Rethinking Court Bundling: Why It’s Time for Change

We’ve likely all thought the same thing at some point when deep in the throes of bundling, “there must be a better way”. Yet, the process has become increasingly complex and costly.

Ultimately, court bundling should be considered a relatively straightforward procedural step, but for many practitioners, it remains one of the most painful and inconsistent aspects of litigation. Greener Litigation is launching a new initiative to better understand and improve this process and we’re asking lawyers, paralegals, technologists, and litigation support teams to share their experiences and ideas.

1. Educating on Best Practice

At its core, the process of creating court bundles, whether hard copy or digital, is mechanical, and repetitive by nature. It is rarely taught, often improvised, and too frequently left to junior lawyers or paralegals to figure out.

Court bundling has evolved from lever-arch folders and coloured dividers to large, hyperlinked e-bundles, but the principles remain the same: accuracy, order, and compliance. With differing requirements across courts and tribunals, this process continues to cause confusion and frustration across the profession. Greener Litigation believes it’s time to make best practices clear and consistent.

2. Making the Case for Change

Producing bundles is expensive, time-consuming, and often environmentally unsustainable. The process can involve repeated document conversions, manual pagination, and multiple re-uploads when errors occur. Each court, judge, and tribunal applies its own rules and formats, making it difficult for firms to maintain standard workflows. The result is duplicated work and wasted billable time, inconsistent output that risks non-compliance, and significant digital and paper waste despite growing sustainability commitments.

Under-investment in technology compounds these problems. Bundling tools are available, but adoption is patchy. Many firms still rely on PDF manipulation or general-purpose software, leaving paralegals and trainees under pressure and without adequate support. This is not just a technical problem; but rather a systemic one.

3. A Way Forward

We believe there is a better path that is modern, efficient, and sustainable. Greener Litigation proposes greater consistency between courts, tribunals, and judges to streamline expectations and remove inefficiency. We advocate for the modernisation of tools, encouraging firms to adopt dedicated bundling platforms that reduce risk, cost, and environmental impact. We also suggest re-thinking formats beyond PDF to explore dynamic, centralised solutions where parties and courts can securely access shared bundles in real time.

These changes could remove much of the manual burden and allow lawyers to focus on what truly matters: advocacy, evidence, and outcomes.

4. A Call to Action

Greener Litigation is inviting input from the legal community to shape the next phase of this work. We are seeking views on whether to carry out further analysis on potential reforms to court bundling practices, collect data to quantify the scale and cost of the current issues, and establish a working group bringing together law firms, barristers, courts, technologists, and others to drive change collaboratively.

If you are a lawyer, paralegal, litigation support professional, or legal technologist, we would love to hear from you. Your insight can help design a smarter, greener, and more efficient approach to court bundling that benefits clients, practitioners, and the courts alike.

Get in Touch

Get in touch to share your experience or register your interest in joining the working group.

We particularly welcome comment from any organisations involved in the bundling process, in particular around these questions:

• Do the problems with bundling resonate, and are they significant enough for you to want to work with other organisations to help fix them?
• How much time do you consider is lost in proceedings as a result of bundling?
• Would you be willing to take part in a survey or a roundtable discussion with Greener Litigation and other industry stakeholders to help quantify the severity of these issues?

Please contact either eimearmccann@trialview.com or get in touch directly with the GL.