Family Court Bundle Help | 2026 PD27A Guide | JSH Law

Family Court bundles cause enormous anxiety for litigants in person.

You may have hundreds — sometimes thousands — of pages spread across emails, PDFs, court orders, statements, Cafcass reports, police disclosure, screenshots, school records, medical documents and previous bundles.

Then somebody says:

“The bundle needs filing.”

That does not mean you should combine everything you possess into one enormous PDF and send it to the court.

The rules changed substantially in March 2026.

The current Practice Direction 27A is designed to create a more consistent approach to Family Court bundles across England and Wales. It contains rules about:

• who prepares the bundle;
• what documents should be included;
• what documents should normally stay out;
• page limits;
• preliminary documents;
• pagination;
• electronic bundle format;
• bookmarks and OCR;
• deadlines;
• paper bundles;
• authorities; and
• what happens when a bundle needs to change.

This guide explains those rules in practical terms for litigants in person.

The short answer: what should go in a Family Court bundle?

Only documents which are:

• relevant to the hearing;
• necessary for the court to read; or
• actually going to be referred to during the hearing.

The bundle should normally contain the relevant:

• preliminary documents;
• applications;
• court orders;
• witness statements;
• Cafcass, expert or other reports where relevant;
• permitted disclosure; and
• other documents genuinely required for that hearing.

The starting question is not “What documents have I got?” It is “What documents does the court need for this hearing?”

Do not start by merging every PDF on your computer

JSH Law can provide privately funded, defined-scope support with organising Family Court bundles and the documents that sit behind them.

Depending on the case, that can include:

• reviewing the latest order;
• identifying who is responsible for the bundle;
• creating or reviewing the bundle index;
• identifying relevant documents;
• removing duplication and superseded material;
• organising sections;
• checking pagination;
• assembling an electronic PDF bundle;
• adding bookmarks;
• checking preliminary documents;
• cross-referencing position statements and chronologies; and
• preparing a bundle for practical use at the hearing.

What is a Family Court bundle?

A court bundle is an organised collection of the documents required for a particular hearing.

It allows everybody involved in the hearing to refer to the same material using the same page references.

That sounds simple.

But a good bundle does several jobs at once.

It tells the judge:

• what the case is;
• what has happened procedurally;
• what the current issues are;
• what orders already exist;
• what evidence has been filed;
• what reports are relevant;
• where each document can be found; and
• what material actually needs to be read for this hearing.

A good bundle reduces the amount of searching the judge has to do.

The Family Court bundle rules changed on 2 March 2026

A new Practice Direction 27A came into force on 2 March 2026.

It applies to hearings:

• in the Family Court; and
• before judges sitting in the Family Division of the High Court.

The purpose is consistency across England and Wales.

The new rules apply to:

• electronic bundles;
• paper bundles;
• the first hearing;
• subsequent hearings;
• financial remedy proceedings; and
• other family proceedings.

Individual court directions still matter.

Who is responsible for preparing the Family Court bundle?

Subject to any different court order, the default position under PD27A is:

What if everybody is a litigant in person?

The fact that nobody has a solicitor does not automatically mean HMCTS will prepare the bundle.

However, PD27A now specifically provides for an exceptional situation where:

• all parties are litigants in person; and
• the court is satisfied that none of them is able to prepare, file and serve the bundle.

In those circumstances, the court may direct HM Courts & Tribunals Service to prepare and make an electronic bundle available, together with paper copies where required for witnesses or litigants who cannot access it electronically.

This is an exception.

It should not be treated as an automatic court bundle service whenever both parties are unrepresented.

What should go into a Family Court bundle?

The answer depends on the proceedings and the hearing.

But a bundle will commonly contain sections dealing with:

• preliminary documents;
• applications;
• court orders;
• witness statements and affidavits;
• Cafcass or children’s guardian reports where relevant;
• expert reports where permitted;
• relevant medical material where required;
• relevant police disclosure where required; and
• other documents which are genuinely necessary for the hearing.

Statements and reports included in the bundle should be the signed and dated versions.

Orders should ordinarily be sealed, or otherwise clearly approved by the court in accordance with the rule.

What should normally stay out of the bundle?

This is one of the most important changes to understand.

Under PD27A, the following categories should not normally be included unless the court directs otherwise:

• correspondence;
• emails;
• text messages;
• WhatsApp messages;
• other social-media communications;
• voice notes;
• other recordings;
• bank statements;
• credit-card statements;
• other financial records;
• contact-visit notes;
• foster-carer logs;
• complete social-services files, apart from relevant assessments relied upon; and
• photographs.

