General Civil Court Bundle Requirements (General guidance, 29 November 2021 + CPR PD 32)
Where no specific court guide applies, the 2021 general guidance on electronic court bundles is the working standard for civil and criminal proceedings, sitting on top of the CPR PD 32 para 27.8 baseline. Note what the CPR does not say: no Civil Procedure Rule anywhere mandates bookmarks, OCR or hyperlinks in an electronic bundle. Those requirements come from judicial guidance and court guides.
Governing document
General guidance on electronic court bundles
Courts and Tribunals Judiciary (Senior Presiding Judge, President of the Family Division, Judge-in-charge of Live Services) · 29 November 2021
General guidance on electronic court bundles (29 November 2021)
Also relevant: CPR Practice Direction 32 — Evidence (para 27.8, trial bundles) (current as at 15 August 2026)
Also relevant: CPR Practice Direction 5C — Electronic Working Pilot Scheme (in force 1 October 2025)
General guidance on electronic court bundles (29 November 2021)
Also relevant: CPR Practice Direction 32 — Evidence (para 27.8, trial bundles) (current as at 15 August 2026)
Also relevant: CPR Practice Direction 5C — Electronic Working Pilot Scheme (in force 1 October 2025)
Checked against the published source on 15 August 2026.
The numbers, in one place
| Page limit | None No page cap. CPR PD 32 para 27.8 requires numbered dividers once a paper trial bundle exceeds 100 pages. |
| File size | 36MB 36MB is the aggregate email limit for justice.gov addresses, not a rule about bundle size. CPR PD 5C sets a 100MB cap for electronic filing, and bundles are carved out of PD 5C. |
| Resolution | not greater than 300 dpi A ceiling only. |
| Pagination | Arabic, continuous from page 1 Page 1 is the first page of the bundle whether or not it is part of an index. |
| Filename must contain | case reference, short case name, content indication |
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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 |
|---|---|---|
| PDF format must |
“E-bundles must be provided in pdf format.” | General guidance (29 Nov 2021) General guidance on electronic court bundles (29 November 2021) |
| Computer-generated pagination matching the PDF numbering must |
“All pages in an e-bundle must be numbered by computer-generated numbering, not by hand. The numbering should start at page 1 for the first page of the bundle (whether or not that is part of an index) and the numbering must follow sequentially to the last page of the bundle, so that the pagination matches the pdf numbering.” | General guidance (29 Nov 2021) General guidance on electronic court bundles (29 November 2021) |
| Not numbered by hand must |
“All pages in an e-bundle must be numbered by computer-generated numbering, not by hand.” | General guidance (29 Nov 2021) General guidance on electronic court bundles (29 November 2021) |
| Index entries hyperlinked must |
“Each entry in the index must be hyperlinked to the indexed document.” This wording is live for civil and criminal proceedings. It is NOT the family rule — PD27A says index entries must be "added to" the indexed document. |
General guidance (29 Nov 2021) General guidance on electronic court bundles (29 November 2021) |
| All significant documents and sections bookmarked must |
“Each entry in the index must be hyperlinked to the indexed document. 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.” | General guidance (29 Nov 2021) General guidance on electronic court bundles (29 November 2021) |
| Bookmark titles carry page numbers should |
“The bookmark should contain the page number of the document.” | General guidance (29 Nov 2021) General guidance on electronic court bundles (29 November 2021) |
| OCR on typed-text pages must |
“All pages in an e-bundle that contain typed text must be subject to OCR (optical character recognition) if they have not been created directly as electronic text documents.” | General guidance (29 Nov 2021) General guidance on electronic court bundles (29 November 2021) |
| No page upside down should |
“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.” | General guidance (29 Nov 2021) General guidance on electronic court bundles (29 November 2021) |
| Default view 100% should |
“The default view for all pages should be 100%.” | General guidance (29 Nov 2021) General guidance on electronic court bundles (29 November 2021) |
| Not greater than 300 dpi should |
“The resolution of the bundle should not be greater than 300 dpi, in order to avoid slow scrolling or rendering. The bundle should be electronically optimised so as to ensure that the file size is not larger than necessary.” | General guidance (29 Nov 2021) General guidance on electronic court bundles (29 November 2021) |
| Filename: case reference, case name, content must |
“The filename for a bundle must contain the case reference and a short version of the name of the case and an indication of the content of the bundle.” The guidance's own examples: "CO12342021 Carpenters v Adventurers Hearing Bundle" or "CO12342021 Carpenters v Adventurers Authorities Bundle". |
General guidance (29 Nov 2021) General guidance on electronic court bundles (29 November 2021) |
| 36MB email aggregate check yourself |
“For justice.gov e-mail addresses the maximum size of email and attachments is 36Mb in aggregate. Anything larger will be rejected.” A delivery constraint, not a bundle rule. If you are uploading to a portal it does not apply. |
General guidance (29 Nov 2021) General guidance on electronic court bundles (29 November 2021) |
| Dividers over 100 pages (paper) check yourself |
“The trial bundle should be paginated (continuously) throughout, and indexed with a description of each document and the page number. Where the total number of pages is more than 100, numbered dividers should be placed at intervals between groups of documents.” PD 32 is silent on electronic bundles. It is the paper baseline. |
CPR PD 32 para 27.8 CPR Practice Direction 32 — Evidence (para 27.8, trial bundles) (current as at 15 August 2026) |
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 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.
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Other courts
FamilyFPR Practice Direction 27AFinancial 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 12
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.