Summary

All documents uploaded to the platform should be unitised, with their own metadata applied to ensure users can maximise the benefits of an electronic bundle on our platform.

Our best practice guidance on how to prepare documents can be found in our Upload Guide and we've set out the practical implications of uploading non-unitised documents below.

More information on our best practices for document preparation can be found in our Upload Guide here.

Considerations

We would strongly recommend against uploading non-unitised documents, and have outlined some of the main issues below, but as this will impact all users experience on this matter (and if the Judge / Tribunal / Counsel have used Opus 2 before, they may have an expectation as to how the bundle is presented electronically to them), we wanted to flag the implications at the outset to ensure that users can make the best use of the system possible:

  1. Duplication - A fundamental principle of an electronic bundle is that each document appears only once, enabling efficient collaboration across the content amongst your team and the upload of non-unitised documents is likely to result in some duplication across the bundle. In our experience this causes confusion and creates inefficiencies, as one person in the team will be working on one version of the document and another member working on a duplicate version elsewhere.  
  2. Unique Metadata / References- If the documents are uploaded as combined PDFs, the parties will be unable to  identify the individual files based on a unique title, bundle/tab reference or date. 
    1. For example, if the first document is  comprised of various correspondence between the parties, all of the files will have the same metadata applied to  them which will need to be used across the platform both when cross-referencing and by Counsel within the hearing room.  
  3. Additions to the Bundle (time & cost) - If there are any instances where an additional single document needs to be inserted into a document which is not unitised i.e. between pages 100-101, we will need to receive a full replacement copy of the document which includes the addition and will also require instruction for how we should paginate the additional  page(s) within that document. It will take us longer to process tasks of this nature and so the associated costs will be higher as a result.  
  4. Loading Speeds- The larger the PDF, the longer it may take to render for users both within and outside of the hearing room, therefore affecting the overall functionality and performance of the document on the platform.
    1. Generally we would advise that a PDF total page count is limited to ensure that it can be easily viewed on the platform but with non-unitised documents, each PDF is likely to be longer and as such will take longer to load. 
    2. Additionally, where there are a number of non-unitised documents on the platform this will affect general loading  speeds, search results etc.
  5. Document Tagging - Users are only able to tag a document as a whole and as such this functionality cannot be used  with non-unitised documents in the same way if you are tagging a group of documents together.
  6. Core Bundles- If you have uploaded non-unitised documents to the platform and then only specific pages of a document are relevant to a core bundle, it is not possible to assign core bundle references to the relevant pages only as we are only able to apply metadata on a document basis. 
    1. It will also take us longer to process your core bundle(s) by adding the specific page excerpts and would therefore cost more to create on the platform. 
    2. Exports from the core bundles if you have added excerpts of pages from a non-unitised document will be named the same on export so  you will need to rename the files offline or use the filename prefix when exporting.
  7. Circumventing the Upload Protocol - As outlined in the proposal Annex 1 - Document Criteria and Assumptions of the Proposal, all document should be provided as individual PDFs. If the parties would like to proceed with uploading non-unitised files in the format provided, we will need the parties to confirm the number of documents that each non-unitised PDF is comprised of in order for us to ensure that the invoice accurately reflects the content of the platform.