Day 283 - 21 Oct 96 - Page 10


     
     1        barristers, I would have thought, let alone two people
     2        without experience and without the benefit of proper notes
     3        throughout the case, although of course we had the
     4        transcripts but it is impossible to read 20,000 pages of
     5        transcripts even in six months, I would have thought.
     6
     7        We believe there is only one, despite McDonald's having
     8        every possible conceivable advantage, and the additional
     9        very strong, advantage of us having to go first with our
    10        closing speeches.  It would have been much  easier -- I am
    11        not criticising you for deciding we had to go first, it
    12        apparently is normal practice -- but it would have been
    13        much easier to listen to Mr. Rampton, hear the case against
    14        us and respond knowing what he believes he has achieved and
    15        what the issues are that are left.  We would have had more
    16        time and we would have had the benefit of that.  No doubt
    17        he has probably written his speech already, or most of it
    18        but we have not got a copy and have no idea what he is
    19        going to say.
    20
    21        But it is a complete nightmare and we are doing our best to
    22        prepare as effectively as we can, but it will not be
    23        comprehensive and we will have to prepare it in the
    24        evenings for the next day.  So we hope that you will bear
    25        that in mind if we do not come over necessarily as well
    26        prepared as the other side, no doubt, already are.  The
    27        only thing we believe that we have had that the plaintiffs
    28        have not got, never have had, and it is the one fundamental
    29        reason we have been able to fight this completely
    30        impossible case, is that we believe we have truth on our
    31        side.  I know it sounds a bit sort of cliched, but that is
    32        what we believe we have demonstrated.
    33
    34        I am going to come now to what might be called appendix 1.
    35
    36   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Yes.
    37
    38   MR. MORRIS:   Could I just say just on that last point I was
    39        making, about preparations for closing speeches, that we
    40        did go to the Court of Appeal last week to try and set
    41        aside the decision you made.  I do not know if you have got
    42        the judgment.
    43
    44   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  No, I have not.  Because obviously I had an
    45        interest, if only knowing whether today was to be postponed
    46        or not, Mr. Glenn, my clerk, rang one of the Court of
    47        Appeal associates on -- was it Thursday afternoon -- and
    48        was told that your appeal has failed but I know nothing
    49        more than that.  I don't even know whether you were granted
    50        leave or not. 
    51 
    52   MR. MORRIS:   No, we did not get leave.  What was basically 
    53        decided, and Mr. Rampton will surely contradict me, is that
    54        your discretion in this matter was impossible to challenge
    55        except in the most exceptional circumstances.  But that
    56        anyway your discretion continues and that we could appeal
    57        to you for adjournments, or whatever, throughout the
    58        speeches once we had started and that you still had that
    59        discretion.
    60

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