Everything in the practical half of this course runs on paperwork. Every notice you send creates an outgoing record. Every reply you receive creates an incoming record. Every uncrossed deadline creates a clock. Without a disciplined record file, after about eight weeks you cannot remember what you sent to whom, and the system can.
This lesson is how to build the file. Spend an hour on it the weekend after the audit weekend. After that the file maintains itself with a few minutes per letter and a quarterly review.
What the file is for
Three jobs.
Recall. You will, at some point, need to refer to the exact wording of a letter you sent four months ago. With the file in place, that takes thirty seconds. Without it, you spend half a day, find the wrong version, and answer the wrong question.
Evidence. If a matter ever proceeds to a tribunal or court, your bundle is the file. The body on the other side will arrive with their bundle. Yours has to be at least as well-organised, ideally better.
Discipline. The act of filing every letter on the day it is sent or received forces the rest of the practice. You stop sending hasty emails because emails are hard to file. You start sending dated, signed, recorded letters because they file themselves into the system you have built.
The structure
One folder per body you are corresponding with. Inside each folder, four sub-folders.
1. /correspondence-out/ Every letter you send, in two formats: a Word/Pages source document with the date in the filename (YYYY-MM-DD-summary.docx) and a PDF of the signed, dated final version (same name, .pdf). The PDF is what you posted; the source document is what you can reuse next time.
2. /correspondence-in/ Every letter you receive, scanned the day it arrives, named with the date received and a one-line summary (YYYY-MM-DD-summary-from-X.pdf). For physical letters, scan with a phone app (Adobe Scan, Microsoft Lens, Apple Notes built-in scanner) at full A4. Keep the originals in the paper file (see below).
3. /proof-of-service/ Royal Mail tracking screenshots, certificates of posting, signed-for receipts, recorded delivery confirmations, email receipts (where applicable). For each outgoing letter, one corresponding proof file. Name to match: YYYY-MM-DD-pos-summary.png.
4. /reference/ Anything not strictly correspondence but relevant to the matter. The original demand letter that started the file. Statutory text you have looked up. Any court paperwork. Any notes you have made of phone calls (always with date, time, duration, name of operator if given, summary in your own words).
Naming conventions that pay for themselves
Stick to these. They look fussy at the start and they save you in month four.
Dates first, always. YYYY-MM-DD. Never DD-MM or MM-DD. ISO ordering means files sort chronologically by default, in any operating system.
Summary in two-to-five words. "Initial-NoUI" not "letter-1." "Reply-rejecting-jurisdiction" not "their-response." You will be glad of this when you have eighty files in the folder.
Body name in the parent folder, not the filename. Folder is /correspondence/Halifax/, file is 2026-04-15-deletion-request-art-17.pdf. Do not put "Halifax" in every filename; the folder takes care of that.
Paper vs digital
You need both. Digital is for working, searching, recall. Paper is for evidence and for the doomsday scenario where a hard drive fails.
For each outgoing letter:
- Write and edit on the computer.
- Print, sign in pen with the date, scan the signed version to PDF.
- Post the original (recorded delivery for anything that matters).
- Keep a printed copy in a paper file alongside the proof of posting.
For each incoming letter:
- Open it the day it arrives. Note the date received in pencil at the top.
- Scan immediately to the digital folder.
- File the original in the paper file.
The paper file is one box file or A4 ring binder per body, kept somewhere you can grab it in a hurry. The digital folder is on your computer with a backup (cloud or external drive) updated weekly.
What to scan and what not to
Scan everything that is correspondence. Do not scan envelopes (unless the postmark is itself relevant, which it occasionally is for proving when something arrived). Do not scan unsolicited junk from the body (their marketing, their satisfaction surveys), but do file it briefly in case it later turns out to be a tactic.
For phone calls, no recording is needed unless you have given notice you will record. A contemporaneous note, written immediately after the call, with date, time, duration, person spoken to, and a summary of what was said, is enough for almost every purpose.
Where to keep what
At home, in a fire-resistant box file or safe: all paper originals, plus a USB stick with the full digital folder, updated weekly.
Off-site (a relative's house, a safe deposit box, or a trusted cloud account): a duplicate USB stick or cloud copy of the digital folder, updated monthly. This is the disaster copy. You will not need it. If you do, you will be glad you spent the ten minutes a month maintaining it.
On your phone: the digital folder synced via OneDrive, iCloud, or similar, so that when a body phones you out of the blue you can pull up the relevant correspondence in the next room while they are still on hold.
The quarterly review
Every three months, set aside one hour. Open every active folder. Check:
- Are there any outgoing letters where the response window has closed without a reply? If so, the next-step letter is overdue.
- Are there any open clocks running against you? If so, draft and send the response now, not next week.
- Are there any folders you can close because the matter is fully resolved? Move closed folders to /archive/[year]/.
This review is the single most useful hour you will spend on the practice. It catches the matters that have gone quiet on you and lets you re-engage them on your own timing rather than the body's.
Hold the line
The temptation is to start with the dramatic letter and tell yourself you will sort the filing afterwards. Do not. The filing system is what makes the dramatic letters survivable. Send the first letter once the folder is created, the naming convention is decided, and the proof-of-posting workflow is in your fingers.
An hour, the weekend after the audit. After that the file builds itself one letter at a time. By month six you have a record that no body on the other side of the table can match and that any tribunal would be glad to read.