Day 311 - 06 Dec 96 - Page 63


     
     1        benefit.
     2
     3   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What are you asking for?  You have had the
     4        bulk of Mr. Rampton's legal submissions at least since
     5        early October.  There has been some elaboration, and there
     6        has been some extension, but you have had the bulk of them
     7        since then, in writing.
     8
     9   MR. MORRIS:  I think the situation is that to do an effective
    10        job we would need the beginning of next term, but I am
    11        hesitant to actually ask for that because I know there is
    12        no chance of getting it.  So, I think that we would leave
    13        it in your hands to rule when we should -- we are not
    14        ready.  We are going to spend this whole weekend, night and
    15        day, trying to draw together legal points of which there
    16        could, intentionally, be thousands but, obviously, we will
    17        concentrate on ten to 15 matters that we are capable of
    18        doing in that time.  We will do our best, basically.
    19
    20   MS. STEEL:  I think the more time we have the better it would
    21        be, but that goes without saying.
    22
    23   MR. MORRIS:  One useful thing is that, because of child care
    24        problems, I can work better on weekdays and because we have
    25        actually, effectively, been in court virtually continuously
    26        for the last seven or eight weeks, apart from, I think,
    27        three or four days, that has not left any time to kind of
    28        catch up or even look into things that have cropped up
    29        during the day.
    30
    31        So, it is difficult because there is very little time to
    32        play with now in terms of this term, and I think a lot of
    33        the problem is identifying what the legal matters are that
    34        we should make submissions on, because as we have gone
    35        through the case notes have been or have not been written
    36        -- I have not got anyone doing notes for me -- it is as
    37        much as I can to follow what is going on, let alone make
    38        notes and then chase up on those notes to say that is
    39        something I should have looked into, because when you look
    40        at something from three or four months ago you think,
    41         "Blimey, that was a really important point and it never
    42        got followed up".  So, a lot of the problem is even finding
    43        the notes that have been made to find out what the issues
    44        are that have been passed by.  An example was today over
    45        the -- Mr. Rampton had said, for example, that witness
    46        statements could not be used as evidence in the case when
    47        we applied to do it, and then when he wanted to do it he
    48        was using -- he was trying to use as evidence something in
    49        my witness statement, and I know that came out -----
    50 
    51   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Subject to anything which Mr. Rampton 
    52        produces, I am in your favour on that.  I think there is a 
    53        different situation, which I tried to explain, in my mind
    54        at the moment so far as response to interrogatories is
    55        concerned.
    56
    57   MR. MORRIS:  Yes.
    58
    59   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I must make a decision on this, and what
    60        I will direct is that you and Ms. Steel must start your

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