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CIVIL PROCEDURE RULES – APPLICATION AND INTERPRETATION – PRACTICE DIRECTION 5B – COMMUNICATION AND FILING OF DOCUMENTS BY E-MAIL (FURTHER PROVISIONS)

by | Jul 25, 2022 | Civil Procedure Rules, General

We are continuing our series on Civil Procedure Rules, highlighting some of the little known but common rules and hopefully explaining them in plain English.

The next rule we will be looking at is Practice Direction 5B – Communication and filing of documents by email (further provisions.)

 

The rule says:

4.2 Where an e-mail, including any attachment, is sent pursuant to this practice direction and the e-mail is recorded by HMCTS e-mail software as received by the court at or after 4.00pm and before or at 11.59pm—

(a) the date of receipt of the e-mail will be deemed to be the next day the court office is open;

(b) the date of issue of any application will not be before that date; and

(c) any document attached to that e-mail will be treated as filed on that date.

What does this mean?
There are multiple rules and practice directions which require documents to be filed at the Court within certain details. The timing of any communication with the Court is important especially when it relates to perhaps an upcoming hearing or something else that may be urgent. If you send an email to the Court and it arrives 4.00pm or later, it has not arrived that day, but the next day the Court is open. If it arrives on Friday at 4.00pm, the email will not be classed as arrived until Monday.

You can find the full Civil Procedure Rules online (currently) at https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules

Any questions or support with the above please email us at: philip@whitecollarlegalandadmin.com or phone 0151 230 8931.