Building a Court Bundle — A Step by Step Guide for Litigants in Person
- Written By The Kulturalism Team
- Mar 24
- 11 min read
Preparing court documents in England and Wales
If there is one thing that separates a litigant in person who walks into court with authority from one who walks in overwhelmed before the hearing even begins, it is the bundle.
Get the bundle right and you signal to the judge, to the other side, and to yourself that you know what you are doing. Get it wrong and you can find yourself adjourned on the first day, penalised in costs, or — at best — scrambling to find documents in a disorganised pile while a judge waits, visibly, for you to catch up.
This guide will walk you through exactly what a court bundle is, why it matters, and how to build one correctly from scratch.
What Is a Court Bundle?
→A court bundle — sometimes called a hearing bundle or trial bundle — is the single set of documents that everyone in the courtroom works from during your hearing. The judge has a copy. You have a copy. The other side has a copy. In some hearings, additional copies are required for witnesses or the jury.
→Every document in the bundle is paginated — numbered sequentially from page 1 through to the final page. When anyone refers to a document during the hearing, they do so by page number. "Can I take you to page 47, your Honour." "The letter at page 112." "The claimant's witness statement beginning at page 23."
→If your bundle is not paginated, or is paginated differently from the other side's version, the hearing cannot run smoothly. Judges notice. Opposing counsel notices. It reflects on your credibility as a prepared party.
→A bundle is not a submission. It is not your argument. It is the evidence and procedural documents that underpin everything — the raw material from which the hearing is built.
When Do You Need One?
→Not every hearing requires a bundle. Small claims hearings in the County Court, for example, are often more informal and may not require a fully paginated bundle in the traditional sense — though bringing your documents in good order is always advisable.
As a general rule, you will need a formal bundle for any multi-track or fast-track civil trial, any contested family hearing, any Crown Court trial or plea, any appeal hearing including in the Court of Appeal, any judicial review, and any hearing listed for half a day or longer where documentary evidence is central to the case.
If you are unsure whether your hearing requires a bundle, check the directions order you were given at your last hearing or by the court. It will usually specify. If it does not specify and you are unsure, call the court office and ask. They cannot give you legal advice but they can confirm what is expected.
Step One
Find Out the Rules for Your Court
Before you build anything, find out the specific bundle requirements for your court and your type of case.
→The relevant Practice Directions are available free at justice.gov.uk.
Search for the Practice Direction that applies to your court and your type of proceedings and read the bundle requirements section carefully before you begin.
→Magistrates' Court
Search for the Criminal Procedure Rules and the accompanying Practice Directions. These cover how evidence and documents should be handled in summary proceedings.
→County Court and High Court (Civil)
Search for the Civil Procedure Rules Practice Directions, and in particular Practice Direction 32 which covers evidence, and the Bundles Practice Direction (PD 39A) which sets out bundle requirements for hearings.
→Family Court
Search for Practice Direction 27A. This is the specific Practice Direction governing bundles in family proceedings and it is detailed and strict. Read it in full before you begin building your bundle.
→Crown Court (Criminal)
Search for the Criminal Procedure Rules and Practice Direction (Criminal Proceedings: Consolidation). Bundle requirements in the Crown Court are also set at the pre-trial preparation hearing by the judge — follow those directions exactly.
→Court of Appeal (Civil Division)
Search for the Court of Appeal Civil Division Practice Direction. The Court of Appeal has some of the strictest bundle requirements of any court — page limits, format, number of copies, and filing deadlines are all tightly prescribed. Non-compliance is taken seriously and can result in your appeal being delayed or struck out.
→Court of Appeal (Criminal Division)
Search for the Criminal Practice Directions and the specific guidance on appeal bundles and skeleton arguments issued by the Court of Appeal Criminal Division.
→Supreme Court
If you reach the Supreme Court, detailed guidance on bundles, core volumes, and authorities is available directly at supremecourt.uk. The requirements here are highly specific and must be followed precisely.
Step Two
Gather All Your Documents
Before you can build a bundle, you need to know what goes in it.
A typical civil or family bundle will include some or all of the following, depending on your case.
→Preliminary documents
The claim form or application, the response or defence, any directions orders made by the court, the case summary or chronology if one has been prepared, and the list of issues for the hearing.
→Statements of case
The formal documents setting out each party's position: particulars of claim, defence, counterclaim, reply.
→Witness statements
The written evidence of each witness who will give oral evidence at the hearing. These go in the order they will be called, claimant's witnesses first.
→Expert reports
If expert evidence has been permitted by the court.
