after each section break.

Generate Bundle

5. Select the following options:

   • Date style for PDF box Select don't include date in index

   • Bookmark style for PDF box Select Document Title [pg.1]   

• Coversheet box Select the Title Page PDF.

• Bundle Title box Enter Index. (This will appear at the top of the Index pages when the eBundle is generated.)

6. In BunTool in Step 4, tap Create Bundle then, once the bundle has been created, tap Download PDF Bundle.

7. Rename the downloaded PDF with an appropriate name of e.g. Applicant's Authorities eBundle - hearing 11 Oct 2024 - Smith v Jones.pdf

Using BunTool  to create a Final Hearing Bundle 

1. Create a Title Page Word document for the eBundle you are about to create and save it a PDF version of it.

2. Create a new high-level folder on your computer named e.g. eBundle Sections. Within it create sub-folders, one for each section that the eBundle is to have. The name of each sub-folder should commence with a capital letter according to the desired section order within the eBundle. For example:

   • A - Statements of Case

   • B - Applicant's Witness Statements

   • C - Respondent's Witness Statements

etc.   

3. Create, in each section sub-folder, a PDF copy of each document which is to be included in that section in the eBundle. Ensure each PDF is OCRed. Make sure that the document description in the filename of each PDF copy is  suitable for use in the index (and bookmarks) of the eBundle you are about to create and, if the document is referred to with an exhibit mark, include the exhibit mark with the description. The filename should be  prefixed with the date of the document in YYYY-MM-DD format (so that the date field in BunTool used to create the date column in the eBundle will be populated automatically).

4. You will probably be using BunTool more than once as you produce drafts and make adjustments so you need to load the PDFs to BunTool each time in such a way that they are mostly in the desired order immediately upon being loaded in order that the need to then use click-and-drag for each draft is minimised. There are two ways of achieving this and you can use whichever you find easier:

   • Open the sub-folder for the section you wish to appear first in the eBundle and tap to sort the files in ascending filename order. Select all the PDFs in the sub-folder, position the pointer over the selected file at the top and click and drag all the files into the box in "Step 2" of the BunTool webpage. Then do the same for the section you wish to appear next, and so on. 

   • Open the eBundle Sections folder using Windows File Explorer. Right-click on a column heading and select more... and ensure that the Path column is selected for display. Tap on the Path column heading so that everything displayed will be sorted into ascending order of pathname. In the top right hand corner where it says Search  eBundle Sections type in  -aaaaa  This is just a way of displaying all PDFs within all sub-folders: it displays every PDF whose filename does not contain aaaaa which should be every PDF. Select all the files, position the pointer over the selected file at the top and click and drag all the files into the box in "Step 2" of the BunTool webpage.   

Generate Bundle

5. Select the following option:

7. • Bookmark style for PDF box Select Document Title (date) [pg.1]

6. There are a number of other settings and adjustments which affect the appearance of the eBundle to be generated. Setting all these further options each time you use the BunTool website could be time consuming and they are essentially "cosmetic" - important when you come to generate the final eBundle to be used by the tribunal but not essential when you are producing every draft. The settings are:-   

• Coversheet box Select the Title Page PDF.

• Bundle Title box Enter Index. (This will appear at the top of the Index pages when the eBundle is generated.) 

• Use Add Section Break to create section headings which will appear in the generated index.

• Go through each document Title and press the backspace key to remove the date prefix leaving just the document description (so that the generated index and bookmarks will be tidy and not show the date twice).  

7. In BunTool in Step 4, tap Create Bundle then, once the bundle has been created, tap Download PDF Bundle.

8. If this is the final eBundle (not merely a draft) you can

7. • Add hyperlinks (where statements refer to exhibited documents).

   • Rename the downloaded PDF with an appropriate name of e.g. Final Hearing Bundle - hearing 11 Oct 2024 - Smith v Jones.pdf

Using PDF X-Change Editor to create an Authorities Bundle

Assemble the individual documents into a single bookmarked PDF

1. Create the Title Page Word document

2. Check that all the documents to be included have filenames which are suitable for use as bookmarks (and in the index) of the eBundle you are about to create. If any document does not have a suitable filename, make a copy of it and rename the copy to a suitable name so that you can use that. 

3. PDF X-Change Editor can read most common file types including PDF, Word, and JPG. If you have any document to be included which is in a format which PDF X-Change Editor cannot read you need to create a PDF copy of it and use that. To create a PDF copy you can use the print dialogue and select a printer of save as PDF.    

4. Create a folder named eBundle Sections.

5. Use PDF X-Change Editor to combine the individual documents which are to go into the first section of the eBundle into a single PDF for that section with bookmarks for each of the individual documents within it. To do this tap Convert - from files - Combine Files into a single PDF and Add the documents to be included in that section. Move the documents up and down in the panel to ensure they are in the desired order. Tap Options and make sure that the Add root bookmark with filename option is ticked. Tap OK to create the single PDF for the section and save the section PDF in the eBundle Sections folder with the letter and name of the section - e.g. A - Cases.pdf  

6. Repeat the above for all further sections so that you have a PDF for each section in the eBundle Sections folder.

7. Use the Convert - from files - Combine Files into a single PDF function once more to combine all the PDFs in the Bundle Sections folder, plus the Title Page document, into a single PDF making sure that all the sections are in order with the Title Page at the top. Use the Add root bookmark with filename option so that a high-level bookmark is created for each section and ensure that the  Bookmarks... Copy All option is selected so that the second level bookmarks (the bookmarks for the individual documents) are included. 

Imprint Page Numbers

8. First work out how many pages will be occupied by the Title Page and Index so that you can plan to number the following pages accordingly. So, for example, if there is a one-page Title Page, and there will be (but is not yet) a one-page table of contents, then you want to start numbering from the first page of the first document (currently the second page in the PDF) with 3, 4, 5, 6, etc. So you would tap Organise - Bates Numbering and, in the Add Bates Numbering panel, Choose a Font of 16pt and enter the appropriate values for Bates numbering - in this example p.%[Bates:1;3] in Right Footer Text, and Pages... Custom... 2-999.

Most documents are unlikely to have significant information in the bottom right hand corner where the page number is to be imprinted but you can tick the Shrink pages' content to avoid overwriting document's text and graphics box if needed.

Then tap OK. 

Add document numbering if required

9. To number the documents (so that a document number appears in the bookmarks and in the index) tap Bookmarks - Add Text and, in the Add Text to Bookmark Title panel, enter %[SeqNum] followed by a space in the Add Prefix box, choose Select level to process... 2, and tap OK. Before you do this you will probably want to remove the bookmark for the Title Page to avoid that being numbered.

Generate the table of contents from the bookmarks and imprinted page numbers

10. Use Bookmarks - Build Table of Contents to create a table of contents from the bookmarks and imprinted Bates numbers, selecting the Output page numbers as - Bates Numbers (if present) option.  Choose insert TOC before page 2 to insert the Index page(s) just after the Title Page.

And Finally... 

11. Add imprinted page numbers to bookmarks by tapping Bookmarks - Add Text and, in the Add Text to Bookmark Title panel, enter p.%[BatesValue] followed by a space in the Add Prefix box and tap OK

12. Make the eBundle PDF searchable using the Convert - OCR pages function. If all the documents which make up the eBbundle already have an OCR layer then this step is omitted. 

13. Save the eBundle PDF with an appropriate name of e.g. Applicant's Authorities eBundle - hearing 11 Oct 2024 - Smith v Jones.pdf

Disclaimer

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 April 2025. Disclaimer