Day 292 - 01 Nov 96 - Page 07


     
     1        they are hoping to be ready towards the end of November.
     2        We can see them working on them in court.
     3        Mrs. Brinley-Codd is working on some of the employment
     4        figures and things like that, which we have not even had a
     5        chance to look at.
     6
     7        Basically, we are more or less doing it on our own.
     8        Because we realised the impossibility of reading all the
     9        transcripts, we did ask some other people to help out by
    10        reading some of the transcripts relating to certain of the
    11        issues, but nobody who is helping us is familiar with all
    12        the issues, nobody who is helping us has been in court on
    13        anything like more than a few days, and we have to check
    14        what they produce to see whether or not it ties in with
    15        what the issues have become over the course of the trial.
    16        Often they do not grasp the points that need to be
    17        covered.  In any event, we have to put it together all in
    18        one piece.  And we had to brief them in the first place
    19        about what to look out for.  There are always things that
    20        you are going to miss, and so on.
    21
    22        The situation is that we are part of the way on many of the
    23        issues, part of the work is done.  On some of them, it is a
    24        long way from being done, and some of them are almost
    25        there.
    26
    27        You make the point about us coming into court and saying we
    28        are not ready straightaway and you would have more sympathy
    29        if we had got through the first few issues and then said we
    30        are not ready.  The really big part of the problem was that
    31        we just did not know what to include and how to do it, and
    32        it just makes it really hard to get it ready when you do
    33        not know how to do it and what needs to be covered, and so
    34        on.  Just really, you know, we are trying our best.
    35
    36        I think, as Dave said, it would help to have a bit of space
    37        between each issue, because throughout the whole of the
    38        animals things, for example, apart from speaking every day
    39        in court between 10.30 and 4 o'clock, I was getting home at
    40        5 o'clock and working until about 1 o'clock in the morning
    41        and then getting up again at 6 o'clock in the morning to do
    42        more preparation.  I mean, I do not know, it just makes me
    43         -- I am completely exhausted anyway but it makes me even
    44        more exhausted and probably more incoherent and not putting
    45        the points across well, and, effectively, it ends up taking
    46        more in-court time.  Obviously, we have made the point that
    47        it would help if we could have any of Mr. Rampton's
    48        arguments on any of the issues.
    49
    50        That is about it, really.  We are not brushing this off and
    51        not taking it seriously.  Because we are taking it
    52        seriously, we want to do a good job, but it is an
    53        overwhelming task, and it is just getting to grips with it
    54        really.
    55
    56   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Thank you.  Mr. Rampton?
    57
    58   MR. RAMPTON:   The only observation I have, my Lord, is I want
    59        to correct one thing Ms. Steel has said twice now this
    60        morning.  I have never said that I needed until 22nd

Prev Next Index