Family Court Bundle Requirements (PD27A, in force 2 March 2026)
Family bundles are governed by Practice Direction 27A, which was substituted wholesale and came into force on 2 March 2026. The 2021 general guidance on electronic court bundles no longer applies to family proceedings. A further amendment on 24 March 2026 changed the preliminary-documents and filing provisions only; it did not change any of the format rules below.
Governing document
FPR Practice Direction 27A — Family Proceedings: Court Bundles
Family Procedure Rules · in force 2 March 2026 (substituted by PD Update No 6 of 2025; amended 24 March 2026 by Update No 1 of 2026, which does not change the format rules)
FPR Practice Direction 27A — Family Proceedings: Court Bundles (in force 2 March 2026 (substituted by PD Update No 6 of 2025; amended 24 March 2026 by Update No 1 of 2026, which does not change the format rules))
Also relevant: Court bundles: guidance for litigants in person (family) (2 March 2026)
FPR Practice Direction 27A — Family Proceedings: Court Bundles (in force 2 March 2026 (substituted by PD Update No 6 of 2025; amended 24 March 2026 by Update No 1 of 2026, which does not change the format rules))
Also relevant: Court bundles: guidance for litigants in person (family) (2 March 2026)
Checked against the published source on 15 August 2026.
The numbers, in one place
| Page limit | 350 pages PD27A 11.2(b). The limit may only be exceeded with the court's permission. |
| Resolution | not greater than 300 dpi A ceiling only. |
| Pagination | Bates by section (A1, A2 … B1, B2 …) Family proceedings that are not financial remedy use the Bates system: section A pages are A1, A2 …, section B pages are B1, B2 … (PD27A 7.2(d) and the definition at 1.2). A bundle numbered 1…N continuously is the financial remedy rule, not this one. |
| Font | 12 point minimum, Arial or Times New Roman |
| Filename must contain | hearing date, case reference, short case name, content of the bundle |
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Every rule, in the source's own words
Quotations below are verbatim. Where a rule is best practice carried from another regime rather than a requirement of the governing document, it says so in the row.
| Requirement | What the rule actually says | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Single PDF must |
“e-bundles must be provided in PDF format” | PD27A 11.2(a) FPR Practice Direction 27A — Family Proceedings: Court Bundles (in force 2 March 2026 (substituted by PD Update No 6 of 2025; amended 24 March 2026 by Update No 1 of 2026, which does not change the format rules)) |
| 350-page limit must |
“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” | PD27A 11.2(b) FPR Practice Direction 27A — Family Proceedings: Court Bundles (in force 2 March 2026 (substituted by PD Update No 6 of 2025; amended 24 March 2026 by Update No 1 of 2026, which does not change the format rules)) |
| Computer-generated pagination must |
“all pages in an e-bundle must be numbered by computer-generated numbering, not by hand” | PD27A 11.2(c)(i) FPR Practice Direction 27A — Family Proceedings: Court Bundles (in force 2 March 2026 (substituted by PD Update No 6 of 2025; amended 24 March 2026 by Update No 1 of 2026, which does not change the format rules)) |
| Bates numbering by section check yourself |
“the documents must be paginated individually, using the Bates numbering system” Reported, never failed: we cannot tell from the file alone where your sections begin and end. |
PD27A 7.2(d) and 1.2 FPR Practice Direction 27A — Family Proceedings: Court Bundles (in force 2 March 2026 (substituted by PD Update No 6 of 2025; amended 24 March 2026 by Update No 1 of 2026, which does not change the format rules)) |
| Index entries added to the indexed document must |
“each entry in the index must be added to the indexed document” Read the wording carefully. The enacted PD27A says "added to", not "hyperlinked to". Commentary usually says "hyperlinked" because it is quoting the superseded 2021 guidance. |
PD27A 11.2(d)(i) FPR Practice Direction 27A — Family Proceedings: Court Bundles (in force 2 March 2026 (substituted by PD Update No 6 of 2025; amended 24 March 2026 by Update No 1 of 2026, which does not change the format rules)) |
| Hyperlinked index (best practice) best practice |
“Each entry in the index must be hyperlinked to the indexed document.” This wording is from the 2021 general guidance, which no longer applies to family proceedings, and from the Administrative Court and King's Bench regimes. We carry it as best practice because it is what most judges expect and it cannot hurt. We do not assert it as an express requirement of PD27A. |
