PLEASE NOTE THIS PD COMES INTO FORCE 1 OCTOBER 2025

This practice direction supplements CPR rules 5.5 (filing and sending documents) and 7.12 (electronic issue of claims)

Table of contents

Title	Number
General	Para. 1.1
Use of CE-File	Para. 2.1
Filing of documents	Para. 3.1
Urgent applications	Para. 4
CE-File and alternate filing methods	Para. 5.1
Original documents	Para. 6.1
Service	Para. 7.1
Transfer of proceedings and file transmission	Para. 8.1
Inspection of documents on CE-File by non-parties	Para. 9.1

General

1.1 This practice direction sets out the procedure for the use of CE-File.

1.2 For the purpose of this practice direction—

(a) “CE-File” means the electronic filing and case management system used in the courts set out in paragraph 1.3 below, containing those documents which the court is required to hold pursuant to the CPR, whether they are documents created by the court or filed by the parties;

(b) “CE-File website” means the web address at which CE-File can be accessed by parties at https://efile.cefile-app.com/login ;

(c) “CPR” means the Civil Procedure Rules;

(d) “Public access CE-File” means the HMCTS Public search and Office Copies portal accessible by the public found at https://efile.cefile-app.com/publicsearch/login;

(e) “HMCTS” means His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service;

(f) “Submit” means the completed uploading to a new or existing case file on CE-File of a document that is to be filed or otherwise provided to the court, and “submission” has the equivalent meaning;

(g) “Submission confirmation” means the automated notification acknowledging that the document has been submitted and providing the date and time of submission;

(h) “Reject” means a refusal by court officers to process onto CE-File a document that has been submitted on CE-File, and “rejection” has the equivalent meaning. A document which has been rejected will not be saved to or appear on CE-File;

(i) “Accept” means the administrative processing by court officers of a document that has been submitted, and “acceptance” has the equivalent meaning. A document which has been accepted will be saved to and appear on CE-File;

(j) “IR 2016” means the Insolvency (England and Wales) Rules 2016;

(k) “HWF number” means Help with Fees reference number which is provided on a letter from HMCTS confirming the Help with Fees application has been approved;

(l) “Relevant courts” means those courts listed at paragraph 1.3 below;

1.3 CE-File is used in the following courts—

(a) the Chancery Division of the High Court, the Commercial Court, the Technology and Construction Court, the Circuit Commercial Court, and the Admiralty Court, at the Royal Courts of Justice, Rolls Building, London (together, “the Rolls Building Jurisdictions”);

(b) the Central Office of the King’s Bench Division at the Royal Courts of Justice;

(c) the B&PCs District Registries as defined in paragraph 1.2 of Practice Direction 57AA (“B&PC DRs”);

(d) the Senior Courts Costs Office;

(e) the District Registries of the King’s Bench Division situated in Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle and Cardiff (“KB DRs”);

(f) the Court of Appeal (Civil Division); and

(g) the Administrative Court.

1.4 CE-File is a permitted means of electronic delivery of documents to the court for the purposes of rule 1.46 IR 2016.

1.5 For the purposes of this practice direction a fee will have been paid when—

(a) the fee is paid by any method permitted by HMCTS;

(b) a party provides its payment by account (PBA) number when prompted by CE-File or a direction of the court to do so;

(c) a HWF number is provided for the full remission of the fee; or

(d) where partial fee remission has been granted, the HWF number is provided and the part fee paid in accordance with sub-paragraph (a) or (b) above.

1.6 (1) Use of CE-File is subject to the CPR and other practice directions supplementing the Rules, subject to any exclusion or revision within this practice direction.

(2) This practice direction does not apply to proceedings under the following provisions of the CPR—

(a) Part 74 (Enforcement of Judgments in Different Jurisdictions);

(b) Part 76 (Proceedings under the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005);

(c) Part 79 (Proceedings under the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008, Part 1 of the Terrorist Asset-Freezing etc. Act 2010 and Part 1 of the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018);

(d) Part 80 (Proceedings under the Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures Act 2011);

(e) Part 82 (Closed material procedure);

(f) Part 88 (Proceedings under the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015);

(g) enforcement proceedings transferred from the County Court to a relevant court.

(3) Parties should also (as appropriate) consider any specific court guides for further information on the use of CE-File.

(4) Where the provisions of this practice direction conflict with the provisions of Practice Direction 5B or Practice Direction 52C, this practice direction takes precedence.

Use of CE-File

2.1 Except in the Administrative Court, in the relevant courts—

(a) for a party who is legally represented, CE-File must be used by that party to start or continue any proceedings and when corresponding with the court unless otherwise provided for below; and

(b) for a party who is not legally represented, CE-File may be used by that party to start or continue any proceedings and when corresponding with the court.

