“Furthermore, since a “document” is “anything in which information of any description is recorded” then whole PCs, servers, laptops and Blackberries are potentially disclosable. And that is the case regardless of your election to give your general Disclosure electronically. The obligation to disclose is independent of the manner of Disclosure and you do not increase that obligation by an election to give Disclosure electronically, nor brush it under the carpet by avoiding electronic Disclosure.”

This is an extract from an article called The Sources of Disclosure Documents on my web site at www.chrisdalelawyersupport.co.uk

The article looks at the definitions of a document in CPR Rule 31.4 and at Section 2A of the Practice Direction to Part 31 CPR, which deals specifically with electronic Disclosure. It looks at the conventional sources of potentially Disclosable documents – paper, electronic files and e-mail files – and reminds you that whole computers might be caught by the definition of “document”.

Nevertheless, paper, electronic files and e-mails make up the bulk of most Disclosure exercises and it would be wrong (for more than one reason) to abandon the idea of electronic Disclosure because there might be other, less accessible, sources of documents.

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