Access to Public Domain Documents Pilot: Guidance
The Pilot for Access to Public Domain Documents (governed by Practice Direction 51ZH) was originally intended to commence in October 2025 but will now go live from 1st January 2026.
The pilot will apply to the Commercial Court (including the London Circuit Commercial Court) and the Financial List (except where a party is unrepresented and had not used the Court’s CE File electronic filing system previously). It is intended that there will be a review after 6 months although the pilot is not scheduled to finish until 31st December 2027.
If the pilot is successful, it will then be extended to other courts – most likely the Business and Property courts first.
The Pilot identifies certain documents as Public Domain Documents. It is intended to only capture documents which as a matter of law enter the public domain when a hearing takes place in public without imposing an undue burden on the parties or the Court. The Pilot will see a change from the current position, whereby an application is required to access the documents, to the default being the provision of the documents.
The main categories of documents covered by the Pilot are:
-
Written submissions – skeleton argument and written and opening closing submissions, as well as all other submissions provided to the judge during the course of the hearing
-
Witness statements/affidavits
-
Expert reports (including annexes and exhibits)
How does it work?
The documents will be accessed via CE-File which is the court’s existing system with the parties filing the documents themselves in the appropriate category.
There will be a default filing period for documents. This will be from the day they enter the public domain by being referred to in a court hearing and ending at 16:00 14 days later unless otherwise ordered or agreed by the parties.
As filing will be the default position any party who wishes to limit or not file will need to seek an order to that effect before the filing deadline (Filing Modification Orders – FMOs).
The PD contains a provision for an order to be made compelling parties to make the filing and could, if not complied with, result in appropriate sanctions such as contempt of court.
It will be the responsibility of the lawyers to upload the documents. Further information can be found in the accompanying Guidance Note.
Things to Note:
The most important thing is to be aware that if you are acting in a case which comes under the Pilot then your report will become a Public Domain Document once your evidence is given in open court. If the hearing is private, then the report will not become a Public Domain Document.
All Experts should read and familiarise themselves with both the Practice Direction and the Guidance.
Although the current scope of the Pilot is limited it is likely that in the future this will apply across the board in the civil courts and your reports will automatically become Public Domain Documents.
You should:
-
Check with the instructing party whether the case will be dealt with under the pilot.
-
Discuss with the instructing party when your report will be first used or referred to. It is likely that this will be when you give evidence in chief and this will be when it becomes publicly available.
-
Discuss with your instructing party about how any sensitive information might be used in your report and how they would like it dealt with.
-
Do not include your own personal information, other than that which is required by the procedural rules. For example, consider not including email or telephone numbers. Remember to use your business address and not your personal one. It maybe that you consider having a separate registered business address if you work from home.
-
Consider your personal media profile and the information that is publicly available - especially if it is likely that your report could led to harassment or social media comments.
The Committee intends to review the Pilot after 6 months of operation. We would appreciate any details of your experiences with the Pilot to inform our engagement with the Committee’s review.
Webinar
For further information, you can check out our free member Webinar.