This does not mean these things can never be evidence.

Nor does it mean that a significant WhatsApp message or bank statement can never appear in a bundle.

The rule allows the inclusion of a specific document where it is genuinely necessary for the court to read it or it will actually be referred to during the hearing.

Your evidence archive is not your court bundle

A well-prepared case can contain several different document systems.

Keeping these functions separate is one of the easiest ways to make a complex case manageable.

What are preliminary documents?

Preliminary documents are the short documents which help the judge understand the case before moving into the evidence.

Depending on the type of proceedings, they may include:

• a case summary;
• a statement of issues;
• a chronology;
• position statements;
• a skeleton argument where appropriate;
• a list of essential reading;
• a hearing or witness template / timetable;
• Form ES1 in financial remedy proceedings;
• Form ES2 in financial remedy proceedings; and
• Form FM5 where applicable.

These documents are deliberately short.

Their purpose is orientation.

The judge should be able to understand the shape of the hearing before reaching page 200 of the evidence.

What preliminary documents are relevant in private children proceedings?

In non-financial family proceedings, including private children cases, the current rules provide for preliminary material including:

• an up-to-date case summary;
• an agreed statement of the issues to be determined;
• Form FM5 where one has been filed;
• a position statement from each party;
• a skeleton argument where one is appropriate;
• an agreed chronology where required;
• an agreed list of essential reading; and
• an agreed witness or hearing template for evidential, contested or final hearings.

The rules also encourage agreed composite documents rather than each party filing competing versions of everything.

If agreement cannot be reached, the point of disagreement and the parties’ respective positions can be recorded in the document.

Financial remedy bundles follow a different structure

PD27A contains a separate bundle structure for financial remedy proceedings.

The bundle includes sections for:

• preliminary documents;
• applications and orders;
• Forms E;
• questionnaire replies;
• party statements or affidavits;
• expert and other reports; and
• other relevant documents.

The preliminary documents include:

• Form ES1;
• Form FM5 where filed;
• Form ES2;
• an agreed composite chronology;
• each party’s position statement;
• an agreed essential-reading list; and
• for hearings lasting two hours or more, an agreed hearing template.

Importantly, financial remedy pagination is different from the Bates-numbering system used in other family proceedings.

Position statements now have clear default page limits

A position statement is not supposed to become another witness statement.

For proceedings other than financial remedy proceedings, the current default position is that a position statement should not exceed:

3 pages

unless the court accepts that the case is complex and directs a different maximum.

A non-financial position statement should:

• define and confine the issues for the hearing;
• use numbered paragraphs;
• cross-reference relevant bundle pages;
• be self-contained;
• avoid extensive quotation;
• not introduce new evidence;
• not include exhibits; and
• state the orders or directions sought.

A new position statement should be prepared for each hearing rather than adding an “update” to an old one.

Financial remedy position-statement limits

The default limits are different:

The hearing chronology should not become a disguised witness statement

A chronology helps the court understand when relevant events happened.

It should generally be:

• short;
• dated;
• factual;
• relevant to the hearing;
• cross-referenced where appropriate; and
• free from unnecessary argument.

Under PD27A, a chronology included in the bundle is ordinarily limited to:

10 pages

unless the court specifically directs otherwise.

That does not stop you maintaining a much longer private master chronology for case management.

Family Court document page limits under the 2026 rules

Unless the court specifically permits otherwise because a longer document is necessary to dispose of the proceedings justly, current default limits include:

How long can an electronic Family Court bundle be?

The current default maximum is:

An e-bundle may exceed 350 pages only with the court’s permission.

That is a limit, not a target.

A 170-page bundle may be excessive for a 30-minute directions hearing.

The correct question remains:

What does the judge actually need to read?

Can the court order a smaller core bundle?

Yes.

The court can direct a core bundle containing only the key documents needed for the hearing where a complete bundle is unnecessary.

Pagination: not every Family Court bundle uses the same numbering system

Financial remedy

Financial remedy bundles use consecutive Arabic numbering:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5…

In an electronic financial remedy bundle, the visible bundle page number should correspond with the PDF page-label numbering.

Other Family Court proceedings

Other proceedings use Bates numbering, where sections are identified by a letter and individual pages by a number.

A1, A2, A3…
B1, B2, B3…
C1, C2, C3…

This is more than cosmetic.

