Summary

It may be necessary for bundles to be uploaded that are only available and billable to a subset of the parties on the matter and/or the Judge / Tribunal ('reduced access bundles').

By default, all bundles (and documents within) are available to all workspaces and all users unless explicitly instructed otherwise - if the parties need to set up a bundle with restricted access, please notify the Solution Operations team.

As a neutral third-party provider, Opus 2 are unable to create reduced access bundles without all contracted parties being notified in a joint email instruction first, given it is a shared service. 

The parties not involved do not need to know the contents of the bundle, but they need to be made aware of the bundle existence and references used. This ensures unique references against any existing and subsequent bundles, as well as being aware that the Judge / Tribunal will be able to view documents that they do not have access to. 

The parties would also need to confirm the cost split to be applied for requests relating to the reduced access bundle.

More information on how different access restrictions for confidential documents can be applied can be found here. 

We’ve set out the process for how to set up the restricted bundles below.  

Process

  1. Email to All Parties – An email should be sent copying all existing parties and the relevant Opus 2 Team (litigation@opus2.com / arbitration@opus2.com) confirming:
    1. Bundle Creation - A new bundle will be created in the existing environment which will be accessible by a specified subset of the parties.
    2. Party / User Access - If the bundle can be made available to all existing and future users on the relevant party workspaces, or if further restrictions are required, i.e. if only specified users within the relevant workspaces can access the new bundle structure. 
      1. This is important to ensure we set up the bundle with the correct access restrictions applied.
    3. Judge / Tribunal Access - If the new bundle should be made available to the existing Judge / Tribunal workspace(s) – if there are multiple Judge / Tribunal workspaces, the relevant workspace(s) should be specified.
    4. EPE Access - If the new bundle should be made available to our EPE workspace so that the relevant documents can be displayed during any upcoming hearings.
    5. Cost Splits - The cost split to be applied for all requests relating to this bundle moving forward.
    6. Bundle References- The bundle references for the new bundle and a preliminary folder structure / name to set up the access restrictions (further sub-folders can be added).
      1. The bundle references may relate to the name of the bundle/nature of the hearing – for example if this is an Application Bundle, APP1A, APP1B, APP1C etc, where 'APP1' represents the first Application Bundle and the A, B, C suffix is used for different sub-folders within the structure. 
      2. The referencing must be unique and should use a simple prefix for the bundle values to ensure ease of reference for Counsel during proceedings.
  2. Opus 2 Response – Opus will respond to the above email instruction confirming:
    1. Bundle Created - The bundle structure has been set up with the relevant access restrictions applied. 
      1. Individual User Access - If only specified users from the relevant workspaces can access the bundle, no users will have access by default and the individual parties will need to email Opus directly to confirm which of their existing users should be granted access. The parties will also need to confirm access for any future users at the time of creating the accounts.   
    2. Future Bundle Instructions - Moving forward all instructions relating to this restricted access bundle should be sent separately from any joint instruction relating to the shared Hearing Bundle and only copy the relevant parties and Opus team (litigation@opus2.com / arbitration@opus2.com) . 
      1. Billing - To ensure the billing is applied to the correct parties for this bundle, we will also provide a Bundle Code that will need to be included in all subject lines for email requests relating to this restricted access bundle – subject lines for these requests would take the format:
        1. Case Code – Bundle Code – DDMMYYYY – Description of Task
      2. For example, if the Bundle Code is APP1 and the Case Code is 12345L, the subject line for these requests could be: 12345L – APP1 – 28072026 – Uploads to Application Bundle.
  3. Invoices – Your monthly invoices will include line items for these tasks alongside any other shared bundle requests. The entries for the restricted access bundle will likely display different percentages to the overall matter splits depending on the agreed cost splits, and each task will include reference to the bundle name for trackability.