A Bundle is a curated subset of evidence prepared for a specific use — annexures to a particular affidavit, the disclosure pack you’re taking to FDR, the court book for a final hearing. The Portfolio handles the curation, the pagination, the index, and the export to a single court-ready PDF.Documentation Index
Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.rytz.com.au/llms.txt
Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
When you’d create a bundle
Affidavit annexures
Each affidavit you file references specific evidence items as annexures (JL-1, JL-2, …). The bundle holds those items, in citation order, with the right labels.
FDR / conciliation disclosure
The material you bring to mediation. Often a condensed selection from across the matter — financial detail, parenting-relevant evidence, communications timeline.
Court book / hearing bundle
The full evidence stack tendered or referenced at hearing. Indexed, paginated, and exchanged with the other party in advance.
Lawyer briefing pack
What you send your solicitor before a consultation so they can prepare. Often a chronology pack + a curated 20–30 most-relevant items.
Creating a bundle
Open the Bundles surface
From the Evidence Portfolio, click the Bundles tab in the top navigation. You’ll see existing bundles (if any) and a New bundle button.
Click 'New bundle' and pick a type
Five built-in types: Affidavit annexures · FDR disclosure · Court book · Lawyer briefing pack · Custom. The type sets the default cover page, index format, and labelling convention. Custom gives you a blank slate.
Name and date the bundle
Naming conventions that work:
Affidavit Welsh 14-Mar-2026 — Annexures for annexure bundles; FDR Disclosure 22-Apr-2026 for FDR; Court Book — Final Hearing 12-Sep-2026 for hearing bundles. The date is the bundle’s reference date (the hearing date, FDR date, or affidavit date), not the date you create it.Add items
Two paths:Manual — search or filter the Portfolio, drag items into the bundle.One-click stage — for stage-aligned bundles, click “Include all evidence assigned to interim-hearing stage” (or similar) and the bundle pre-populates from your Stage Review decisions.Items can sit in multiple bundles simultaneously without duplication.
Order the items
Drag-and-drop in the bundle editor sets order. The platform suggests an order based on the bundle type:
- Affidavit annexures: the order they’re referenced in the affidavit
- FDR disclosure: chronological
- Court book: by topic, then chronological within each topic
Set labels
For affidavit annexures, the platform auto-assigns labels (JL-1, JL-2, …) using the deponent’s initials in the order set above. Override any label by clicking it.For court book / FDR bundles, items are typically numbered (1, 2, 3, …) rather than letter-labelled.
Generate the bundle PDF
Click Generate. The platform produces:
- A cover page with the bundle name, deponent (for affidavit annexures), and reference date
- An index listing every item with its label, brief description, source, and page number
- The items themselves, paginated continuously, with each item starting on a new page
- Each item preceded by a label divider page (for affidavit-annexure bundles)
- A footer on every page showing the bundle name + page X of Y
Share or file
For court filing, the bundle PDF is what you upload to the Commonwealth Courts Portal alongside your affidavit. For FDR or lawyer briefings, you email the PDF (or a downloadable link).For court book preparation, the bundle PDF is what you exchange with the other party under the Family Law Rules’ service obligations.
Affidavit annexures specifically
The most-common bundle type. A few conventions worth getting right:- Labels follow the deponent’s initials. If the affidavit is yours and your name is Jacob Welsh, annexures are JL-1, JL-2, … If the affidavit is your ex’s, the labelling is theirs (LP-1, LP-2, … for Lucy Pollock).
- Each annexure starts on a new page. Even a one-line text screenshot gets its own page. The Portfolio handles this automatically.
- The annexure label appears at the top of the first page of each item, plus a divider page immediately before. Both are auto-generated.
- Reference order matches the affidavit. If your affidavit refers to “JL-1 (the school report dated …)” before “JL-2 (the message exchange of …)”, the bundle has them in that order.
- The deponent signs each annexure. For paper filing this means a signature on each item; for digital filing the deponent’s digital signature on the cover page typically suffices.
FDR disclosure bundles
FDR (Family Dispute Resolution) is governed by section 60I of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) and is required (with limited exceptions) before filing most parenting applications. The disclosure bundle for FDR is less formally regulated than a court bundle but several conventions improve outcomes:- Mirror what the other party will receive. Both parties typically agree to disclose to the same standard.
- Cover the full picture, not just your strong points. The mediator forms a view on credibility partly from disclosure quality. Selective disclosure reads as defensive.
- Include a cover letter or chronology alongside the bundle. The platform’s Master Case File chronology export is well-suited.
- Don’t include privileged material — your own legal advice, communications with your lawyer, draft documents from your lawyer. The Portfolio’s privacy classification helps you keep these out.
Court book conventions
For final hearings or interim hearings of substance, the FCFCOA expects a court book — a structured volume of all evidence either party will reference. Court book conventions (from the Family Law Rules and FCFCOA practice direction):- Continuously paginated across the full bundle (page 1 to page N), not per-item
- Indexed with each item, the page range, the source party, and the date
- Tabbed (with PDF bookmarks for digital filing)
- Exchanged with the other party in advance per the timing in the court’s directions
- Not duplicating evidence already on the court file unless the directions require it
Updating a bundle
Bundles are not frozen. You can:- Add or remove items
- Reorder
- Re-label
- Regenerate the PDF (a new version is created; old versions remain available under the bundle’s history)
Bundle hygiene
A few practices worth keeping:| Practice | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Name bundles consistently | Easier to find six months later when you’re cross-referencing |
| Date the bundle | Matches the bundle to the moment in the matter it relates to |
| Don’t share unfinished bundles | Once shared, you’ve put a version in someone’s inbox; they’ll quote it back |
| Keep the source items in the Portfolio after bundling | The bundle is a snapshot; the Portfolio is the living vault |
| Save final-version PDFs to a separate “Filed” tag | So you don’t accidentally edit a bundle whose PDF is already on the court file |
What’s next
Prepare an affidavit
Affidavit drafting tools work hand-in-hand with bundle creation.
Court Readiness Matrix
Use the matrix to identify the right moment to bundle each stage.
Case Roadmap
Each stage of the FCFCOA process has typical bundles associated with it.
Privacy and data
How bundle PDFs are stored, shared, and protected.