A court bundle is the single, indexed and paginated set of documents from which the judge and every party work at a hearing in family proceedings in England and Wales. A court bundle’s preparation is governed by Practice Direction 27A, “Family Proceedings: Court Bundles”, which “must be applied in order to achieve consistency across England and Wales in the family court and the Family Division of the High Court”.[1] The current version was substituted by Practice Direction Update No. 6 of 2025 and came into force on 2 March 2026, replacing the version that had applied since 2014.[2][1]
The Practice Direction requires an electronic bundle in PDF unless there are exceptional circumstances, limits it to 350 pages without the court’s permission, prescribes its sections and its index, and sets a timetable under which the contents are agreed seven working days before the hearing, the bundle is filed and served five working days before, and the preliminary documents, including each party’s position statement, are filed by 11am on the working day before.[1] The applicant prepares it by default, but where the applicant is a litigant in person and the respondent is represented, the respondent must do so.[1] Non-compliance “may result in the court removing the case from the list or putting the case further back in the list and may also result in an adverse costs order or a ‘wasted costs’ order”.[1]
Definition and purpose
The bundle exists so that everyone in the courtroom is looking at the same page. Paragraph 1.2 of the Practice Direction defines the terms it uses, including “e-bundle”, “hearing”, “Arabic numbering” (continuous numbers used in financial remedy bundles) and “Bates numbering” (a letter and number for each section, such as A1 or C14, used in children and other proceedings), and “PDF numbering”, the page count shown by the reader software, which in an e-bundle must match the printed page numbers.[1] A bundle that is complete, in order and correctly numbered allows the judge to read in advance and allows a witness to be taken to a document by page number.
The Practice Direction applies to “all hearings before a judge sitting in the Family Division of the High Court” and “all hearings in the family court”, whether the hearing is the first or a later one, and to e-bundles and paper bundles alike.[1] It does not apply to urgent applications “if and to the extent that it is impossible to comply with it”.[1] It operates alongside case-specific directions and the President’s guidance, and Chapter 6 governs financial remedy proceedings while Chapter 7 governs everything else.[1]
Legal basis
Practice Direction 27A supplements Part 27 of the Family Procedure Rules 2010, which deals with hearings. The current text was made by Practice Direction Update No. 6 of 2025, signed by the President of the Family Division on 13 November 2025 and approved on behalf of the Lord Chancellor on 20 November 2025, which directs: “For Practice Direction 27A (Family Proceedings: Court Bundles (Universal Practice to be applied in the High Court and Family Court) substitute the new Practice Direction 27A”, with effect from 2 March 2026.[2]
The Practice Direction is accompanied by two documents from the judiciary. The first is the guide “Preparing court bundles for family proceedings: guide for litigants in person”, issued by the President’s office on 2 March 2026, which replaced the “Guidance on E-Bundles for use in the Family Court and Family Division” of 21 December 2021 and the “General guidance on electronic court bundles” of 29 November 2021.[3] The second is the Financial Remedies Guide 2026, published on 13 March 2026, which consolidated the earlier efficiency statements of the Financial Remedies Court and restates the bundle rules for financial cases.[4][5]
Who prepares the bundle
Paragraph 4.5 sets the default: “the applicant (or where there are cross-applications, the party whose application was first in time) must prepare, file and serve the bundle”.[1] Paragraph 4.6 reverses this where the applicant has no lawyer: “Where an applicant is a litigant in person but a respondent is legally represented, then, subject to any direction of the court, the legally represented respondent must prepare, file and serve the bundle.”[1] Only exceptionally, where “all parties are litigants in person” and “the court is satisfied that none of the parties is able to prepare, file and serve a bundle”, may the court direct HM Courts and Tribunals Service to prepare an e-bundle, with paper copies for the witness box and for any litigant in person who cannot access an e-bundle.[1]
Whoever prepares the bundle, the parties are expected to co-operate over its contents and to seek agreement seven working days before the hearing.[1] In financial remedy proceedings the preparer files one set of the joint preliminary documents, while each party files its own position statement and the documents that set out its own case.[1] In public law children cases one party files the shared preliminary documents and each party files its own case summary, position statement and skeleton argument; in other proceedings the applicant leads unless unrepresented.[1] A practical explanation of who does what, written for unrepresented parties, is published by McKenzie Friend Services, an information site operated by Family Legal Ltd, the publisher of this wiki.[6]
