Disclosure in litigation is something which lawyers get excited about and we engage in the process months and months before any potential disclosure deadline. That’s because we know the enormity of the task and the many potential pitfalls of the process. Clients, by contrast, do not want to hear about disclosure - they don’t want to talk to us about how they store their data, which former employees may have relevant documents and whether they have an automatic deletion process. They want to focus on how they’re going to win their case.

The technical rules around disclosure are not very interesting, but they’re very important and can make a big impact on the outcome of your case as a few notes by my colleagues recently show. Thank you also to Ed Sheeran, Mrs Vardy, Mrs Rooney and Patisserie Valerie for bringing the issues into the limelight – amazing how a catchy headline and connecting a household name with a dry and technical area can make it interesting! (Or just me maybe...)

Ed Sheeran's im-"perfect" disclosure

Patisserie Valerie and disclosure pilot application