PDSL1.3 Directions made by The Judge in charge of The Commercial List pursuant to Order 72, Rule 2(3) of The Rules of the High Court

PRACTICE DIRECTION – SL 1.3

DIRECTIONS MADE BY THE JUDGE IN CHARGE OF
THE COMMERCIAL LIST PURSUANT TO ORDER 72, RULE 2(3)
 OF THE RULES OF THE HIGH COURT

Use of E-Bundles in the Commercial Court

Introduction

1.  Many of the cases in the Commercial List of the Court of First Instance of the High Court involve a substantial volume of documentary evidence.  Therefore, the use of e-bundles has become the norm in the Commercial Court for purposes of trial (where appropriate parties may apply for the use of e-bundles in interlocutory applications).  These directions aim to provide guidance to court users on the preparation and use of e-bundles so as to achieve consistency and to minimize the expenses involved.

2.  There is a set of General Guidelines for Preparing EBPDF (i.e. Electronic Bundles in Portable Document Format) (“Guidelines”) which is available on the Judiciary website. They should be adhered to for the preparation of e-bundles, unless otherwise directed by the Court.

3.  In addition to the Guidelines, there are training videos prepared by the Information Technology Office of the Judiciary: (a) 6 videos on Using E-Bundles in Court and (b) 5 videos on Digital Evidence and Exhibit Handling, which are available on the Judiciary’s website.  Such materials may assist court users to become familiar with the use of e-bundles in court.

4.  Core bundles, if applicable, and bundles of Submissions and Authorities should be made available in both PDF (as part of the e-bundles) and physical form.  In case of supplementary direction from the Court on Submissions in additional electronic formats, those Submissions should be provided in the subset of the e-bundles.

5.  Each e-bundle should contain an Index of its contents. In addition, there should be a separate Index File(s) which contains all the indexes of the individual e-bundles. The separate Index File(s) should be submitted as part of the e-bundles.

6.  Hyperlinks[1] to: (a) the documents appearing in the Indexes; (b) the documents referred to in the Submissions; and (c) the authorities appearing in the Lists of Authorities should be provided. 

7.  In respect of updating of the e-bundles (see para 4 of the Guidelines), once the e-bundles are in use by the court any introduction of additional documents to the e-bundles should be by way of additional bundle(s) in separate PDF files that comply with the Guidelines, without disturbing pre-existing PDF files so that any markings or notes made to the existing documents will be preserved.

8.  Use of e-bundles during examination of witnesses will require an operator who will cause to be displayed on the witness’ screen the document which he or she is asked to look at.  The function of the operator may be performed by, for example, a solicitor of one of the parties.

9.  The training videos on Digital Evidence and Exhibit Handling provide important guidance on the marking of documents by witnesses and the exhibiting of the marked documents. Advocates should familiarize themselves with the same. 

10.  Court users are responsible for ensuring that the use of e-bundles will proceed smoothly and efficiently.  Where necessary, they may arrange a trial run for the use of e-bundles in court. 

11.  Court users may apply to the court for exemption over the use of e-bundles (e.g. where the trial will involve limited documents) and for modifications of the above directions where appropriate. 

Commencement Date

12.  This Practice Direction shall come into effect on 11 May 2022.

Date: 27 April 2022