Contents and structure
A bundle should contain only documents relevant to the hearing. Paragraph 5.2 excludes, unless the court directs otherwise or a specific document is necessary, correspondence including letters of instruction to experts, emails, text messages, social media messages, voice notes, bank statements, notes of contact visits, logs kept by foster parents, social services files other than assessments relied on, and photographs.[1] Every bundle has an index at the front, documents arranged chronologically within numbered sections, and a set of preliminary documents which must be “as short and succinct as possible” and state the date of the hearing beneath the heading.[1]
Sections
| Financial remedy proceedings (Chapter 6) | Other proceedings (Chapter 7) |
|---|---|
| Preliminary documents: Form ES1 (composite case summary); Form FM5 where applicable; Form ES2 (composite schedule of assets and income); agreed chronology; each party’s position statement; list of essential reading; hearing template for hearings over two hours[1] | Preliminary documents: case summary; statement of issues; position statement (and, separately, any skeleton argument); chronology; list of essential reading; witness template[1] |
| Applications and orders (sealed or approved)[1] | Applications and orders (sealed or approved)[1] |
| Statements and affidavits: Forms E, replies to questionnaires, dated statements of the parties, without duplicate exhibits[1] | Statements and affidavits[1] |
| Expert and other reports[1] | Care plans where applicable; expert and other reports; medical records; police disclosure; birth certificates at public law case management hearings[1] |
| Other relevant documents[1] | Other relevant documents in appropriate sections[1] |
| Numbering: consecutive Arabic numbers throughout, matching the PDF page count[1] | Numbering: Bates numbering by section (A1, B1 and so on); numbered blank divider pages; unpaginated index[1] |
The composite documents in financial cases, Forms ES1 and ES2, are prepared jointly and show each party’s position where they disagree; the chronology, reading list and hearing template should be single agreed documents with any disagreement noted within them.[1] Form ES2, the composite schedule of assets and income, was introduced with the Efficiency Statement in April 2022 and a revised template with explanatory notes was made mandatory for all financial remedy proceedings on 7 July 2025.[7] For a later hearing a new bundle must be prepared rather than the old one updated.[1] In other proceedings new documents are added at the end of the relevant section with continuing pagination, and superseded summaries and arguments are removed.[1]
Authorities
Authorities are not placed in the main bundle. Chapter 10 requires “a separate composite bundle agreed between the advocates and/or any unrepresented parties” containing no more than ten authorities unless the court directs otherwise, using reported versions with headnotes where available.[1] Paragraph 10.4 protects the unrepresented: “If a party seeks to cite an authority, then a copy of, or link to, it must be provided in advance of a hearing to any litigant in person.”[1]
Page limits and format
Paragraph 11.2(b) provides that “an e-bundle may only be up to 350 pages (A4 size pages) and this default limit may only be exceeded with the court’s permission”.[1] A paper bundle, where one is permitted, must be “contained in one A4 size ring binder or lever arch file limited to no more than 175 sheets of A4 paper and 350 sides of text”.[1] The Financial Remedies Guide 2026 confirms that in financial cases “the limit of 350 pages does not include the position statements” or the composite documents.[5] Individual documents are also capped by paragraph 8.1: a care plan at 10 pages, a case summary at 6, a statement of issues at 2, a chronology at 10, a list of essential reading at 1, a witness statement or affidavit at 25 exclusive of exhibits, and an expert’s or other report at 40 including an executive summary of no more than 4.[1]
All documents, in e-bundles and paper bundles alike, should be in “no smaller than 12 point font, with 1.5 or double line spacing and with margins each side of the page”, and “wherever possible” in Arial or Times New Roman, the Practice Direction noting that “Arial is generally considered to be more accessible to neurodiverse readers”.[1] Paper documents must be copied on both sides and divided by their author into numbered paragraphs, and the binder must show on its front and spine the case title and number, the place of hearing, the date and time, the judge if known and a distinguishing letter where there is more than one file.[1]
Where a complete bundle is unnecessary the court may direct a core bundle limited to the documents needed for the hearing, which need not be repaginated but whose summary must begin by stating that the bundle is limited or incomplete.[1]
Electronic bundles