2.2 (1) In the Administrative Court, for a party who is legally represented, as well as for a party who is not legally represented, CE-File may be used by that party to start or continue any proceedings.

(2) Urgent applications made in the Administrative Court pursuant to Practice Direction 54B must be filed in accordance with paragraphs 1.4 or 1.5 of Practice Direction 54B.

2.3 Where a notice of appointment is being filed by a qualifying floating charge holder under Chapter 3 of Part 3 of the IR 2016 and the court is closed, the filing must be in accordance with rule 3.20 of the IR 2016.

2.4 To submit a document using CE-File, a party must—

(a) access the CE-File website;

(b) register for an account or log on to an existing account;

(c) submit the appropriate document; and

(d) pay any appropriate fee.

2.5 In the event of downtime of the CE-File website or any other technical difficulty with the CE-File website so that a document cannot be submitted, the court will give directions on how to submit documents. Those directions will be set out on the CE-File website.

Filing of documents

3.1 (1) Any document which is submitted using CE-File must—

(a) consist of one copy only unless required by a court order, rule or practice direction;

(b) be in PDF format (or in Excel format if appropriate) unless the court directs otherwise or unless the document is a draft order, in which case it must be in “Word” format;

(c) not exceed 100 (one hundred) megabytes or such other limit that may be specified by HMCTS; and

(d) be categorised or labelled as to the type of document that it is (e.g. “Claim Form”, “Witness Statement”, “Exhibit”).

(2) In the event that a document exceeds the maximum limit specified in paragraph 3.1(1)(c), the party seeking to file the document must divide the document into parts and file each part separately or contact the relevant court for further instructions.

3.2 Any document which is submitted using CE-File must not also be provided to the court by some other means unless this is required by a rule or practice direction, court order, Practice Note or other direction of the court.

3.3 Documents which are confidential must be submitted as a confidential document, using the process in CE-File for that purpose, in order to ensure that it is not visible to other parties.

3.4 (1) Submission of any document using CE-File will generate an automated submission confirmation.

(2) Court officers will either accept or reject the submission. Court officers may contact parties prior to acceptance to correct minor errors on the submission.

(3) Court officers may reject a submission where—

(a) the correct fee has not been paid;

(b) the document is corrupted so that it cannot be opened or read;

(c) the document is not in pdf, word or excel format, unless otherwise directed under paragraph 3.1(1)(b);

(d) the document has been submitted on the wrong case file;

(e) pages of a court form are missing;

(f) in a Part 7 or Part 8 claim form or Part 23 pre-issue application—

i. one or more of the parties is not named or identified unless a rule, practice direction or court order allows a party not to be named or identified;

ii. no address is identified for a party, and no application for alternative service is filed;

(g) a civil restraint order (“CRO”) has been made against the submitting party and the submitting party has not provided an order for permission to issue where the CRO provides such permission is required;

(h) none of the boxes indicating acceptance or disputing the claim or jurisdiction in an acknowledgment of service are selected;

(i) in an appeal—

i. one or more of the parties is not identified or named unless a rule, practice direction or court order allows a party not to be identified or named;

ii. no address is identified for a party, and no application for alternative service is filed;

iii. the case is being submitted to the incorrect court;

iv. the court is unable to identify which decision the appeal relates to;

(j) in the Administrative Court, the requirements of Practice Direction 54A paragraph 4.4(1) (a)-(h) are not met.

(4) If a submission is rejected—

(a) notice of the reasons for rejection will be given to the party on CE-File and if the document was a claim form, appeal notice, or other document requiring to be issued, it will not have been issued; and

(b) any new submission following rejection must comply with the requirements of this practice direction including in respect of fees and the date and time of filing with be the date and time of filing of the new submission.

3.5 (1) Except in cases falling within sub-paragraphs (2), (3) and (4) below, when a document is submitted on CE-File which requires a fee, the date and time of filing is the date and time when the fee is paid and the electronic seal will bear the date of filing and this will be the issue date.

(2) When a document is submitted on CE-File in the Administrative Court which requires a fee, the date and time of filing is the date and time the fee is paid which will be marked on the document and the electronic seal will bear the date on which the electronic seal is applied and this will be the issue date.

(3) When a document is submitted on CE-File in the Court of Appeal which requires a fee, the date of filing is the date the documents required by Practice Direction 52C paragraphs 3(1), 3(4)(a) and 3(4)(b) are submitted and either the fee is paid, or, if earlier, the date on which a fee remission application is made, provided fee remission is subsequently granted. The date of filing will be marked on the document and the electronic seal will bear the date on which the electronic seal is applied and this will be the issue date.