Your position statement, chronology and oral submissions need to direct the court to the correct bundle page.

How should an electronic Family Court bundle be prepared?

Unless there are exceptional circumstances or the court directs otherwise, the current rules expect bundles to be electronic.

An electronic bundle should:

• be in PDF format;
• normally remain within the 350-page limit;
• use computer-generated page numbering;
• contain an index;
• have significant documents and sections bookmarked;
• be searchable where possible;
• use OCR on scanned typed pages where necessary;
• display landscape documents in landscape;
• contain no upside-down or sideways pages;
• open at an appropriate standard page view;
• be electronically optimised so the file is not unnecessarily large; and
• generally use accessible formatting.

The rules currently provide that resolution should not normally exceed 300 dpi, helping prevent bundles becoming unnecessarily slow or unwieldy.

Why bookmarks, OCR and searchability matter

A PDF can technically open and still be an awful court bundle.

Imagine trying to navigate 300 pages with:

• no bookmarks;
• no searchable text;
• missing page numbers;
• documents upside down;
• no index;
• duplicate statements; and
• an order somewhere around page 217 that nobody can locate.

That is exactly what the current electronic-bundle rules are trying to avoid.

Bookmarks

Significant documents and bundle sections should be bookmarked with a short, useful description and the relevant page number.

Useful bookmark labels might look like:

OCR

OCR — optical character recognition — allows scanned typed documents to become searchable.

That can allow the judge or parties to search for:

• a name;
• a date;
• a phrase;
• a section of a report; or
• a particular issue.

What are the rules for paper Family Court bundles?

Although electronic bundles are now the normal approach, paper bundles are still required in some circumstances.

Unless the court directs otherwise, a paper bundle is limited to:

one A4 ring binder or lever arch file

containing no more than:

175 sheets / 350 sides

Paper documents should generally:

• be double-sided;
• be clearly organised;
• match the electronic bundle pagination where both exist;
• use readable formatting;
• have appropriate section divisions; and
• show the case details clearly on the front and spine.

Paper bundles may also be required where:

• the judge directs one;
• a witness will give evidence in person;
• a litigant in person cannot access the electronic bundle; or
• the court otherwise requires a working paper copy.

When must a Family Court bundle be prepared and filed?

Always check your own order first.

Subject to any case-specific direction, the current PD27A timetable is:

If your latest order imposes a different timetable, follow the order.

What if an important document arrives after the bundle has already been filed?

Do not quietly insert it into the filed PDF and send around a different version.

Once the bundle has been filed, PD27A provides that it should not simply be amended before the hearing without the court’s agreement.

Depending on the circumstances, the court may permit:

• a corrected bundle;
• a revised bundle;
• a supplemental bundle; or
• the additional document to be provided separately.

The reason is practical.

The judge may already have downloaded and annotated the original bundle.

If you silently replace it with a different version, everybody can end up referring to different pagination.

Never create “Bundle Final”, “Bundle Final 2”, “Bundle REALLY Final” and assume the court knows which one you mean.

Can I just use the same bundle at the next hearing?

Not automatically.

Financial remedy proceedings

The current PD27A requires a new bundle to be prepared, served and filed for each subsequent financial remedy hearing rather than simply updating the previous one.

Other Family Court proceedings

In other proceedings, a bundle may be updated or amended for a later hearing.

New documents should be added appropriately to the relevant section and the Bates pagination continued.

Superseded documents should be removed.

That is particularly important for:

• old case summaries;
• old statements of issues;
• old chronologies;
• old skeleton arguments; and
• other preliminary material which no longer reflects the hearing.

Do court cases and legal authorities go into the main bundle?

No.

Authorities relied upon should be contained in a separate composite authorities bundle.

Unless the court gives permission otherwise, the current default maximum is:

10 authorities

That does not mean ten cases should be included simply because the limit allows ten.

Only authorities genuinely relevant to a disputed legal proposition should be used.

If a party wishes to rely on an authority, a copy of it — or a link — must be provided in advance to any litigant in person.

What happens if the bundle is late or does not comply with the rules?

Bundle rules matter because defective bundles waste court time.

Under PD27A, non-compliance may result in the court:

• removing the case from the list;
• putting the case further back in the list;
• making an adverse costs order; or
• making another appropriate procedural response.

That does not mean every minor formatting mistake will cause a hearing to disappear.

But a litigant should not assume bundle requirements are optional because they are unrepresented.

Preparing the bundle is only half the job — you need to be able to use it

Before the hearing, make sure you know where the critical documents are.

