Day 043 - 01 Nov 94 - Page 78


     
     1
     2   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Do your best with the estimates of
     3        cross-examination.  As I made clear this morning -- just
     4        listen for a moment -- the inconvenience of a witness and
     5        the commercial convenience of a party cannot decide the
     6        question as to whether one carries on with one particular
     7        witness or another.  In fairness (and it works on both
     8        sides) if we can meet the convenience of the witness and
     9        the party, without disrupting the trial, we attempt to do
    10        so.
    11
    12        What I would like to do, if we can, is to go on with
    13        Mr. Hawkes in the morning and see how we go on
    14        cross-examination on any new documentation, but somehow or
    15        other leave sufficient time, whether or not his
    16        cross-examination is completed and whether or not we can
    17        proceed to re-examination, to get Mr. Green finished by
    18        Friday afternoon.  That is why I want to know what sort of
    19        time is likely to be taken in cross-examination.
    20
    21   MS. STEEL:  Of Mr. Green?
    22
    23   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Both Mr. Hawkes and Mr. Green.  You may find
    24        that you get so far with Mr. Hawkes and, not being partisan
    25        about it, I think it is in your interests to break off
    26        cross-examination there, so he can give some answers one
    27        way or another.  Then when you call Miss Dibb -- this is
    28        always assuming that the questions and answers are
    29        admissible -- you know what to ask her about particularly,
    30        how far you need to go and what is in issue and what is
    31        not.
    32
    33   MS. STEEL:   I think we do not see what the problem is with
    34        Mr. Hawkes but, given that he has been interrupted, we are
    35        not really sure how long he will take or how long we will
    36        be with Mr. Green, it may just be safer to carry on with
    37        Mr. Green so that we do not get pressured to cut short the
    38        cross-examination of him so he can go back to America.
    39
    40        But we would like to say, generally, that this does keep
    41        cropping up.  We have said there ought to be more space,
    42        particularly where witnesses have to go back to America, so
    43        that we do not have these problems.  It does make life
    44        difficult for us if we have to have interruptions during
    45        cross-examination to fit another witness in.  But, as the
    46        interruption has already taken place, we are prepared to
    47        carry on with Mr. Green to make life easier.
    48
    49   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  In that case what we will do is we will carry
    50        on with Mr. Green.  We will finish him.  We will then, 
    51        unless there is any good reason for not doing so, go back 
    52        to Mr. Hawkes. 
    53
    54        Another aspect which has just occurred to me is Mr. Hawkes'
    55        enquiries may, for all I know, bring to light other
    56        documents which are thought to be relevant and, therefore,
    57        should be disclosed.  If that is so, it is essential that
    58        sufficient copies are made and they are disclosed to you
    59        before you go back to your cross-examination.  I say it is
    60        essential.  You may say, well, you are not concerned about

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