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THE POST OFFICE GROUP LITIGATION
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE Claim Nos HQ16X01238, HO17X02637
QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION & HO17X04248
BEFORE THE HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE FRASER
BETWEEN:
ALAN BATES & OTHERS
Claimants
-and-
POST OFFICE LIMITED
Defendant
ORDER FOR DIRECTIONS
at hearing on 2 February 2018
UPON the making of an order following a Case Management Conference on 19
October 2017 (the “First CMC Order”)
AND UPON the Court holding a hearing on 2 February 2018 pursuant to paragraph
12 of the First Case Management Order (the “Disclosure CMC”)
AND UPON HEARING Leading Counsel for the Claimants and Leading Counsel
for the Defendant
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IT IS ORDERED THAT:-
Part 18 Request
1. The Defendant shall answer the Claimants’ Part 18 Request for Further
Information dated 29 December 2017 and provide the information sought
therein by 4pm on 9 February 2018.
Variations To First CMC Order
Selection of Lead Cases for Common Issues Trial
2. The date for the agreement or selection of Lead Cases from the pool of
Potential Lead Claimants provided at paragraph 7 of the Order following the
first CMC (the “First CMC Order”) be amended to 2 March 2018.
Date for agreement of statement of facts
3. The date for filing an agreed statement of facts in relation to the Common
Issues shall be extended by 5 working days to 6 July 2018.
Disclosure
General Disclosure Requirements and Pilot for the Business and Property Courts
4, Pursuant to CPR r.31.5(8)(f), further disclosure be given by the parties in
stages, namely:
(a) as required pursuant to this Order, and
(b) in such further stages as may be further agreed or directed.
5. Save as otherwise specifically provided in this Order, pursuant to CPR
r.31.5(7)(c), such disclosure is to be given on an issue by issue basis. Such
disclosure shall be given in accordance with Model C and the draft Practice
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Direction ‘Disclosure Pilot for the Business and Property Courts’ (the “draft
Practice Direction”), which shall be adopted, save as follows:-
(a) The requirements of Paragraph 5 (Basic Disclosure) be dispensed with.
(b) The requirement upon the parties to produce Disclosure Review
Documents in accordance with paragraphs 10 and Appendix 2 of the
draft Practice Direction is dispensed with, as is any further
requirement imposed upon the parties relating to Disclosure Review
Documents.
(c) For all relevant purposes, any reference in the draft Practice Direction
to Disclosure Review Documents shall be taken as a reference to the
Electronic Disclosure Questionnaires exchanged by the parties in
accordance with paragraph 11 of the First CMC Order.
6. The parties shall comply with the agreed protocol for the production, storage
and referencing of documents at Schedule 3 to this Order.
7. The disclosure to be provided by the Order shall be provided on the basis of a
reasonable and proportionate search, in the light of the issues between the
parties.
Requests for Disclosure
8. For the avoidance of doubt, and consistent with the provision for disclosure in
stages above, following disclosure and inspection of documents in
accordance with the terms of this Order, the Claimants and the Defendant
may each request from the other that further searches be carried out for
documents relevant to the issues listed therein and for disclosure thereof. In
the event that any such request is made, the parties shall seek to agree the
extent of such searches or disclosure.
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Disclosure for Common Issues Trial - Individual (Stage 1)
9. The parties shall by 4pm on 28 February 2018 disclose and make available for
inspection the electronic and hard copy documents which fall within the
scope of Schedule 1 to this Order.
Disclosure for Common Issues Trial — Generic (Stage 2)
10. The parties shall by 4pm on 18 May 2018 provide Extended Disclosure of all
electronic and hard copy documents:
(a) Part 1: within the categories identified in Part 1 of Schedule 2 to this
Order, including the repositories of such further custodians as the
parties may agree by 4pm on 8 February 2018.
(b) Part 2: relevant to the generic issues in the Common Issues Trial to be
agreed by the parties by 4pm on 8" February, in accordance with
Disclosure Model C.
Statement of Facts for ‘factual matrix’ for determination of Common Issues
11. By 4pm on 2 March 2018, the Claimants shall serve upon the Defendant a
draft statement of the factual matrix on the basis of which they will submit
that the contractual relations between the parties fall to be construed, as a
matter of law, at the Common Issue Trial.
12. By 4pm on 6 April 2018, the Defendant shall serve upon the Claimants a draft
statement of the factual matrix on the basis of which they will submit, as a
matter of law, at the Common Issue Trial, identifying the extent to which
they agree the statement served by the Claimants in accordance with
paragraph 11 above.
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13. By 4pm on 4 May 2018, the parties shall either file at Court either:
(a) a single set of facts that the parties agree may form the basis upon
which such issues of contractual interpretation will fall to be
determined; or
(b) a single document setting out the extent of agreement, if any, and the
facts to be relied upon by each party for that purpose.
