This practice note outlines the key practical and legal issues to consider when you are reviewing a client's documents for the purposes of giving disclosure during the civil litigation process under the regime set out in Civil Procedure Rule (CPR) 31, Practice Direction (PD) 31A and PD 31B.

Disclosure in the B&PCs: a mandatory (save for limited exceptions) Disclosure Pilot Scheme (DPS) (under what was PD 51U) operated in the Business and Property Courts from 1 January 2019 until 1 October 2022. PD 57AD ("Disclosure in the Business and Property Courts") took effect on 1 October 2022, implementing, on a permanent basis, the procedures that applied under the DPS. For details of our materials considering the approach to disclosure under PD 57AD (and its predecessor, PD 51U), see Disclosure in the B&PCs toolkit.