(4) In proceedings where payment under the IR 2016 is required to be made in addition to the fee and in a manner that precludes online payment (such as the official receiver’s deposit for a winding-up petition), payment must be made in accordance with the Insolvency Practice Direction following delivery of the document to court for filing, and the document will not be treated as filed with the court and presented until the relevant fee and deposit have been paid.

(5) For all other submissions, the date and time of filing will be the date and time of submission as stated on the submission confirmation, unless expressly provided otherwise by the court.

Urgent applications

4. Urgent applications must be filed in accordance with this practice direction but the relevant court must also be notified by email or telephone of the application and the reason for urgency.

(Further information about the procedure for urgent applications, including out of hours applications, may be found in the relevant court guide, on the HMCTS website, or by contacting the court directly.)

CE-File and alternate filing methods

5.1 Except for proceedings started in the B&PC DRs before 25 February 2019 and the KB DRs before 19 July 2021 and unless the court orders otherwise, proceedings which have been started in a relevant court without using CE-File will be continued using CE-File in the relevant court.

5.2 (1) Sub-paragraph (2) applies to documents other than those provided to the court under paragraph 6.1 and hearing and trial bundles, which are required or permitted to be provided to the court in hard copy.

(2) Hard copy documents will be converted to PDF format and uploaded to CE-File. The hard copies will not be retained by the relevant court and will be destroyed unless the filing party makes arrangements for the return or collection of the documents.

(Attention is drawn to paragraph 6.2 below and the requirement to keep original documents).

(3) Documents which are not required to be submitted using CE-File and are sent by email will be uploaded to CE-File by court officers except for hearing and trial bundles.

(4) If any fee is required, the document will not be sealed until the fee is paid.

(5) Claims, applications or appeals proceeding in the relevant courts except for the Court of Appeal which are received by a relevant court other than by submission on CE-File will be sealed electronically once uploaded to CE-File. The electronic seal will bear the date of the day the electronic seal was applied but the court will mark also the date on which the document was received by the court.

(6) Proceedings in the Court of Appeal which are received other than by submission on CE-File will be sealed electronically once uploaded to CE-File. The electronic seal will bear the date on which it was applied but the court will also mark the date on which the documents required by Practice Direction 52C paragraphs 3(1), 3(4)(a) and 3(4)(b) were received by the court, and this will be the date of filing.

(7) The date of filing any other document will be the date the document is received by the court.

Original documents

6.1 (1) Where an original document is required by order of the court or by provision of the CPR or IR 2016 to be filed or lodged in a relevant court, such original document (including original wills, grants of probate or evidence of testamentary documents) cannot be submitted using CE-File and must instead be physically filed or lodged with the court. The original documents must be clearly marked as such and will be retained by the relevant court in a separate secured storage area.

(2) Testamentary documents lodged under CPR rule 57.5(2) must be lodged in the relevant office within 5 days of the issue of the claim form or filing of the acknowledgment of service.

6.2 Where parties submit documents other than those referred to in paragraph 6.1(1) and (2) above to the court by any method, the original signed documents, including the original exhibits to any witness statement, must be preserved and must be made available for inspection if required by another party to the proceedings and/or by the order of the court.

Service

7.1 When a document has been issued in a relevant court, unless Practice Direction 3A paragraph 2.1 applies, the submitting party will receive a notification that the document is available on CE-File.

7.2 Unless the court orders otherwise, any document filed at a relevant court which is required to be served must be served by the parties and not the court.

Transfer of proceedings and file transmission

8.1 If proceedings which have used CE-File are subsequently transferred to a court not operating CE-File, no documents will be able to be submitted in those proceedings through CE-File after the date of transfer and this practice direction will cease to apply to those proceedings.

8.2 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 must make arrangements for a version of the CE-File 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.

8.3 If proceedings are transferred into one of the relevant courts, this practice direction applies to all filings subsequent to the order transferring those proceedings.

8.4 Where a case is transferred from one relevant court to another relevant court, parties must from the date of the transfer, submit any documents save for an application to set aside transfer, to the court into which the case has been transferred using the claim number allocated by that court.

Inspection of documents on CE-File by non-parties

9.1 Requests for copies of documents available to non-parties in accordance with CPR rule 5.4C in proceedings which have been started or continued on CE-File may be made using Public Access CE-File in proceedings in –

(a) the Rolls Building Jurisdictions;

(b) the Central Office of the King’s Bench Division;

(c) the B&PC DRs for proceedings commenced on or after 25 February 2019; and

(d) the KB DRs for proceedings commenced after 19 July 2021.

9.2 Requests for copies of documents available to non-parties in accordance with CPR rule 5.4C in other cases must be made to the relevant court.