Day 157 - 18 Jul 95 - Page 08
1 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It would most help me if you have a copy,
2 I believe, of the ruling which I made on 4th July; that
3 ruling was actually given in open court. It is in the
4 public domain. I left the door open for you to come back
5 if you thought of any further arguments, but sensibly you
6 have to work on the basis that that is the ruling at the
7 moment. So what I am really looking for because you and
8 Ms. Steel and Mr. Rampton, in fact, argued the matter at
9 what I would consider to be some considerable length on
10 that occasion and what I am looking for is anything new
11 which you want to put before me.
12
13 MR. MORRIS: Yes. I have prepared what I am going to say and it
14 is just hard to sort of turn it upside-down.
15
16 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No. You kick off but bear in mind that you
17 have said quite a lot to me already.
18
19 MR. MORRIS: The first thing I want to say before we start is
20 that we are seeking the protection of the court as
21 litigants in person, unwaged and unrepresented and denied
22 legal aid in what is already the longest libel trial in
23 British history. There is already a massive imbalance of
24 resources in this case. We firmly believe, although we
25 only got a press report on this, that Lord Chief Justice
26 Taylor, President of the Judges' Council, in a report by
27 the Judges' Council, which we do not have a copy of, said:
28 "Our democratic system depends on everyone being able to
29 enforce their rights through the courts, whether or not
30 they can afford a professional lawyer or qualify for legal
31 aid". That was reported in The Guardian on 7th July this
32 month.
33
34 On the supposed complexity of this case, the Plaintiffs
35 succeeded against our wishes in denying us a Jury trial.
36 I believe from recollection -- I cannot remember exactly --
37 it was not only the complexity but the length which was
38 drawn to the attention when the decision was made on that.
39 If ever a case in British history ever required a simple
40 matter of that, the unrepresented Defendants having the
41 same facility as the party on the other side, a massive
42 multinational, then this is the case in terms of
43 accessibility to transcripts.
44
45 As previously mentioned, on 27th June 1994 McDonald's
46 solicitors on the eve of the trial wrote, saying:
47
48 "Further to the hearing before Mr. Justice Bell
49 this morning, we wish to inform you that we
50 propose making two copies of daily transcripts
51 of the proceedings from 28th June 1994 until the
52 end of the trial available to you in our main
53 reception on the ground floor at Beaufort House
54 every evening."
55
56 This unconditional promise and arrangement has continued
57 for 156 days, but as from today McDonald's have said they
58 are going to break this agreement and withhold copies of
59 the transcripts from us. The effect will be to guarantee
60 an even greater advantage for McDonald's Corporation and to