not a requirement of PD27A General guidance on electronic court bundles (29 November 2021) |
| Bookmarks for all significant documents and sections must |
“all significant documents and all sections in bundles must be bookmarked for ease of navigation, with a short description as the bookmark. The bookmark should contain the page number of the document” | PD27A 11.2(d)(ii) FPR Practice Direction 27A — Family Proceedings: Court Bundles (in force 2 March 2026 (substituted by PD Update No 6 of 2025; amended 24 March 2026 by Update No 1 of 2026, which does not change the format rules)) |
| Bookmark titles carry page numbers should |
“The bookmark should contain the page number of the document” | PD27A 11.2(d)(ii) FPR Practice Direction 27A — Family Proceedings: Court Bundles (in force 2 March 2026 (substituted by PD Update No 6 of 2025; amended 24 March 2026 by Update No 1 of 2026, which does not change the format rules)) |
| Searchable where possible should |
“where possible, the bundle should be searchable” | PD27A 11.2(d)(iii) FPR Practice Direction 27A — Family Proceedings: Court Bundles (in force 2 March 2026 (substituted by PD Update No 6 of 2025; amended 24 March 2026 by Update No 1 of 2026, which does not change the format rules)) |
| OCR on typed-text pages must |
“all pages in an e-bundle that contain typed text must be subject to OCR if they have not been created directly as electronic text documents” | PD27A 11.2(e) FPR Practice Direction 27A — Family Proceedings: Court Bundles (in force 2 March 2026 (substituted by PD Update No 6 of 2025; amended 24 March 2026 by Update No 1 of 2026, which does not change the format rules)) |
| No page upside down or sideways must |
“any page that has been created in landscape orientation should appear in that orientation so that it can be read from left to right. No page should appear upside down or sideways” | PD27A 11.2(f) FPR Practice Direction 27A — Family Proceedings: Court Bundles (in force 2 March 2026 (substituted by PD Update No 6 of 2025; amended 24 March 2026 by Update No 1 of 2026, which does not change the format rules)) |
| Default page view 100% should |
“the default page view for all pages should be 100%” | PD27A 11.2(g) FPR Practice Direction 27A — Family Proceedings: Court Bundles (in force 2 March 2026 (substituted by PD Update No 6 of 2025; amended 24 March 2026 by Update No 1 of 2026, which does not change the format rules)) |
| Resolution not greater than 300 dpi should |
“the resolution of the bundle should not be greater than 300 dpi, to avoid slow scrolling or rendering” | PD27A 11.2(j) FPR Practice Direction 27A — Family Proceedings: Court Bundles (in force 2 March 2026 (substituted by PD Update No 6 of 2025; amended 24 March 2026 by Update No 1 of 2026, which does not change the format rules)) |
| 12 point minimum, 1.5 or double spacing, margins should |
“wherever possible, all documents in the bundle must be in no smaller than 12 point font, with 1.5 or double line spacing and with margins each side of the page” | PD27A 11.2(k) FPR Practice Direction 27A — Family Proceedings: Court Bundles (in force 2 March 2026 (substituted by PD Update No 6 of 2025; amended 24 March 2026 by Update No 1 of 2026, which does not change the format rules)) |
| Arial or Times New Roman should |
“wherever possible, documents in the bundle should be in Arial or Times New Roman typeface (noting that Arial is generally considered to be more accessible to neurodiverse readers)” | PD27A 11.2(l) FPR Practice Direction 27A — Family Proceedings: Court Bundles (in force 2 March 2026 (substituted by PD Update No 6 of 2025; amended 24 March 2026 by Update No 1 of 2026, which does not change the format rules)) |
| Filename includes the hearing date must |
“The filename for a bundle must contain the date of the hearing for which the bundle was prepared, the case reference, a short version of the name of the case and an indication of the content of the bundle.” The hearing date requirement is family-only. No other regime asks for it. |
PD27A 14.2(a) FPR Practice Direction 27A — Family Proceedings: Court Bundles (in force 2 March 2026 (substituted by PD Update No 6 of 2025; amended 24 March 2026 by Update No 1 of 2026, which does not change the format rules)) |
| Not locked against text extraction should |
“where possible, the bundle should be searchable” | PD27A 11.2(d)(iii), 11.2(e) FPR Practice Direction 27A — Family Proceedings: Court Bundles (in force 2 March 2026 (substituted by PD Update No 6 of 2025; amended 24 March 2026 by Update No 1 of 2026, which does not change the format rules)) |
