Day 070 - 20 Dec 94 - Page 47


     
     1        morning, at the beginning of the day -----
     2
     3   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Both parties should serve any documents they
     4        intend to use absolutely as soon as possible.  If that
     5        means serving them at 4.30 one afternoon, rather than half
     6        past 10 the following morning, they should be served in the
     7        afternoon.
     8
     9        So far as indexes and bundles are concerned, that is a
    10        matter for both sides.  I hardly need say that it would
    11        help me, if someone can find time, where documents have
    12        been added to bundles, to say where the index at the
    13        beginning of the bundle should be amended.  But it is a
    14        joint thing; it is on both sides, because both sides have
    15        put in extra documents.
    16
    17   MR. MORRIS:  We are quite prepared to co-operate with the
    18        Plaintiffs in ensuring that we have up-to-date indexes, and
    19        whatever.  I think the case will get more and more chaotic
    20        the longer it goes on, with everyone scrabbling around to
    21        find where documents have been put.  If they are falling
    22        out of bundles, then new bundles systems ought to be made.
    23
    24   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I have managed, so far as I am aware, so
    25        far.  What I do not have is up-to-date indices at the front
    26        of each bundle, like the pink sheets which appear in some
    27        bundles.  It would be helpful if that could be provided.
    28
    29   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, we will do the best we can.  One problem
    30        is that when the Defendants -- and it happens far more
    31        frequently in their case than it does ours -- serve a whole
    32        lot of documents as the witness appears in the witness box,
    33        they only ever provide one copy.  That is not a criticism;
    34        it is a fact of life.  The result of that has been that
    35        Mrs. Brinley-Codd is not up to date on the Defendants'
    36        documents, which makes a difficulty when it comes to
    37        preparing indices and deciding where documents should go in
    38        the bundle.  The solution to that is for Mr. Morris to do a
    39        bit of work and produce a list of all the documents he has
    40        produced during the course of the case -- and it will be a
    41        very, very large number -- during the course of the
    42        evidence, and send it to Mrs. Brinley-Codd.
    43
    44   MR. MORRIS:  I certainly could not do that.
    45
    46   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What I would have thought might happen on
    47        your side, just to help, if for no other reason than to
    48        assist you to be able to put your finger on a document at
    49        fairly short notice, Mr. Rampton, is that in so far as
    50        Mrs. Brinley-Codd, or those who assist her, can do indices 
    51        at the front be brought up-to-date.  If and when that 
    52        happens, if Mr. Morris or Ms. Steel think there are some 
    53        documents in there which are not indexed, then it is for
    54        them to find and identify them.
    55
    56   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, yes.  But there is only one sure route,
    57        or relatively sure route, to the composition of such an
    58        index, which is to trawl the transcripts.  I do not see why
    59        somebody at Barlow Lyde & Gilbert should do that with the
    60        Defendants' documents, at the expense of McDonald's, when

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