Day 166 - 28 Sep 95 - Page 09
1 incidents within topics which they deal with in their
2 statements without prior warning, because that is the whole
3 point of having written statements.
4
5 It cannot be a reason for not having to do that, that you
6 are not represented and may not see your witness until the
7 night before. It is a fact of the case that you are not
8 represented, but there is absolutely no point in having
9 statements of witnesses served if, in fact, then the
10 witness when called embarks on a whole lot of new matters
11 of which no reasonably detailed warning is given in their
12 statements.
13
14 MS. STEEL: Presumably, that would not include matters where
15 they are rebutting something that the Plaintiffs' witnesses
16 have said?
17
18 MR. JUSTICE BELL: In general principle, I accept that. My
19 concern is to avoid the kind of situation which arose, in
20 my view, when Miss Hovi was called, which arises from the
21 fact that you called her as your witness after we had
22 evidence from the Plaintiffs' witnesses on the topic with
23 which she is concerned. What I do not want to have to
24 find, because otherwise this case will go on and on and on,
25 is that I have repeated applications to call evidence in
26 rebuttal.
27
28 Insofar as your witnesses give evidence which is not
29 intimated in their statements but is answering something
30 which a previous witness has said, my concern is much less
31 because we will have had the Plaintiffs' evidence on that
32 point and then you are giving your evidence.
33
34 But what you have to do your very best to do, whether a
35 witness is coming from New Zealand or anywhere else, is to
36 get to grips with whether they really do have something
37 extra to say. If, for instance, they produced a document
38 which reflects their view, then you need not concern
39 yourself too much about that probably because notice will
40 have been given in the document. If it is a whole book or
41 a very long tract, you would be very well advised to say:
42 "The matters which are of particular interest are" and
43 then give the page references or the chapter references.
44
45 MS. STEEL: OK.
46
47 MR. JUSTICE BELL: There is no need for you to suffer through
48 this direction because you can ask my leave at any stage,
49 but somehow we have to try to avoid the risk of new
50 material coming in after the other side's witness who might
51 have dealt with it have passed through the witness box. If
52 you put it in cross-examination, again the concern is less
53 because at least the witnesses who have gone first have had
54 some opportunity to deal with it.
55
56 What I think I will do -- perhaps you might remind me
57 tonight -- is I will photocopy from the Weekly Law Reports
58 the practice direction, because you will find it does not
59 actually say any more than I have said, and I have been
60 rather less strict than the practice direction.