| Per-document page caps check yourself |
“Care plan: 10 · Case summary: 6 · Statement of issues: 2 · Chronology: 10 · List of essential reading: 1 · Witness statement or affidavit (exclusive of exhibits): 25 · Expert's or other report: 40 (including executive summary at the beginning of no more than 4 pages)” We can only infer document boundaries from your bookmarks, so this is always reported for you to check, never failed. |
PD27A Chapter 8 FPR Practice Direction 27A — Family Proceedings: Court Bundles (in force 2 March 2026 (substituted by PD Update No 6 of 2025; amended 24 March 2026 by Update No 1 of 2026, which does not change the format rules)) |
| Excluded classes of document check yourself |
“emails, text messages, WhatsApp and other messaging, social media, voice notes, bank and credit card statements, contact notes, foster carer logs, social services files and photographs” Whether a page falls into an excluded class is a judgement about content, not format. Check it yourself. |
PD27A 5.2 FPR Practice Direction 27A — Family Proceedings: Court Bundles (in force 2 March 2026 (substituted by PD Update No 6 of 2025; amended 24 March 2026 by Update No 1 of 2026, which does not change the format rules)) |
| Timetable check yourself |
“Seven working days: Parties must seek to agree the contents of the bundle. Five working days: The bundle … must be (a) served and (b) filed. 11am on the working day before the hearing: The preliminary documents … must be served on all parties and filed with the court.” PD27A 13.3: once filed, the bundle must not be amended before the hearing without the court's prior agreement. |
PD27A Chapter 13 FPR Practice Direction 27A — Family Proceedings: Court Bundles (in force 2 March 2026 (substituted by PD Update No 6 of 2025; amended 24 March 2026 by Update No 1 of 2026, which does not change the format rules)) |
Where this court differs from the others
This is the part that causes wasted work: a bundle built correctly for one court can breach the rules of another. Applying the wrong court's rulebook is the most common way a compliant bundle gets called non-compliant.
Index links
| Family (PD27A) | Index entries must be "added to" the indexed document. Hyperlinking is best practice carried from other regimes, not an express PD27A requirement. |
| Administrative Court, King's Bench (10.21) | Hyperlinked index is mandatory. |
| Court of Appeal | Hyperlinks OR bookmarks, "as appropriate". |
| Chancery, Commercial | Hyperlinked "if possible". |
| SEND Tribunal | Hyperlinks "ideally". |
| Employment Tribunal | Index hyperlinked at the front, OR supplied as a separate PDF. |
Pagination
| Financial remedy | Arabic, continuous, and the computer numbering must match the PDF page labels. |
| Family, not financial remedy | Bates numbering: A1, A2 … B1, B2 … by section. |
| Employment Tribunal, SEND Tribunal | Sequential Arabic from 1. Sections must NOT be separately numbered. |
| Chancery, Commercial | Where a bundle is split across files, pagination begins afresh in each file. |
| Administrative Court, King's Bench | First page of the PDF is page 1, index pages included. |
Bookmark density
| Everywhere except the Employment Tribunal | All significant documents and all sections. |
| Employment Tribunal | Significant documents only — "Do not bookmark every single document". |
Resolution
| Nearly all of the regimes on this page | Not greater than 300 dpi — a ceiling only. |
| Administrative Court, King's Bench (10.21) | About 200 to 300 dpi — a floor as well as a ceiling. |
Page and size caps
| Family, financial remedy | 350 pages, court permission to exceed. In financial remedy, position statements and composite documents do not count towards it. |
| Court of Appeal | 350 pages on the supplementary bundle; 50MB split threshold. |
| Administrative Court, criminal | 20mb, with a core bundle above it. Core bundle required over 400 pages (PD 54A 16). |
| SEND Tribunal | Core bundle 100 pages; EHC plan part 150; further caps by appeal type. |
| Chancery, Commercial, King's Bench | No page cap. |
What actually happened when bundles went wrong
T v T [2025] EWFC 14 (B) — Final hearing adjourned
A bundle of 2,747 pages against a 350-page limit, without bookmarks. The court's words: “impossible to proceed in a fair way”
Y v X (Costs) [2026] EWFC 35 (B) — Bundle preparation fees disallowed
A late bundle with inconsistent pagination. The costs of preparing it were disallowed under FPR r28.1. This is a fee disallowance, not a wasted costs order and not a fine.