E-bundles are the default: paragraphs 4.1 and 4.2 provide that an electronic bundle is to be prepared unless there are exceptional circumstances, and paragraph 4.3 requires a paper bundle in addition where a witness may give oral evidence in person, for use in the witness box.[1] Chapter 11 sets the technical requirements. The bundle must be a single PDF; every page must be numbered “by computer-generated numbering, not by hand”; each index entry must be linked to its document and “all significant documents and all sections in bundles must be bookmarked for ease of navigation, with a short description as the bookmark”; every page of typed text must be subject to optical character recognition so that it is searchable; pages created in horizontal orientation must appear the right way up; the default view should be 100 per cent; and resolution should not exceed 300 dpi so that the file is no larger than necessary.[1]
Chapter 14 governs filing. The filename must contain the hearing date, the case reference, a short version of the case name and an indication of the contents; where HM Courts and Tribunals Service provides an upload facility on an online portal “this means of filing the bundle must be used”, and otherwise the bundle may be sent by email or, if too large for a single email, to the Document Upload Centre by prior arrangement.[1] The judiciary’s guide for litigants in person explains the same requirements in plain terms, describes the two numbering systems, repeats that “the usual page limit is 350 pages”, and advises: “If you do not have the equipment, access or ability to prepare an electronic bundle, you should contact the court as soon as possible.”[8][3]
Timetable for filing
| Step | Time before the hearing | Provision |
|---|---|---|
| Parties seek to agree the contents of the bundle | 7 working days | PD27A para 13.2[1] |
| Bundle served on the other parties and filed with the court | 5 working days | PD27A para 13.2[1] |
| Preliminary documents, including position statements, filed and served | 11am on the working day before | PD27A para 13.2[1] |
| Position statements in the Financial Remedies Court exchanged | Within one hour of the 11am filing | Financial Remedies Guide 2026[5] |
| Any change in time estimate notified | Immediately, by email to the Clerk of the Rules or the listing officer | PD27A para 18.2[1] |
| Application to vacate a hearing that will no longer be effective | Immediately it becomes known, by consent where possible | PD27A paras 19.1 and 19.2[1] |
Once filed, “the bundle must not be amended before that hearing has taken place without the prior agreement of the court”, which may be given where there is an accepted error or additional documents are needed in a supplemental bundle.[1] Paper bundles must be filed at the correct office, which at the Royal Courts of Justice is the Clerk of the Rules and elsewhere is the office designated by the designated family judge; a bundle filed in the wrong place may be treated as not filed.[1] Only one paper copy is filed, but the responsible party must bring a copy for the witnesses to every hearing at which oral evidence may be called, and where a bench of magistrates exceptionally uses paper, four copies are needed.[1] The five-working-day filing deadline replaced a two-working-day deadline under the previous Practice Direction.[9]
Financial remedy bundles and the Efficiency Statement
The special rules for financial remedy bundles in Chapter 6 derive from the Statement on the Efficient Conduct of Financial Remedy Hearings proceeding in the Financial Remedies Court below High Court Judge level, known as the Efficiency Statement, issued by the national lead judges of the Financial Remedies Court with the President’s authority on 11 January 2022 following the recommendations of the Farquhar Committee.[10] The Efficiency Statement introduced the composite case summary (ES1) and composite schedule of assets and income (ES2), required position statements to be filed by 11am on the working day before the hearing, set the page limits that now appear in paragraph 6.12, and applied the 350-page limit of Practice Direction 27A while excluding the position statements and composite documents from it.[10][9][5]
On 13 March 2026 the Financial Remedies Guide 2026, issued by Mr Justice Peel and His Honour Judge Hess with the approval of the President of the Family Division, merged the 2016 High Court efficiency statement and the 2022 Efficiency Statement into a single document, which “replaces and supersedes” them.[4][5] The Guide requires bundles in the Financial Remedies Court to comply strictly with Practice Direction 27A, with internal and PDF numbering matching, and confirms that correspondence and financial records may be included only with a prior direction.[5] It also lists the documents to be filed before the first appointment, including “a completed FM5” not less than seven days before the hearing, and records that judges will encourage the parties to consider a private FDR and other forms of non-court dispute resolution.[5] See financial remedy proceedings.
Consequences of non-compliance
Paragraph 3.1 provides: “Failure to comply with any part of this practice direction may result in the court removing the case from the list or putting the case further back in the list and may also result in an adverse costs order or a ‘wasted costs’ order.”[1] A bundle filed in the wrong place may be treated as not filed, with the same consequences.[1] In practice a defective bundle most often results in a wasted hearing, which in children cases means delay for the child and in financial cases means further cost.