Prepare a short working list of key references.

Then when the judge asks:

“Where is the order stopping direct contact?”

you can say:

“That is at B17, paragraph 8.”

That is far more effective than:

“It’s definitely in there somewhere.”

Family Court bundles contain sensitive information

Family Court documents can contain extremely sensitive information about:

• children;
• domestic abuse;
• medical history;
• addresses;
• financial information;
• schools;
• police material;
• social-services involvement; and
• third parties.

Treat the bundle accordingly.

Take care when:

• emailing it;
• uploading it;
• using shared computers;
• printing it;
• storing it in cloud services;
• sending it to somebody assisting you; and
• disposing of paper copies.

Do not publish or circulate Family Court material simply because you possess a copy.

Separate rules restrict the publication and communication of information relating to Family Court proceedings.

Common Family Court bundle mistakes

Order → Hearing → Issues → Documents → Index → Bundle

Bundle preparation should be one of the final stages of case preparation.

First understand the hearing.

Then identify the issues.

Then identify the documents needed to decide those issues.

Only then build the bundle.

How JSH Law can help with your Family Court bundle

JSH Law provides privately funded, defined-scope document and case-preparation support.

Depending on the proceedings and agreed scope, support may include:

• reviewing the court order;
• identifying bundle responsibility;
• reviewing an existing bundle;
• building the bundle index;
• checking document relevance;
• identifying missing documents;
• removing duplicated or superseded material;
• organising sections;
• checking chronology and preliminary documents;
• cross-referencing position statements;
• assembling PDF documents;
• pagination;
• adding bookmarks;
• checking page orientation;
• checking OCR and searchability where appropriate;
• preparing a key-page reference sheet;
• checking the bundle against current PD27A requirements; and
• practical preparation for using the bundle at the hearing.

Asking JSH Law for bundle help? Send these first

You do not need to begin by sending your entire evidence archive.

Start with:

1. The latest sealed court order.
2. The hearing notice.
3. The date, time and type of hearing.
4. The existing bundle or bundle index, if one exists.
5. The current application.
6. The most recent statements.
7. Any Cafcass, expert or professional report relevant to the hearing.
8. Any position statement or chronology already prepared.
9. A note of any documents you believe are missing.
10. Any correspondence identifying who has been asked to prepare the bundle.

Defined-scope bundle preparation support

JSH Law support is privately funded.

You may need:

• a bundle audit;
• an index;
• preliminary-document help;
• a bundle assembled from organised source documents; or
• broader hearing and bundle preparation.

The agreed work, scope and fee basis will be confirmed before substantive work begins.

Frequently asked questions about Family Court bundles

Related JSH Law guides

• Family Court Evidence & Chronology Help
• Family Court Hearing Preparation
• Cafcass & Section 7 Report Help
• Domestic Abuse Evidence & PD12J
• Financial Remedy Help for Litigants in Person
• Family Court Position Statements
• Urgent Family Court Document Help

Official rules and guidance

This page has been prepared by reference to current official sources including:

• Practice Direction 27A – Family Proceedings: Court Bundles
• Family Procedure Rules Part 27 – Hearings and Directions Appointments
• Judiciary – Preparing Court Bundles for Family Proceedings: Guide for Litigants in Person
• Financial Remedies Guide 2026
• Practice Direction 12B – Child Arrangements Programme
• Family Procedure Rules

Legal and procedural information last checked: 16 September 2026.

Important service information

JSH Law provides defined-scope litigation support, document-preparation assistance and practical support for litigants in person.

Bundle-preparation support does not transfer responsibility for the proceedings or automatically make JSH Law responsible for filing, service or compliance with a court order.

The agreed scope should identify clearly whether JSH Law is assisting with document organisation, bundle assembly, preliminary documents, hearing preparation or another defined task.

Litigants in person remain responsible for checking and approving documents, ensuring that the bundle contains material which may properly be placed before the court, complying with court directions, filing and service where required and meeting deadlines.

Where formal regulated legal advice, conduct of litigation, reserved advocacy or representation is required, assistance should be obtained from an appropriately authorised legal professional.

This page provides general procedural information about Family Court bundles in England and Wales. It is not case-specific legal advice. The latest order and any case-specific directions should always be checked.

The court should not have to search your case to find your case

A useful bundle is selective, organised, navigable and built around the hearing that is actually taking place.

JSH Law can help turn a difficult collection of court papers into a practical working bundle.