The Chancellor of the High Court has delivered a speech on the Disclosure Practice Direction 57AD, calling on all judges, practitioners and clients to embrace it and make it work well. A summary of the key points outlined in the speech is set out below.

The explosion of digital data

The explosion of digital data continues. Studies suggest that depending on the data type, the volume of data generated and held by corporate clients is increasing by about 40% year on year. Data volumes are growing at a rate higher than the capacity of a human-only review team.

Practice Direction 57AD, which sets out the disclosure rules for the Business and Property Courts, has been prepared with the increasing volumes of digital data in mind.

Core principles of the new scheme

The Chancellor emphasised that disclosure plays an important role in England and Wales, and cooperation is at the heart of a disclosure exercise under Practice Direction 57AD.

The Chancellor also referred to four central messages that lie at the heart of the new scheme:

• The role of the Court is clear. Disclosure is not left to the parties to operate as they wish. The Court is required to supervise the use of Extended Disclosure (in summary, Extended Disclosure typically involves more in-depth searches).
• Disclosure is directed to the key issues in the proceedings and specifically to the Issues for Disclosure.
• The scope of disclosure must be limited by reference to reasonableness and proportionality.

The function of disclosure is to assist with the fair resolution of the issues in the claim.

Practical guidance

The speech contains further guidance on specific aspects of Practice Direction 57AD (such as drafting the Issues for Disclosure, and the use of the various Disclosure Models) . The full speech can be accessed here.

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