What Is a Disclosure Review Document?

A Disclosure Review Document (DRD) is an incredibly important procedural tool used in civil litigation in the Business and Property courts at the High Court, courts where Practice Direction 57AD of the Civil Procedure Rules applies.

The DRD is designed to help the parties and the court manage disclosure more efficiently and proportionately, particularly in complex or document-heavy cases.

The DRD has two sections. The first sets out each party’s approach to disclosure, including the issues in dispute for the trial judge to have to consider, the relevant search model required to locate items to assist the court, where documents exist, where they’re stored, and how they’ll be reviewed or exchanged. This is incredibly detailed including specific date ranges, key words and the model of search (extent of the search parameters) that will be applied; these are also set out in PD57AD. The DRD will include proposed data harvesting plans and approach and will record agreement between parties, and areas of dispute the court will then consider at the CCMC hearing.

The goal is to narrow the scope of what must be disclosed by focusing on relevance and necessity, removing the need for exhaustive searches. It significantly cuts down on the time and costs incurred in preparing for disclosure for all parties.

Parties are expected to work together when preparing the DRD and should submit it to the court ahead of the Case Management Conference (CCMC). The court will then consider the DRD when deciding how disclosure should proceed, and will usually adopt the agreed position determined in the DRD.

We use the DRD as both a sword and a shield- using the disclosure process both to protect and to challenge opponents on the adequacy of the search process being undertaken. This can create significant leverage and can position clients positively in any dispute.