Day 149 - 06 Jul 95 - Page 50
1 discovered a document because it is not relevant. You are
2 perfectly entitled to do the same. Because you are acting
3 in person I am just a little more cautious that you might
4 not miss something which, in fact, should be listed because
5 you have the legal position wrong which is why I have
6 encouraged you to raise it if you are in two minds about
7 it.
8
9 MS. STEEL: I am happy to do that in terms of saying, for
10 example with press cuttings, we do not see how press
11 cuttings are relevant.
12
13 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, I can help -----
14
15 MS. STEEL: Can you just let me finish, please? But what I do
16 not want to have to do is to list all the press cuttings
17 that I have in my possession and say: "I do not think
18 these are relevant" because that will take me a massive
19 length of time.
20
21 If the Plaintiffs can show by some means that press
22 cuttings would be relevant and ought to be disclosable,
23 then at that point, if it is necessary, we can list the
24 press cuttings. But I do not want to have to do it when
25 they are not entitled to them because they are irrelevant
26 or something like that.
27
28 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Right. I am assuming at the moment that when
29 you a mean press cutting you mean a press cutting without
30 something written on it, because obviously if something has
31 been written on it like: "We achieved what we wanted to
32 achieve here", do you see what I mean, then that would,
33 obviously, be a document which might be relevant. Likewise
34 you might say: "How did this get in the newspapers; it was
35 nothing to do with us?" Then that might be relevant.
36
37 What I suggest you do, if there are a number of press
38 cuttings which have not been made into a separate document
39 by the adding of some annotation, put them in possibly a
40 completely different category. Do not for the time being
41 put them on your list but do say: "We have a box full of
42 press cuttings". Then Mr. Rampton, if he says that is
43 unsatisfactory and that they ought to be discovered, then
44 he can tell me why.
45
46 MS. STEEL: Presumably, we would then be able to apply to the
47 Plaintiffs for any press cuttings they had about their
48 discussions on X-Y-Z.
49
50 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I do not want to look into the future too
51 far; I would rather deal with the situation if and when it
52 arises. Just allow me to make a note.
53
54 MS. STEEL: I think that is it.
55
56 MR. RAMPTON: May I respond to this question of discovery
57 because what I foresee, alas, is a massive application for
58 specific discovery when we get to the Defendants' list
59 devoid of any relevant documents. When, for example,
60 Mr. Atkinson mentioned press cuttings, the Defendants had