ADR
14. The parties shall use their reasonable endeavours to attend a mediation as
soon as practicable after receipt and consideration of the Judgment on the
Common Issues to attempt to resolve (or at least narrow) the dispute by way
of mediation.
15. For the avoidance of doubt, paragraph 24 of the First CMC Order shall apply
to any party who does not engage in mediation.
Agreement of issues for further substantive trial
16. The parties shall seek to agree discrete common issues relating to the Horizon
IT system, that are capable of determination at the hearing listed pursuant to
paragraph 34 First CMC Order.
Adjournment of this Disclosure CMC
17. Save for grant of the directions set out in this Order, this Disclosure CMC is
adjourned to a further hearing to take place on 224 February 2018 with a
time estimate of 2.5 hours, for the following purposes:
(a) to resolve any dispute between the parties as to the matters to be
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agreed pursuant to paragraph 10 of this Order;
(b) to consider issues agreed or proposed to be determined at the hearing
listed by paragraph 34 of the First CMC Order, and make appropriate
further orders for that trial.
Costs
18. The costs of this Disclosure CMC shall be Common Costs in the case.
Liberty To Apply
19. The parties shall have liberty to apply in respect of any provision in this
Order.
Dated this 2nd day of February 2018
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SCHEDULE 1
Stage 1 Disclosure: Common Issues — Potential Lead Claimants
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EXTENDED
BRIEF DESCRIPTION
DISCLOSURE SOURCES SEARCH CRITERIA?
OF ISSUE
MODEL’
Disclosure by the D 1. Potential Lead Claimants’ email accounts. Initial search terms to include:
Claimants
Preliminary
disclosure by
Potential Lead
Claimants excluding
quantum/damages
documents.
(In addition to those
documents disclosed
pursuant to First
CMC Order)
2. Electronic documents held on Potential Lead
Claimants’ laptops / PCs.
3. Hardcopy documents held by the Potential
Lead Claimant.
4. All other documents under the control of
Potential Lead Claimants (including without
limitation those in the possession of other
custodians) subject to proportionality)
Assistant
Audit
Branch
Contract
Helpline
HOL
Horizon
Loss
"Make good"
NBSC
’ Save where otherwise indicated, Extended Disclosure by Model D shall not include disclosure of ‘Narrative Documents’ as defined in Appendix 1 to the draft
Practice Direction
Keywords are not case sensitive and searches shall be run with Boolean operators where indicated
1
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BRIEF DESCRIPTION
OF ISSUE
EXTENDED
DISCLOSURE
MODEL’
SOURCES
SEARCH CRITERIA?
Notice
"Post Office”
POL (in caps)
PO (in caps)
"Settle centrally"
Shortfall
Suspen*
TC
Terminat*
Training
“Transaction correction”
(Branch Name)
(Branch Code)
(FSC Code)
(Mediation Case Number)
Disclosure by Post
Office
Preliminary
disclosure of
5. SharePoint sites:>
a. All documents extracted by Post Office as
referred to at Part 1, section 10 of Post
(Claimant's First and Last Name)
(Claimant's First Name or Claimant's
3
Subject to any technical limitations on extracting data within the time available.
2
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EXTENDED
BRIEF DESCRIPTION DISCLOSURE a 5 c :
OF ISSUE EARCH CRITERIA:
MODEL!
documents that Office’s EDQ Last Name)
relate to a Potential b. Agent Application Team AND
Lead Claimant.
(In addition to those
documents disclosed
pursuant to the First
CMC Order)
@
d.
e.
Contract Advisors
Relationship Manager
Recruitment team
6. Electronic Filing Cabinet (as provided by
Royal Mail to Post Office)
7. Contract Advisor hardcopy files
8. Email accounts of:
a.
John Breeden (Contract Advisor Team
Leader)
Lin Norbury (Contract Advisor Team
Leader)
Craig Tuthill (Contract Advisor Team
Leader)
Andrew Carpenter
Agent Applications team mailbox
Scheduling & Admin team mailbox
Current agent debt team mailbox
Former agent debt team mailbox
Branch Support Services mailbox
(Branch Name or Branch Code or
Company Name or Trading Name or
Mediation Case Number)
Which would include these examples:
“Alan Bates”
"Alan" and "Craig-y-don"
"Bates" and "461614"
“Bates” and "M137"
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BRIEF DESCRIPTION
OF ISSUE
EXTENDED
DISCLOSURE
MODEL!
SOURCES
SEARCH CRITERIA?
j. Andrew Kenny (Branch Support Services)
k. Anne Allaker (Branch Support Services)
1. Support Services Resolution mailbox
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SCHEDULE 2
Stage 2 Disclosure: Common Issues
Part 1: Common Issues - Further Lead Claimant Disclosure
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Office
Further disclosure
of documents that
refer to a Lead
Claimant.
agreed by the parties in accordance with
paragraph 10(a) of this Order.
