Day 157 - 18 Jul 95 - Page 49
1 For the same reasons the Commission considers
2 that it has not been shown to be unreasonable or
3 arbitrary to give low priority to any reform of
4 litigation procedures in defamation, however
5 desirable such reform may be. Furthermore, the
6 Commission does not consider that the lack of
7 restriction on any award of damages affects the
8 applicants claiming to be unemployed and
9 penniless. Should they lose the defamation
10 case, account will be taken of their income in
11 any attempt to enforce an over burdensome
12 award."
13
14 None of that, of course, applicable in this case:
15
16 "In the circumstances the Commission finds that
17 there are reasonable and objective grounds for
18 the state not to provide special assistance to
19 litigants in defamation proceedings. It follows
20 that this part of their application is
21 manifestly ill-founded within the meaning of
22 article 27.2."
23
24 My Lord, if that be the law of the European Convention on
25 Human Rights so far as it affects the Defendants in this
26 case, and if that law be that the suggestion that they were
27 being unfairly treated under article 6 and article 14
28 because of a lack of legal aid was manifestly ill-founded,
29 so must it follow (as night follows day) that the present
30 application for payment for transcripts, whether by
31 McDonald's or by the government, is manifestly ill-founded
32 under that same jurisprudence.
33
34 My Lord, I do not leave that there because knowing your
35 Lordship, as (to some extent) I now do, I am bound to
36 accept that your Lordship will ask and answer the
37 question: How unfair, in fact, is McDonald's, or is the
38 effect of McDonald's decision to terminate the provision of
39 the transcripts to the Defendants at this stage in the case
40 absent the undertaking to which I shall return in a moment?
41
42 My Lord, first of all note taking. True it is that the
43 taking of a good note requires a certain amount of skill,
44 practice and experience. True it is not that anybody who
45 has taken a note ever writes down everything that is said.
46 One writes down what one thinks is significant. One does
47 exactly the same thing when one reads a transcript. Since
48 it is a contemporaneous note it is a very good reminder or
49 memento of what one thought was important at the time.
50
51 Second, my Lord, there is, of course, your Lordship's note
52 so if there should be any dispute about what anybody was
53 saying at any particular time that can be cured. As a long
54 stop to that there will, of course, be available in our
55 hands the actual transcript to resolve any such question.
56 On top of that the Defendants will, of course, continue to
57 have the CaseView screens operating daily in the court in
58 case they should fall behind with their note, in case they
59 should want to look back at what any witness had said, and
60 so on and so forth.