The courts’ approach was set by the President of the Family Division, Sir James Munby, in two judgments under the previous Practice Direction. In Re W (Children) [2014] EWFC 22 he reminded practitioners that “the preliminary documents shall be lodged with the court no later than 11 am on the day before the hearing” and said that “failure by the professions to comply with their obligations under PD27A is simply unacceptable”.[11] In Re L (A Child) [2015] EWFC 15, a case in which the parties had proposed translating 591 pages for a father who did not speak English, he quoted the then rule that the bundle be “limited to no more than 350 sheets of A4 paper and 350 sides of text”, declared that “this endemic failure of the professions to comply with PD27A must end, and it must end now”, and warned that defaulters could expect “public condemnation in judgments”, “financial penalties” and the sanction of having their cases put back in the list, ending: “The judges of the Family Division and the Family Court have had enough. The professions have been warned.”[12]
Those judgments were addressed to lawyers, and wasted costs orders are available only against legal representatives. For litigants in person the Practice Direction’s own allocation rules, the option of an HMCTS-prepared bundle in exceptional cases and the President’s plain-language guide are intended to make compliance achievable; a party who cannot comply should tell the court in advance rather than arrive with an incomplete bundle.[1][3]
History
| Date | Development |
|---|---|
| 2014 | The previous Practice Direction 27A, described as “universal practice to be applied in the High Court and Family Court”, set the 350-sheet limit, the sections of the bundle and the two-working-day lodging rule[2][12][9] |
| 25 July 2014 | Re W: the President condemned routine non-compliance[11] |
| 26 February 2015 | Re L: the President warned of costs and listing sanctions for defaulters[12] |
| 29 November and 21 December 2021 | General guidance on electronic court bundles and family-specific e-bundle guidance were issued as remote and hybrid hearings became routine[3] |
| 11 January 2022 | The Financial Remedies Court’s Efficiency Statement introduced Forms ES1 and ES2 and page limits for position statements[10] |
| 7 July 2025 | A revised ES2 template was made mandatory in all financial remedy proceedings[7] |
| 13 November 2025 | Practice Direction Update No. 6 of 2025 was signed, substituting a new PD27A[2] |
| 2 March 2026 | The new PD27A came into force: e-bundles by default, a 350-page limit, five-working-day filing, separate chapters for financial and other proceedings, position statement limits, and bundle preparation by a represented respondent where the applicant is in person; the President’s office issued a guide for litigants in person[1][3] |
| 13 March 2026 | The Financial Remedies Guide 2026 superseded the Efficiency Statement[4] |
See also
- Position statement – the main preliminary document
- Form FM5 – a preliminary document in financial remedy bundles
- Litigant in person – who prepares the bundle when a party is unrepresented
- Financial remedy proceedings – ES1, ES2 and the Financial Remedies Guide
- Final hearing
- Fact-finding hearing
- The Family Court
- HM Courts and Tribunals Service – portals and the Document Upload Centre
References
- Practice Direction 27A: Family Proceedings: Court Bundles. Ministry of Justice. In force 2 March 2026. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- Family Procedure Rules: Practice Direction Update No. 6 of 2025. Ministry of Justice. Signed by the President of the Family Division on 13 November 2025 and approved on behalf of the Lord Chancellor on 20 November 2025; substitutes Practice Direction 27A with effect from 2 March 2026. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- Preparing court bundles for family proceedings: guide for litigants in person. Office of the President of the Family Division. 2 March 2026. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- Financial Remedies Guide 2026 (announcement). Courts and Tribunals Judiciary. 13 March 2026. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- Financial Remedies Guide 2026. Financial Remedies Court, Courts and Tribunals Judiciary. 13 March 2026. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- What a court bundle is and who prepares it. McKenzie Friend Services (Family Legal Ltd). last checked 6 August 2026. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- Financial Remedies Court: update on ES2, part of the Efficiency Statement. Courts and Tribunals Judiciary. 7 July 2025. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- Preparing court bundles for family proceedings: guide for litigants in person (PDF). Office of the President of the Family Division. 2 March 2026. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- Alexander Chandler KC. Bundle of joy: new Practice Direction on bundles, position statements etc., effective 2 March 2026. Financial Remedies Journal. 9 December 2025. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- Notice from the Financial Remedies Court: Statement on the Efficient Conduct of Financial Remedy Hearings. Courts and Tribunals Judiciary. 12 January 2022. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- Re W (Children) [2014] EWFC 22. Find Case Law, The National Archives. 25 July 2014. Accessed 5 September 2026.
- Re L (A Child) [2015] EWFC 15. Find Case Law, The National Archives. 26 February 2015. Accessed 5 September 2026.
External links
This article is part of Family Court Wiki, published by Family Legal Ltd. It is general information about the law of England and Wales, not legal advice. Last reviewed 6 September 2026. About this site and editorial policy · Report an error.