(1) Where any rule or practice direction provides for a fee to be paid, a party filing a document using Electronic Working must, except in circumstances specified in sub-paragraph (4), pay the appropriate fee by account or by credit/debit card or by any other online method specified by His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service.

(1A) When a party enters its payment by account number into Electronic Working when prompted by Electronic Working to do so, that party will be deemed to have made the payment. The party will thereby owe the relevant court fee to His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service.

(2) The court will keep a record of when payment was made or deemed to have been made.

(3) In proceedings where payment under the Insolvency Rules is required to be made in a manner that precludes online payment (such as the official receiver's deposit for a winding up petition, which must be paid by cheque), parties will be able to use Electronic Working to initiate those proceedings, but must post or deliver payment to the Court within seven calendar days of submitting the originating application document(s). Failure to do so may result in the originating application failing Acceptance or the petition being struck out.

(4) For filings other than the issue of originating proceedings which incur payment of a fee, a party who is not legally represented and who wishes to pay that fee by account or by credit/debit card must make the filing and the payment through Electronic Working.

A party who has applied or wishes to apply for Help with Fees or partial Help with Fees must contact the Court to obtain a Help with Fees payment by account number, prior to using Electronic Working to issue a claim or to initiate other proceedings requiring the payment of a court fee.

When the Court issues a claim form, appeal notice or other originating application which has been submitted using Electronic Working and accepted by the Court, the Court will electronically seal the claim form, appeal notice or originating application with the date on which the relevant Court fee was paid and this shall be the issue date, as per the provisions of paragraph 5.4.

The electronic seal may differ in appearance to the seal used on paper.

The Court will electronically return the sealed and issued claim form, appeal notice or originating application to the party's Electronic Working online account and notify the party that it is ready for service.

Unless the Court orders otherwise, any document filed by any party or issued by the Court using Electronic Working in the Rolls Building Jurisdictions, B&PC District Registry, the Central Office of the King's Bench Division QB DRs, the Costs Office, or the Court of Appeal (Civil Division), which is required to be served shall be served by the parties and not the Court.

The CPR and IR 2016 as to filing evidence of service apply.

Notwithstanding the operation of Electronic Working outlined in paragraph 2.1 above, CPR rule 2.8 applies, where relevant, to any issue, filing, or other originating application, including the presentation of a winding-up petition or a bankruptcy petition, made through Electronic Working.

(1) If proceedings which have used Electronic Working are subsequently transferred to a jurisdiction not operating Electronic Working, no documents will be able to be filed in those proceedings through Electronic Working after the date of transfer and this Practice Direction will cease to apply to those proceedings..

(2) His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service shall make arrangements for a version of the Electronic Working Case File of the transferred proceedings to be made available to the receiving Court in a format requested by the receiving Court.

Where a request for transmission of the Court file of any insolvency proceedings is made pursuant to IR 2016 rule 12.39(12), the Court shall make arrangements for a version of the Electronic Working Case File of the proceedings being transmitted to be made available to the Secretary of State or the official receiver, as the case may be, in a format of their choosing.

If proceedings are transferred into one of the Rolls Building Jurisdictions, B&PC District Registry, the Central Office of the King's Bench Division QB DRs, the Costs Office, or the Court of Appeal (Civil Division),, all filing subsequent to the order transferring those proceedings may be done using Electronic Working after documents originally submitted in those proceedings have been converted to PDF format in accordance with paragraphs 3.2 and 3.3.

(1) Where a party to proceedings files an application for an order or other relief using Electronic Working and a hearing is required, the party filing the application shall lodge an application bundle with the Court.

(2) The application bundle may be lodged in electronic format.

The application bundle must—

(a) also be filed as a paper copy, unless otherwise stated either by order or in a practice direction;

(b) contain the application notice and any evidence filed in the application, including exhibits together with such other documents as may be required by any rule, practice direction, order of the Court or relevant Court guide; and

(c) be filed in accordance with the time limits required by any applicable rule, practice direction, order of the Court or relevant Court guide or, in the absence of such a requirement, 3 (three) days before the hearing.

The electronic copy of the application bundle must-

(a) be filed using Electronic Working;

(b) either (i) comply with the formatting requirements of any rule, practice direction, order of the court or relevant Court guide; or (ii) where no relevant requirements within (i) apply, be formatted as one PDF document with bookmarks as appropriate for each document and with section headings within the document, unless its size exceeds 50 (fifty) megabytes, in which case it can be divided into up to 10 (ten) documents of that size, each bearing bookmarks as appropriate; and

(c) be updated as required and filed in compliance with paragraphs (a) and (b) above.

