SEDLEY J (AS HE THEN WAS)
THE LAWS OF DOCUMENTS
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% of the documents shall appear more than once in the bundle.
SEVENTH LAW:
As may photocopies as practicable shall be illegible, truncated or cropped.
EIGHTH LAW:
- At least 80% of the documents shall be irrelevenat.
- Counsel shall refer in court to no more than 10% of the documents, but these may include as may 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:
3% of all documents shall be upside down.
TWELFTH LAW:
Documents shall be held together in the absolute discretion of the person 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 or similar so stitch or bundled together that the document cannot be fully opened; or
- a ring or lever-arch binder so damaged that the two arcs do not meet.