2. All SharePoint sites (and which have not
already been included in Stage 1
Disclosure) ¢
3. NBSC documents in N:Drive
4. Legal and Security Team L: Drive
5. Remuneration and Application teams
documents in the T: Drive.
ISSUE FOR MODEL FOR I SOURCES OF DOUCMENTS KEYWORDS?
DISCLOSURE DISCLOSURE!
Disclosure by Post D 1. The email accounts of custodians to be
(Claimant's First and Last
Name) OR
(Claimant's First Name or Claimant's Last
Name) AND
(Branch Name or Branch Code or Company
Name or Trading Name or Mediation Case
Number)
Which would include these examples:
“Alan Bates”
Practice Direction.
Keywords are not case sensitive and searches shall be run with Boolean operators where indicated.
Subject to (i) any technical limitations on extracting data within the time available and (ii) the parties using their reasonable endeavours to narrow the scope of data to be
extracted to those sources that are likely to hold proportionate volumes of relevant documents.
5
Save where otherwise indicated, Extended Disclosure by Model D shall not include disclosure of ‘Narrative Documents’ as defined in Appendix 1 to the draft
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"Alan" and
"Craig-y-don"
"Bates" and
"461614" “Bates”
and "M137"
Part 2: Common Issues — Generic Disclosure
Disclosure to be given pursuant to paragraph 10(b) to the Order
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SCHEDULE 3
Agreed Protocol
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Elevate and Advanced Discovery to liaise regarding the
protocol for exchanging documents
Disclosure List
Documents sorted into chronological order, with any
attachments listed directly below their parent. The documents
for each Claimant are grouped together and any "generic"
documents (disclosed by Post Office) should be grouped
separately.
The Disclosure List shall contain the fields set out below.
Agreed
Disclosure Date will be presented as DD/MM/YYYY
Agreed
Claimant number as per the Claim Form (those documents
relating to more than one Claimant will be marked as Generic)
Agreed
Document reference number — each document is assigned a
unique Disclosure ID eg POL-0000001 / C-001-000001
Agreed
Claimants will give their own disclosure, even if this means
disclosing duplicate copies of documents across multiple
Claimants
Agreed, deduplication
within a subset of documents
allocated to each Claimant
will be used.
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Disclosure Attached To - The Disclosure Attached To number Agreed
for a family document is inherited from the Disclosure Number
of the parent document.
Sort Date - DD/MM/YY HH:MM Agreed
Document Date - DD/MM/YY HH:MM. Agreed
Document Subject / Title to be included (including meta data) Agreed
File Name Agreed
Document Type — to be based on the file signature Agreed
Author to be included Agreed
Recipients to be included Agreed
CC to be included Agreed
BCC to be included Agreed
MDS Hash Value to be included Agreed
Redacted — Yes/No Agreed
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Format of Exchange
Documents to be disclosed in their native format, with the
exception of those which have been redacted, along with the
metadata
Agreed
The production shall be delivered on appropriate encrypted
disk media, and comprise the following:
¢ A DATA folder containing:
Metadata load file with selected metadata fields
Image load file (Opticon format)
+ A NATIVES folder containing documents produced in native
file format
* An IMAGES folder containing documents produced in PDF
format
¢ A TEXT folder containing extracted/OCR text files for all files
Agreed
Hard copy documents scanned as a PDF image to be scanned
black & white (or with colour if necessary). OCR text file to be
provided and manually coded with the information above
Agreed
Redacted documents to be marked with either a white out or
cross hatched white out box with the words “redacted” and
exchanged in PDF format.
Agreed
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hardcopy documents to be electronically disclosed, then
inspection is to be given by way of physical inspection (method
of inspection to be agreed between the parties).
Method of Exchange
Data to be exchanged by way of Data Exchange File in a .dat Agreed
file format, with standard concordance default delimiters
Where it is not reasonable or proportionate for a category of Agreed
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DATED the 2 day of February 2018
HQ16X01238, HQ17X02637 AND HQ17X04248
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION
THE HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE FRASER
BETWEEN:
ALAN BATES AND OTHERS
-v-
POST OFFICE LIMITED
ORDER
Freeths LLP,
1 Vine Street
London W1J OAH
Ref: JXH/VN/1684/2113618/1
Solicitors for the Claimants
Bond Dickinson
DX 38517 SOUTHAMPTON
Ref: GRM1/AP6/364065.1369
Solicitors for the Defendant
c.c. Clerk of the Lists
If you have a query with this Order please contact Stephen Jones on telephone no.
Court sitting times of 10.30am to 1.00pm and 2.00pm to 4.30pm. Please address any correspondence to the
Queen’s Bench Associates’ Department, Room WG04, The Royal Courts of Justice, Strand, London WC2A
2LL DX 44450 Strand,
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