Family solicitors have recently been stunned by an astonishing development in family law. Mr Justice Munby, President of the Family Division, and the most senior family judge in England and Wales has handed down a judgement that will require a fundamental rethink by solicitors of the way in which they conduct family litigation.
What is this, I hear you cry? Is that the court decision about the wife who was told that she had to get a job? No, this decision is more significant than that. Munby J has decreed that under no circumstances are solicitors to file court bundles inside foolscap lever arch files, because they don’t fit on the shelves at the court.
This has met a fair amount of derision from legal bloggers such as Pink Tape and Suesspiciousminds. It caused a fair amount of hysterical laughter in my office, although when I checked my stationery cupboard I was relieved to see that I switched to A4 lever arch files (which Munby J likes) a few months ago. Never let it be said that I am not at the cutting edge of modern jurisprudence.
Much of the eye rolling from family lawyers about this is due to the already very strict rules that exist about court bundles. A court bundle is basically a file of all the relevant documents required by the court at a hearing. Before the arrival of the single Family Court, these were only required where a hearing was listed to take longer than an hour. In most family cases, hearings are listed for no more than an hour and therefore bundles weren’t needed. We only had to produce a bundle if there was going to be a trial and as most family cases settle without a trial, the time consuming and fiddly process of preparing a bundle was a rarity.
However, now the Family Procedure Rules says that a bundle is required for every hearing, regardless of its length. Preparing it is the responsibility of the applicant’s solicitor, but the rules say that where the applicant is representing himself or herself, the respondent’s solicitor has to produce it instead. The bundle has to be delivered to the court before the hearing, and as Family Courts don’t have counter services nowadays (except by appointment), they often have to be sent by post or by courier, which is expensive.
Munby J did say in a subsequent speech to the Family Law Bar Association that it was time that a way was figured put to do all of this electronically, so that we can come to court and access all the documents on tablets or laptops. This would make life much easier. It would also avoid the following conundrum. I know a solicitor who recently tried to hand deliver the bundle to the court. She was told by a security guard that he could not take delivery of the bundle and that the solicitor should instead post it through the court letter box. The lever arch file was 4 inches thick; the letter box was an inch wide.
7 March 2015