A mountain of documents has just arrived and its sheer size is doing its job on you.
A calmer read on what the volume means, a first move that protects you, and a way to work through it in pieces.
Bigger isn't better — but it still looks bigger
When you get sued and the documents arrive courtesy of two people and a truck, your first thought may be: They've brought evidence.
Possibly. They've certainly brought paper. There may be emails, attachments to emails, copies of those attachments attached to other emails, and company policies printed single-sided in glorious colour. Somewhere in a building, a printer is being nominated for employee of the month.
Then come the affidavits. Formal headings. Numbered paragraphs. Statements you recognise. Statements you don't. Statements that make you wonder whether you and the author were employed on the same planet. Some paragraphs may strike you as a combination of hot air and cow poo.
Take a breath anyway.
What the size does and doesn't mean
A large bundle can happen in litigation, and its size, by itself, tells you very little about the strength of the case. Some documents may matter enormously. Others provide background, repeat something already included, or leave you wondering why the office stationery policy has entered the chat.
Does it impress a judge? Don't assume that it does. A document still has to help establish something relevant. A hundred copies of an assertion do not turn it into a hundred independent facts.
Someone has certainly spent time — and money — assembling it. The precise arrangements between the client, the lawyers and the endangered toner cartridge are their business. But the intimidating effect is real: you are standing in your kitchen looking at six folders, thinking, surely there must be something in there.
There might be. That is why you read it. You do not, however, have to emotionally respond to every page on the afternoon it arrives.
Before you read a single allegation, find out what the documents require you to do and by when — hearing dates, court orders, response deadlines. A large bundle does not mean you have a large amount of time. Your court's rules and any orders set the clock, and the volume does not slow it down. Rule deadlines, letter deadlines and missing one shows how to tell which date is which; the first 48 hours is the wider stabilising sequence.
Then work through it in pieces
Once you know the timetable, the reading becomes ordinary work. Make a simple index. Mark the allegations that actually matter. For each one, note what supports it, what contradicts it, and where the relevant document sits. Itemising an overwhelming schedule and building a court book are the tools for exactly this.
Don't assume the judge will read none of it. Don't rely on the judge finding your best point unaided, either. Be ready to identify the page and explain, in a sentence, why it matters.
Then put it on the shelf
After that, the folders can go in the bookcase. They make an excellent conversation starter.
“What's that collection?”
“An extremely expensive account of why I'm difficult.”
The pile can wait until tomorrow's reading session. The deadline can't.
Let the bundle be big. Find the deadline, read it in pieces, and keep your evenings. The page count is not the case.