→Correspondence
Relevant letters, emails, or messages between the parties. Not every piece of correspondence belongs in the bundle. Include what is relevant to the issues the court needs to decide. Padding a bundle with irrelevant documents wastes the court's time and signals poor judgment.
→Key documents — contracts, photographs, records, financial documents, medical records, or whatever the primary documentary evidence in your case happens to be.
Authorities — if you are relying on case law or statutory provisions, these go in a separate authorities bundle.
Step Three
Agree the Bundle, Find the Forms, and Contact the Court
This is the step most litigants in person do not know about and miss entirely.
→Agreeing the bundle with the other side. In most civil and family cases, the parties are expected to agree the contents of the bundle before it is filed with the court. This means writing to the other side — or their solicitor — setting out what you propose to include and inviting them to confirm agreement or raise any objections. The purpose is to produce a single agreed bundle that everyone works from. One bundle, shared, rather than each party arriving with their own separate pile of documents. If agreement cannot be reached on specific documents, those disputes are flagged to the court. Do not simply leave out documents because the other side objected — raise the issue with the court formally and in writing.
→Finding the forms you need. Almost every step in court proceedings has a specific form attached to it — applications to rely on witness statements, applications to introduce new evidence, applications to vary directions, requests to adjourn, and many others. These are not always told to you. You are expected to find them.
All official court forms for England and Wales are available free at hmctsformfinder.justice.gov.uk — this is the HMCTS Form Finder, and it is the only place you should look. You can search by form number if you know it, or by keyword if you do not. Common forms a litigant in person may need include:
→N244 — the general application notice used in civil proceedings to make almost any application to the court, including applications to rely on additional evidence, vary an order, or seek directions.
→N161 — the appellant's notice for appealing a civil decision to the Court of Appeal.
→N164 — the application for permission to appeal in civil proceedings.
→C2 — used in family proceedings to make an application within existing proceedings, for example to introduce a new statement or vary a child arrangements order.
→EX160 — the application for fee remission if you cannot afford court fees. Always check whether you qualify before paying — litigants on certain benefits or low incomes may have fees waived entirely.
For criminal proceedings, applications to introduce new evidence, bad character evidence, or hearsay are governed by the Criminal Procedure Rules and require a specific written application to the court — the form or format required will be set out in the relevant Practice Direction or can be confirmed by the court office. If you are unsure which form applies to your situation, do not guess. Contact the court office directly.
→Finding the court's email address and contacting them for directions. Every court in England and Wales has a court office that can answer administrative questions — they cannot give legal advice, but they can tell you which form to use, confirm filing deadlines, advise on the correct email address for submitting documents, and confirm what the court expects from you at the next hearing.
To find the contact details for your specific court go to find-court-tribunal.service.gov.uk — the official court and tribunal finder. Enter your postcode or court name and you will find the address, telephone number, and email address for that court.
When you email the court office, keep it short and factual. State your case name, your case number, what you are asking, and what you need clarification on. Do not send long narratives. Courts are busy and a clear, specific question gets a faster and more useful response than a lengthy explanation of your circumstances.
Keep a copy of every email you send to the court and every response you receive. If there is ever a dispute about whether you were given incorrect directions, your email trail is your evidence.
Step Four
Create the Index
The index is the contents page of your bundle. It sits at the very front and lists every document in the bundle with its tab reference and page number.
→A clear index looks something like this:
Tab A — Preliminary Documents Claim Form — page 1. Particulars of Claim — page 3. Defence — page 9. Directions Order page 15 and so forth.
The index does not need to be elaborate. It needs to be accurate, complete, and easy to follow. A judge who can find any document in your bundle in under ten seconds is a judge who is not frustrated before you have said a word.
Step Five
Paginate
Pagination means numbering every page of the bundle sequentially from 1 to the final page. Every single page gets a number — the index page, the blank pages between sections, the back of a document if it contains content. Every page.
The page number should appear in the bottom right or bottom centre of each page, clearly visible.
If you are producing the bundle digitally as a PDF, most PDF software — including free tools such as PDF24 — allows you to add page numbers after you have assembled all the documents in their final order. Do this after assembly, not before. Do not paginate individual documents separately and then combine them — paginate the completed bundle as a single document.
Step Six
Dividers and Tabs
Physical bundles are divided into sections using numbered or lettered dividers. Label each divider clearly. The divider label should match exactly what is on the index. Do not use sticky notes as dividers.
