Day 255 - 23 May 96 - Page 44
1 little bit disorganised today.
2
3 MR. JUSTICE BELL: We will have the 5-minute break now. I must
4 say that I was hoping that you would complete your
5 cross-examination this afternoon,. If you do not, it seems
6 to me it is unrealistic for me to put a time limit on it,
7 what will be after quarter past 3 that you have to finish
8 this afternoon, but when you come back after the break,
9 I think you really have to be able to tell me just what
10 other areas with some precision you have got to cover, and
11 how long you expect them to take, because I do not know
12 whether we can get Mr. Nicholson in that week when we have
13 got Dr. Campbell and Mr. Fairgrieve, but I think it might
14 be helpful if I did after this afternoon put a time limit
15 on the balance of your cross-examination. In fact, in some
16 ways I think it helps you if I put times limit on. But in
17 order to decide whether I should put a time limit and, if
18 so, how long it should be, I would like to know just what
19 you have in mind as matters which you must cover with Mr.
20 Nicholson in order to put your case.
21
22 Do not forget what I said when we were on employment, that
23 I am not suggesting that cross-examination is unimportant
24 but your own evidence is important as well, and publication
25 and counterclaim is an area in which you are going to call
26 evidence yourselves.
27
28 MS. STEEL: Part of the problem is really that we have just
29 been rushing around so much over the past week trying to
30 sort out the appeal.
31
32 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Do not say anything more about that. I will
33 come back at 20 past 3.
34
35 MS. STEEL: I was just going to say that all that means is that
36 maybe we do not get time to pick out the questions that
37 maybe we do not really need to ask, and it just means that
38 we have to go through them just in case because we have not
39 been able to sit and think about whether or not they need
40 to be asked.
41
42 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I will come back at 20 past. We will go on
43 until about ten past 4 this afternoon, unless you think
44 that if we went on for another half hour after that, you
45 would finish Mr. Nicholson. When we come back in order to
46 hear Dr. Campbell on Tuesday week, I would like you to be
47 well organised with regard to the remainder of Mr.
48 Nicholson and able to tell me just what you have to cover.
49
50 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord just ----
51
52 MR. JUSTICE BELL: The point is I have to say, I will repeat
53 what I have already said: You may well have matters which
54 I have not cottoned on to which you need to put to Mr.
55 Nicholson, but if you sat down now, I do not really think
56 you would be letting anything go, bearing in mind that you
57 have evidence of your own to call. But there you are.
58
59 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, can I say one thing on behalf of the
60 miserable copying machine. It is going to be cast into
