Electronic documents questionnaire (Civil Procedure Rules Practice Direction 31B)
| Published date | 21 March 2018 |
| Subject Matter | Commercial Court forms |
Electronic documents questionnaire
(Civil Procedure Rules Practice Direction 31B)
WARNING: Unless the court makes some other order, the answers given in this document may only be used for the purposes of the proceedings in which the document is produced unless it has been read to or by the court or referred to at a hearing which has been held in public or the Court gives permission or the party who has completed this questionnaire agrees.
Please read the notes at the end of this form before completing the questionnaire
Part 1 – Your disclosure
Extent of a reasonable search
Date range and custodians
1. What date range do you consider that your searches for Electronic Documents should
cover (‘the date range’)?
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2. Identify the custodians or creators of your Electronic Documents whose repositories of documents you consider should be searched.
Note - Include names of all those who may have or have had custody of disclosable documents, including secretaries, personal assistants, former employees and/or former participants. It may be helpful to identify different dates for particular custodians.
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Communication
3. Which forms of electronic communication were in use during the date range
(so far as is relevant to these proceedings)?
Note – Column D - State the geographical location (if known). Consider (at least) servers, desktop PCs, laptops, notebooks, handheld devices, PDA devices, off-site storage, removable storage media (for example, CD-ROMs, DVDs, USB drives, memory sticks) and databases.
Note – (i) email - Consider all types of e-mail system (for example, Outlook, Lotus Notes, web-based accounts), whether stored on personal computers, portable devices or in web-based accounts (for example, Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail).
Note – (ii) Other - For example, instant messaging, voicemail, VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol), recorded telephone lines, text messaging, audio files, video files.
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B |
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D |
E |
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Communication |
In use during the date range? (Yes/No) |
Are you searching for relevant documents in this category? (Yes/No) |
Where and on what type of software/ equipment/media is this communication stored? |
(a) Are back-ups or archives of this communication available; and (b) if so, are you searching the back-ups or archives? |
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i) E-mail |
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ii) Other (provide details for each type) |
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Electronic Documents
4. Apart from attachments to e-mails, which forms of Electronic Documents were created or stored by you during the date range?
Note – Column D - State the geographical location (if known). Consider (at least) servers, desktops and laptops.
Note – Electronic images - For example, .pdf, .tif, .jpg.
Note – Other - For example, PowerPoint or equivalent, specialist documents (such as CAD Drawings).
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B |
C |
D |
E |
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Document Type |
In use during the date range? (Yes/No) |
Are you searching for relevant documents in this category? (Yes/No) |
Where and on what type of software/ equipment/media are these documents? |
(a) Are back-ups or archives of these documents available, and (b) if so, are you searching the back-ups or archives? |
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i) Word (or equivalent - state which) |
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ii) Excel (or equivalent - state which) |
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iii) Electronic Images |
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iv) Other (state which) |
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Databases of Electronic Documents
5. In the following table identify database systems, including document management systems, used by you during the date range and which may contain disclosable Electronic Documents.
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B |
C |
D |
E |
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Name |
Brief description |
Nature of data held |
Are you disclosing documents held in this database? (Yes/No) |
Proposals for provision of relevant documents to or access by other parties to this litigation |
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1. |
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2. |
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Method of search
Key words
Note - Where Keyword Searches are used in order to identify irrelevant documents which are to be excluded from disclosure (for example a confidential name of a client or customer), a general description of the type of search may
be given
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6. |
Do you consider that Keyword Searches should be used as part of the process of determining which Electronic Documents you should disclose? |
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Yes |
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No |
If Yes, please provide details of –
(1) the keywords used or to be used (by reference, if applicable, to individual custodians, creators, repositories, file types and/or date ranges); and
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(2) the extent to which the Keyword Searches have been or will be supplemented by a review of individual documents.
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Other types of automated searches
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7. |
Do you consider that automated searches or automated techniques other than Keyword Searches (for example, concept searches or clustering) should be used as part of the process of determining which Electronic Documents you should disclose? |
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Yes |
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No |
If Yes, please provide details of –
(1) the process(es) used or to be used (by reference, if applicable, to individual custodians, creators, repositories, file types and/or date ranges);
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(2) the extent to which the processes have been or will be supplemented by a review of individual documents; and
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(3) how the methodology of automated searches will be made available for consideration by other parties.
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8. If the answer to Question 6 or 7 is ‘Yes’, state whether (a) attachments to e-mails (b) compressed files (c) embedded files and (d) imaged text will respond to your Keyword Searches or other automated search.
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