Day 187 - 13 Nov 95 - Page 49


     
     1        case is run through the evidence, finish the evidence, then
     2        you have speeches.
     3
     4        If it has been a complicated case, the practice has arisen
     5        of the judge giving the parties a few days before they make
     6        their speeches.  In your case I appreciate you need more
     7        than that, but the reason I raise it is this:  Suppose
     8        I fixed on a figure which is somewhere between four to six
     9        weeks, or even half a term, to prepare speeches.
    10
    11        In this case where, even now, and certainly by next term,
    12        you will have had all the evidence on certain topics bar
    13        what you have got to say, yourself, on those topics, if,
    14        for instance, we find that something like Heathrow takes
    15        one and a half days rather than a week, then you have three
    16        days in that week where you can turn your mind to some of
    17        the work you have to do for speeches.
    18
    19        This is all a rather long-winded way of saying you can use
    20        that time, as the case goes on, to think about what you
    21        might say to me at the end, thereby abbreviating the period
    22        of time which it is necessary to take between the formal
    23        closing of all the parties' cases; that is the finishing of
    24        the evidence and starting to make the submissions.
    25
    26        I am being, some people would think, very relaxed about
    27        losing a day or two here and a day or two there, partly
    28        because I do not want to run you into the ground, but also
    29        because you can use that time, thereby saving some of the
    30        time which you might well be allowed between the end of the
    31        evidence and the beginning of your speeches.
    32
    33   MS. STEEL:  I do not know -- I feel like I have to say really
    34        that it is just not possible certainly for me to do that.
    35        I have got a very small flat.  I cannot have out more than
    36        one set of documents at a time, and to get out one set and
    37        look at them for a day and then I have to get out the other
    38        set to look at them to prepare for the next witness, and
    39        things like that, I would completely lose my train of
    40        thought about, you know, preparing for the closing speech
    41        and for the next witness to come, and it is -- on the days
    42        that we have off I have other problems to sort out, like
    43        housing benefit being cut off and things like that and --
    44        I do not know.
    45
    46   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  There are two things:  First of all, I am
    47        afraid I do not accept your first point because I have been
    48        doing just the same thing, and all one needs to do is sit
    49        down for ten minutes and make a list of which witness'
    50        statements you need and the transcripts of their evidence, 
    51        if you want to look at the transcripts, and which 
    52        particular bundles and you can make notes as you go along 
    53        that you have got to look back at this document or that
    54        document.  If I can take home a briefcase enough to do that
    55        sort of thing, or carry it myself out to my room, you can
    56        do just the same.
    57
    58        I agree that if it is a question of having an hour and a
    59        half, by the time you have opened everything up it is
    60        almost time to close it again.  But if you have a whole

Prev Next Index