Disclosure: exchange of lists and inspection

This practice note outlines the steps to be taken, when giving standard disclosure (in cases subject to the disclosure regime under Civil Procedure Rule (CPR) 31, Practice Direction (PD) 31A and PD 31B), once the parties' lists of documents have been prepared. It considers practical and legal aspects of the exchange of lists of documents, and inspection.

Disclosure in the B&PCs: PD 57AD ("Disclosure in the Business and Property Courts") took effect on 1 October 2022. For details of our content on the approach to disclosure in cases subject to PD 57AD (and its predecessor, PD 51U), see Disclosure in the B&PCs toolkit.

Changes to CPR 28.2 and CPR 31.5 under the Civil Procedure (Amendment) Rules 2024 (SI 2024/106): Changes to CPR 28.2 implemented on 6 April 2024 appear to have been incorrectly applied on the justice.gov.uk website. Further, the apparently intended changes to CPR 28.2 and CPR 31.5 have led to a lack of clarity regarding the approach to disclosure. We have sought clarification from the Civil Procedure Rule Committee and will update our materials once the position has been clarified. For more details, see Legal update, Disclosure: potential confusion regarding changes to CPR 28.2 and CPR 31.5.