Seagrove v Sullivan [2014] EWHC 4110 (Fam) — Papers removed and the exercise restarted
The court refused to work from the bundle as lodged. The court's words: “The whole lot must be taken away and we start again.”
Re L (A Child) [2015] EWFC 15 — Judicial naming of the default
Sir James Munby P, then President of the Family Division, on repeated non-compliance with the bundles practice direction. The court's words: “Fifteen years of default are enough.”
Being straight about this: No reported case imposes wasted costs solely for bundle defects. The only money outcome we can point to is Y v X (Costs) [2026] EWFC 35 (B), where bundle preparation fees were disallowed. None of these outcomes is a fine. Courts do not fine parties for bundle format. Every case above pre-dates the Practice Direction 27A that came into force on 2 March 2026. As at 15 August 2026 there is no reported judgment under the new PD27A. The underlying duties are materially similar, but nobody can yet cite a decision on the new wording.
What we cannot tell you
- No Civil Procedure Rule anywhere mandates bookmarks, OCR or hyperlinks in an electronic civil bundle. Those requirements come from judicial guidance and court guides, which a judge may vary in your case.
- The enacted PD27A says index entries must be "added to" the indexed document, not "hyperlinked to". We treat hyperlinking as best practice for family bundles and label it as such. Published commentary usually says "hyperlinked" because it is quoting the 2021 guidance, which no longer applies to family proceedings.
- PD27A 4.8 promises further HMCTS guidance on bundles. As at 15 August 2026 it has not been published.
- The 50MB figure in the Court of Appeal and King's Bench guides descends from the revoked PD 51O. Treat it as guide-level practice, not law. CPR PD 5C sets a 100MB electronic filing cap and carves bundles out of the pilot.
- Employment Tribunal Presidential Guidance is something a tribunal must have regard to. It does not bind in the way a practice direction does.
- This tool checks the format of a PDF. It cannot tell you whether a document belongs in the bundle, whether a bookmark description is good enough, or whether your case is ready. Those are judgement calls and we report them as such.
Pick your court, pick your PDF. The file is read in your browser and never leaves your device. Free verdict plus your first three issues; the full report is £4.99.
Other courts
Financial remedyFPR Practice Direction 27AAdministrative CourtAdministrative CourtCourt of AppealCourt of Appeal (Civil Division) Guide 2025Chancery / CommercialChancery Guide 2022 (Business and Property Courts)King's BenchThe King's Bench Guide 2025Employment TribunalPresidential GuidanceSEND TribunalPractice Direction No 1 of 2025CriminalCriminal Practice Directions 2023, Part 12General civilGeneral guidance on electronic court bundles
This is a format check against published court rules. It is not legal advice, it does not tell you whether your case is ready, and no outcome is guaranteed. The rules are subject to any direction a judge gives in your own case. Rules and guides are updated by the courts without notice; this page records the position as at 15 August 2026 and links to every source so you can check it yourself.