Day 187 - 13 Nov 95 - Page 47
1 is what used to be called the Whitsun week comes. It is
2 usually the last week of May, but I do not know if that is
3 so in 1996. It was the end of May this year, I know that
4 is correct. But I really have no idea of what -----
5
6 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That is why I ask.
7
8 MR. RAMPTON: I am sorry, I do not know.
9
10 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Your prognosis really takes us up to the end
11 of that half?
12
13 MR. RAMPTON: It does really, and if we lose eight days for one
14 reason or another, judicial duties and Ms. Steel's family
15 concerns, then, of course, it may go beyond that so far as
16 the evidence is concerned. Of course, there are all sorts
17 of possibilities. It may be that all these witnesses will
18 not be called.
19
20 MR. JUSTICE BELL: We will have to wait and see.
21
22 MS. STEEL: If I could just say something. I mean, firstly
23 I do not really see why the Heathrow issue should take a
24 whole week; none of the other individual incidents have
25 taken a whole week. I mean, I might be wrong, but I get
26 the impression this might be kind of scare tactics from the
27 Plaintiffs to make it look as though things are going to
28 take longer than they are.
29
30 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I would not interpret it that way, quite
31 frankly. Generally speaking, regrettably -- and I am not
32 blaming anyone for it -- things have taken longer than they
33 were expected.
34
35 MS. STEEL: Yes, but ----
36
37 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That must be the most obvious statement which
38 has been made in this court in the last year and a half.
39
40 MS. STEEL: I understand that, but I really do not see why,
41 particularly because Mr. Rampton is making a continual big
42 fuss about no evidence on this and no evidence on that,
43 I really do not see why the Heathrow thing should take a
44 whole week.
45
46 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I must say, I think you are being a bit
47 touchy about that, because other things may take less as
48 well and other things may take longer. It is certainly not
49 going to influence me that two days has been put in for one
50 thing and two weeks for another. Sometimes the evidence
51 which turns a case is given in one sentence.
52
53 MS. STEEL: I am not being touchy about it. I am just offering
54 my opinions on the schedule, and it appears to me that,
55 say, five days to discuss the Heathrow incident is a lot --
56 appears to be a lot more than is necessary. Likewise, just
57 another example, the Watkins/Paterson business, that is
58 just a video that takes seven minutes at most. I really do
59 not see how cross-examination of Miss Watkins could take
60 longer than half a day at the very most.
