Day 087 - 10 Feb 95 - Page 22


     
     1        this document.
     2
     3   MS. STEEL:  Can scientific journals only be put to experts, or
     4        can they be put to witnesses of fact as well?
     5
     6   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  The reason they are put to experts is experts
     7        are giving their scientific opinion.  They are put to them
     8        to see if they actually agree with the opinions which are
     9        reached.  In fact, the various assertions of fact which
    10        appear normally in the first part of the article are, by
    11        and large, accepted by the witness when it is put to them
    12        for the purpose of giving their opinion.  That is the area
    13        which has always appeared to me to be a grey area.  It is
    14        merely as a matter of convenience that that is done.
    15        Sometimes the expert says, "Actually I do not accept that
    16        because it looks to me as if their methods of collecting
    17        the information are suspect, so the information itself may
    18        be unreliable".  But you are seeking to use it for a
    19        different purpose as evidence of the facts which are stated
    20        in it; not as any way to getting an expression of expert
    21        opinion.  I am not trying to put you down.  I am just
    22        trying to express the problem to you.
    23
    24   MS. STEEL:  No.  It was a separate point really.  It is related
    25        to it.  If, for example, we had an expert report
    26        by -- well, if we had wanted to put one of the expert
    27        reports on advertising to Mr. Hawkes, who was a witness of
    28        fact on advertising, could we have asked him about that?
    29
    30   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I think you would have to point out which
    31        particular one.  It is very difficult to deal with a very
    32        broad thing.  You mean, an expression of an opinion in an
    33        advertising witness put to witnesses as to fact?
    34
    35   MS. STEEL:   We had a whole load of expert papers, whatever you
    36        call them, that Mr. Rampton was putting to Sue Dibb.  If we
    37        had a paper like that, for example, could we put it to
    38        somebody like Mr. Hawkes, who is not an expert, and then
    39        kind of use it to test his evidence based on that?
    40
    41   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  If he is not an expert, I do not know why you
    42        would be putting a scientific reference to him to test his
    43        evidence.  I am not sure Mr. Hawkes is a very good example
    44        because he might be thought to -- he obviously has a
    45        position with the Second Plaintiff just as Mr. Green had
    46        with the First Plaintiff.  To that extent they are
    47        executives, but they might be thought to be, to some
    48        extent, experts as well because of the experience they have
    49        got of the advertising side of the business.
    50 
    51   MS. STEEL:  They might be experts in advertising, but they would 
    52        not be experts on its effects though. 
    53
    54   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I would rather disagree with that.  You might
    55        say someone else is more an expert, but ----
    56
    57   MR. MORRIS:  They certainly would not be an independent expert.
    58
    59   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That is another matter.  You have introduced
    60        another adjective there.  They are still experts. You might

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