Day 259 - 10 Jun 96 - Page 66
1 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What is the legal matter or the legal matters
2 which you wanted to raise?
3
4 MR. MORRIS: There is quite a lot of outstanding things to do
5 with documentation. We are not going to do the privilege
6 argument today. We are going to try and consider that
7 overnight.
8
9 MR. JUSTICE BELL: The privilege point arises at a time when you
10 ask a question either to elicit information or a document,
11 and Mr. Rampton stands up and says that Mr. Morris or
12 Ms. Steel is not entitled to that information because it is
13 covered by legal professional or litigation privilege.
14 Then I hear an argument about it.
15
16 MR. MORRIS: We may have a barrister who is prepared to come in
17 and argue a general submission on the discloseability of
18 the documents that have been claimed to be privileged,
19 which we would say we are entitled to, in any event. We
20 want to study the authorities tonight and then see if we
21 can make an application tomorrow or, if the court agrees,
22 he may be able to speak on our behalf.
23
24 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I tried to explain on Friday that I want any
25 argument to come in a practical situation, not just a
26 general argument as to what general classes of documents
27 might be covered in privilege and immune from disclosure,
28 because I can see all sorts of difficulties, as I tried to
29 explain Friday afternoon, in relation to that.
30
31 MR. MORRIS: The witness could start, and then we could put what
32 is in this document.
33
34 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What will happen is, if you ask for
35 information or documentation which Mr. Rampton objects to
36 on the basis of privilege, then I will hear the argument
37 then. If you say, "We are not in a position to argue
38 that", then you will have to move on to ask him further
39 questions, and the witness will continue (they are all men)
40 his evidence, and the question of deciding privilege will
41 be stored up. But I do not want to store it up to the
42 extent that the witness leaves the witness box with all
43 these loose ends hanging there and then has to be brought
44 back.
45
46 When you say a barrister to argue it, do you mean actually
47 to represent you in court for the purposes of that or to
48 sit behind you as a McKenzie Friend?
49
50 MR. MORRIS: If the court is willing, he has indicated he may be
51 prepared to do the submission for us, and obviously that is
52 with the leave of the court and the other party.
53
54 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I will hear what Mr. Rampton has to say about
55 that. Unless Mr. Rampton has an objection, subject to
56 checking with the member of the Bar concerned, I may well
57 not have any objection to a barrister standing in to argue
58 a specific point. My main purpose will be to make the
59 right decision, and if I think that will help me then
60 I might well be amenable to that.