Where the application bundle is also provided in paper format that must be indexed and paginated so as to correspond exactly to the electronic version of the bundle.

Where—

(a) a rule, practice direction, or order of the Court requires—

(b) a party wishes to file the bundle using Electronic Working, the bundle must contain such documents as are required by any rule, practice direction, order of the Court or Court guide.

(c) be updated as required and filed in compliance with paragraphs (a) and (b) above.

The Bundle must be filed in paper copy as well, unless the Court orders otherwise.

The claimant, applicant or petitioner, as appropriate, shall be responsible for ensuring the electronic copy of the bundle complies with the requirements specified in paragraph 10.3 above.

The claimant, applicant or petitioner, as appropriate, shall be responsible for ensuring the paper copy is indexed and corresponds exactly with the electronic version of the bundle with sequential pagination.

CPR Part 22 and the practice direction supplementing that art and any rule applicable to the Bankruptcy and Companies Courts which require certain forms and documents to be verified by a statement of truth shall apply to any forms or documents filed using Electronic Working.

The trial bundle must be filed with the Court in paper format.

An electronic version of the trial bundle must also be filed if the Court so orders, in which case it must comply with the requirements of paragraph 10.3 and the paper copy must comply with paragraph 10.4.

The Court will retain any electronic copy of the trial bundle for a period of 2 (two) months after judgment has been delivered, after which it may be deleted.

The time in paragraph 13.3 may be extended by order of the court at the request of a party or on the court's own initiative.

A bundle in support of an application for permission to appeal may be filed using Electronic Working providing the bundle complies with the requirements at paragraph 10.3.

If a bundle in support of an application for permission to appeal is filed in paper format the court may order an electronic version also to be filed.

Bundles for appeal hearings must be filed with the court in paper format.

An electronic version of the appeal bundle must also be filed if the court so orders, in which case it must comply with the requirements of paragraph 10.3 and the paper copy must comply with paragraph 10.4.

The court will retain any electronic copy bundles for a period of 2 (two) months after judgment has been delivered, after which they may be deleted.

The time in paragraph 14.5 may be extended by order of the court at the request of a party or on the court’s own initiative.

In addition to any inspection facility that may be available through the Website or a party's Electronic Working online account, the parties to any proceedings except insolvency proceedings, or their legal representatives, shall be entitled to inspect an electronic record of the proceedings in person at the Court on a terminal provided for that purpose by His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service and obtain electronic copies of documents contained in the Electronic Working Case File subject to the provisions of CPR rule 5.4B.

In addition to any inspection facility that may be available through the Website or a party's Electronic Working online account, persons permitted by IR 2016 rule 12.39(3)-(6) to inspect the Court file of insolvency proceedings shall be entitled to inspect an electronic record of the proceedings in person at the Court on a terminal provided for that purpose by His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service and obtain, subject to paragraph 15.2, electronic copies of documents contained in the Electronic Working Case File, unless permission of the Court is required under IR 2016 rule 12.39(9)-(10) and subject to rule 12.39(7) and (11) and Chapter 10.

The Electronic Working Case File will be updated by the Court as and when documents are filed by the parties and accepted.

Information concerning the availability of the facility outlined in paragraph 10.1 will be communicated by His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service on the Website.

A public kiosks are available at the Royal Courts of Justice both at the Strand and at the Rolls Building, London, for non-parties to proceedings governed by the CPR, to enable such non-parties to examine an electronic record of the proceedings and determine whether any documents in relation to the proceedings are publicly available.

Persons wishing to obtain copies of documents available to non-parties in accordance with CPR rule 5.4C must-

(a) complete the appropriate office copy request form; and

(b) pay the appropriate fee.

Persons permitted to obtain copies of documents may request electronic copies of the documents to be sent by the Court by e-mail to an address supplied by such persons.

His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service will take such measures as it thinks fit to ensure the security of information communicated or stored electronically. These may include requiring persons using Electronic Working to follow security steps such as-

(a) entering an email address as their customer identification and/or password;

(b) providing personal information for identification purposes; and

(c) complying with any other security measures as may from time to time be required before using Electronic Working.