Sedley’s Laws of Documents
4 September 2008 / Michael
Sedley being The Rt. Hon. Lord Justice Sedley of the Court of Appeal.
Interestingly, Google tracked them down on the website of the New South Wales Supreme Court. It is comforting to find that some things are universal.
First Law: Documents may be assembled in any order, provided it is not chronological, numerical or alphabetical.
Second Law: Documents shall in no circumstances be paginated continuously.
Third Law: No two copies of any bundle shall have the same pagination.
Fourth Law: Every document shall carry at least three numbers in different places.
Fifth Law: Any important documents shall be omitted.
Sixth Law: At least 10 percent of the documents shall appear more than once in the bundle.
Seventh Law: As many photocopies as practicable shall be illegible, truncated or cropped.
Eighth Law:
- At least 80 percent of the documents shall be irrelevant.
- Counsel shall refer in court to no more than 10 percent of the documents, but these may include as many irrelevant ones as counsel or solicitor deems appropriate.
Ninth Law: Only one side of any double-sided document shall be reproduced.
Tenth Law: Transcriptions of manuscript documents shall bear as little relation as reasonably practicable to the original.
Eleventh Law: Documents shall be held together, in the absolute discretion of the solicitor assembling them, by:
- a steel pin sharp enough to injure the reader,
- a staple too short to penetrate the full thickness of the bundle.
- tape binding so stitched that the bundle cannot be fully opened, or,
- a ring or arch-binder, so damaged that the two arcs do not meet.
A further law: If any portion of any document is of particular importance to any issue in the case, that portion shall be highlighted, before copying, in a dark colour so that after copying it is rendered as nearly illegible as is reasonably practicable.
A further law: all copy photographs shall be in black and white and taken, if at all possible, after they have been faxed multiple times.
A further law.Without prejudice to the Third Law, not less than five percent of documents shall be inserted in the bundle upside down.
A further law. The bundle provided to the Court shall under no circumstances be identical to that in the hands of the advocates or to that provided to any witness.
A further law. There must be a fresh stain on the front page of the bundle (ie. coffee from a mug, ink splog, etc etc.).