Step Seven
The Spine Label
If your bundle is bound — in a ring binder or lever arch file — it needs a spine label identifying the bundle from the outside, this should be an A4 sheet of paper on the front of the folder. It should include the case name, the case number, the court, and the volume number if there is more than one bundle.
For example: Smith v Jones | Case No: AB123456 | County Court at [location] | Bundle Volume 1
This sounds like a small detail. It is not. In a courtroom where a judge may have multiple cases on the same day, a clearly labelled bundle is a mark of professionalism that is noticed.
Step Eight
The Authorities Bundle
If you are relying on case law, these do not go in the main bundle. They go in a separate bundle this is called the authorities bundle — indexed, paginated, and tabbed in the same way as the main bundle, but containing only the legal authorities you are asking the court to consider.
When including a case, include the full judgment, not just the paragraphs you want to rely on. Highlight the specific passages you will refer to, but include the whole judgment.
Every case in your authorities bundle must be verified as real and accurately cited before you include it. Check every case on BAILII — bailii.org — which is the free, publicly accessible database of judgments from courts across the UK. If you are using AI to research case law, this step is not optional. AI can and does generate plausible-sounding but entirely fictional case citations. Check every single one.
Step Nine
How Many Copies?
As a general guide, you will need: one copy for the judge, one for yourself, and one for the other side.
If witnesses will be asked to refer to documents in the bundle, you should also have a copy available for them while they are giving evidence.
In the Court of Appeal, requirements are more prescriptive — always check the relevant Practice Direction carefully.
Important: While help with court fees may be available for those who qualify, there is no assistance with printing or postage costs. These can be significant, particularly where multiple bundles are required.
Step Ten
Filing and Service
A bundle must be filed with the court and served on the other side before the hearing. The deadline will usually be specified in your directions order — commonly three to five working days before the hearing, though some courts require longer. Check your directions order carefully and do not leave this to the last day.
→Serving the other side. Send the bundle to the other side or their solicitor by tracked or recorded delivery — not standard post. Standard post proves you sent something but not that it arrived. Tracked delivery proves both. The moment it is posted, email the solicitor directly with the tracking number, the date of posting, a description of what was sent, and confirmation that it has been sent in compliance with the court's directions. Keep a copy of that email and the tracking confirmation together in your case file.
→Filing with the court. File your copy with the court by the same deadline — either by post using tracked delivery, by attending the court office in person, or electronically if your court accepts e-filing. If you file electronically through the court portal, save the confirmation email immediately. That confirmation is your proof of filing. If you file by post, email the court office after posting in the same way you emailed the solicitor — tracking number, date, description of what was sent.
→Why this matters. If a dispute arises about whether you filed and served on time — and in contested proceedings this can and does happen — your proof of service is your protection. A litigant in person who cannot demonstrate timely filing and service is vulnerable to applications that their bundle be excluded or that costs be awarded against them for a wasted hearing. Your paper trail prevents this. Build it every time, without exception.
Common Mistakes That Can Sink a Hearing
Pagination that restarts at page 1 for each section rather than running sequentially throughout. Including so many documents that the relevant ones are buried. Forgetting to include a document you refer to in your witness statement.
Using a bundle that differs from the other side's because you did not agree the contents in advance. Citing a case in your skeleton argument that does not appear in your authorities bundle. Filing late. Serving late. Bringing a bundle to court that falls apart because it was not properly bound.
Every one of these mistakes has derailed hearings. Every one of them is avoidable.
A Note on Electronic Bundles
Many courts now accept or require electronic bundles — PDFs filed via the court's online portal or emailed to the judge's clerk. The principles are identical: agreed contents, sequential pagination, a clear index, logically ordered sections.
Electronic bundles should be bookmarked — meaning each section and document should be accessible via a clickable bookmark in the PDF, mirroring the index. Check the specific requirements of your court for file size limits, naming conventions, and whether a hard copy is also required.
What a Good Bundle Says About You
A well-prepared bundle tells the judge, before you have spoken a single word, that you are organised, that you understand the process, and that you are taking this seriously.
Judges read bundles before hearings. They annotate them. When a litigant in person produces a bundle that is clear, complete, and correctly formatted, it changes the dynamic in the room. It signals competence. It makes the judge's job easier. And a judge whose job you have made easier is a judge more likely to extend you patience when you need it.
You cannot control the law. You cannot always control the facts. You can control the quality of your preparation.
Make the bundle count.
This article is written for educational purposes and does not constitute legal advice. If you are facing legal proceedings, seek qualified legal representation where possible. Kulturalism is a public-interest Community Safety CIC — not a law firm. © 2026 Kulturalism®. All rights reserved.
