How do you prepare a court bundle for printing?
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Send one PDF in final order, say whether it can print double-sided, and tell us the date and time the bundle has to be at the court. Double-sided halves the block: the same bundle on both sides is half the thickness, and thickness is what decides which binding it fits, or whether it has to be punched instead. A bundle with files and payment in by 21:00 is normally ready before 9am the next morning, subject to that night’s capacity.
Written by Maciej Antosz, Production Manager at Silver Image London ·
Court and tribunal bundles arrive here in a recognisable shape: the deadline is a hearing date, the page count runs into the hundreds, it is usually one copy, and black and white is enough. What varies is how ready the file is when it arrives — and that is what decides whether the job takes two hours or two conversations.
How thick can a bundle be before it can be bound?
A document of around 500 pages printed single-sided is past what we can bind here — that is the limit of our binding equipment, not a rule about bundles. If the bundle has to stay single-sided, we punch it and you put it into a ring binder from any stationer. If it can be printed double-sided, the block halves, and if the sheet count then falls inside one of the capacities below it comes back bound rather than punched.
Ask yourself that question at the quote stage rather than at 8pm. Whether double-sided is acceptable is a question for the court or your solicitor, not for us — but if the answer is yes, it changes what can be bound, and it is worth settling before the file is sent.
Which binding for which page count
| Method | Capacity | Suits |
|---|---|---|
| Wire binding | Up to 300 sheets, so 600 pages double-sided | Bundles that must lie flat and open at any page |
| Comb binding | 20–400 pages | Bundles that may need a page swapped after binding |
| Corner or edge staple | Up to around 200 sheets, so 400 pages double-sided | Exhibits and shorter sets filed in sections |
| Punched, unbound | No limit | Anything past the bound limit, or where you supply the binder |
Tabbed dividers and index tabs are fitted at the same stage as punching, so ask for them with the quote rather than after the bundle is bound.
One file or several?
Either works. If you send several files, number them in the order you want them printed — we merge them and print in that order, and the order you give is the order you get. If you send one PDF, make sure the pagination in the file is the pagination you want on paper, because we print what is in front of us and do not renumber it.
We print, bind and deliver. We do not advise on the content of a bundle or on the case, and we do not decide what belongs in it — that is your call or your solicitor’s.
Paper originals instead of a file
Litigation copying starts from paper as often as from a PDF. Bring or send the originals and we copy them single or double-sided, in colour or black and white. If you also need the set as a file, scanning to searchable PDF (OCR) means the finished bundle can be word-searched, which is worth asking for when the same papers will be read again before the hearing.
Getting it to the right address on the day
Give us the hearing date, the time the bundle has to be there, and the address exactly as the court gave it to you — a court address is sometimes a post box rather than a delivery point, so confirm with the court that it accepts a courier before the day. Delivery goes by named courier with a signed proof of delivery; that proof confirms the parcel was received, not that anything has been filed. There are regular runs to the Royal Courts of Justice, the Inns of Court and chambers along Fleet Street. Collection from our London production is arranged around your arrival time — call before you set off after 8pm.
Checklist before you send the bundle
- Date and time the bundle has to be at the court, and the hearing date behind it.
- Single or double-sided, and whether double-sided is acceptable to the court.
- Page count and copies — one copy is normal here, and so are five.
- Colour or black and white, and whether any exhibits must stay in colour.
- Binding or punched, plus tabbed dividers if the bundle is sectioned.
- File order if you are sending more than one file.
- Delivery address as the court wrote it, and the time it has to be there — or the collection time you want.
- An NDA if you want one signed before the file is opened — we have a standard form if you do not have your own.
What happens to the file afterwards, who sees it and what is done with the waste paper is answered in can you print confidential documents the same day. Turnaround, binding options and what a quote covers are on the confidential and legal document printing service page.
Send the bundle
Send the PDF with the hearing date, the page count and whether it can print double-sided, and you will get a quote with a time you can rely on. Ask for the NDA first if you need one — it is signed before the file is opened.
Open 24 hours, 7 days a week. Files and payment by 21:00 are normally ready before 9am the next morning, subject to that night’s capacity.
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