Day 138 - 20 Jun 95 - Page 19


     
     1
     2   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Maybe that is so.
     3
     4   MS. STEEL:  Can I just add, I actually think there has been
     5        serious leading going on for quite a while, not just in the
     6        questions that have been asked but also in the manner that
     7        they have been put, saying them in a tone of voice which is
     8        designed to pour scorn on the fact that anyone could even
     9        suggest such a thing.  I really think that Mr. Rampton
    10        ought to be a bit more careful and just put the questions
    11        in a neutral way without any hint in his tone of voice.
    12
    13   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  All I can say in my 30 years' experience
    14        I have heard nothing this morning which I think goes beyond
    15        what is perfectly normal when you have got a witness, the
    16        drift of whose evidence is completely clear, and one is
    17        trying to get through it as effectively as possible.  Where
    18        we go wrong and where leading questions it seems to
    19        me -- if you insist on saying there should be no leading
    20        questions, strictly there cannot be but the whole trial
    21        then will virtually grind to a halt.  Where it is obvious
    22        what the drift and tenor of a witness's evidence is
    23        I actually see no harm in leading questions of the kind
    24        Mr. Rampton has asked, and the same will apply, and has
    25        applied, when you are calling similar witnesses.
    26
    27   MS. STEEL:  It is interesting that with the apparent leading and
    28        tone in the voice that Mr. Rampton has been using this
    29        morning, Mr. Stein has given substantially different
    30        answers to the position given by other witnesses from the
    31        Company.
    32
    33   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You pick that up in cross-examination if you
    34        will.  But, quite frankly, I am going to judge each witness
    35        as he comes along.  The first question is to decide whether
    36        they are intending to be honest and then supposing that
    37        question in my mind is decided in their favour, or you have
    38        not even challenged the question of whether they are
    39        honest, I have to look at the question of reliability.
    40
    41        By and large the most noticeable effect of asking a leading
    42        question is that if there is any challenge to its
    43        reliability, the answer might be thought to be inherently
    44        less reliable than if the question is put in a non-leading
    45        form.  Before we get down to that, we have to see just what
    46        the issue is and what the evidence deployed on one side or
    47        another is at the end of the day.  Try and stay relaxed
    48        about leading questions at least when they relate to
    49        matters of policy where it is obvious Mr. Stein feels able
    50        to support McDonald's policy.  When we come to questions of 
    51        particular fact, for instance, why someone, just as a 
    52        detailed example, slipped on the floor or something of that 
    53        kind, then one has to be careful not to ask leading
    54        questions, I agree.
    55
    56   MR. RAMPTON:  Mr. Stein, can I ask you this because, in fairness
    57        to you, it may be important.  Have you given any answers in
    58        response to any of my questions, whether leading otherwise,
    59        this morning or yesterday which were not honest?
    60        A.  No, sir not at all.  I have complete understanding and

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