Day 308 - 28 Nov 96 - Page 42


     
     1        The way it looks to me at the moment is that if you do want
     2        to address me on the law in addition to any written
     3        submissions you would like to put before me, and if you do
     4        want to ask me for an opportunity to reply to what
     5        Mr. Rampton has written or says in relation to your
     6        counterclaim, you should be prepared to do those things the
     7        week after next.
     8
     9   MS. STEEL:   Obviously, we have not got the counterclaim
    10        argument yet.  So that needs to be taken into account.
    11
    12   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Very well.  We will have to see how it goes
    13        on that.  By all means, read as much as you can in the time
    14        available to you of what is in these bundles.  You set
    15        about it in your own sensible way, trying to pick what it
    16        is important to read first.  But, as you are well aware
    17        from rulings I have made from time to time this term,
    18        I propose to keep to what the normal practice is so far as
    19        speeches are concerned, unless there is a good reason to
    20        depart from it in this particular case.  That means that
    21        you have addressed me on all the topics which relate to the
    22        claim -- and I am only at the moment foreseeing that
    23        I might say, yes, you may address me after Mr. Rampton in
    24        relation to counterclaim and matters of the law.  But you
    25        are not to think, when you have read what, for instance,
    26        Mr. Rampton has written on food poisoning, "Oh, well, we
    27        want to say something about that", because, for better or
    28        worse, our procedures are, as you are well aware from
    29        rulings I have made this term, that the Defendants go first
    30        and then the Plaintiffs, and then that is it; the judge has
    31        to go away and make what he will of it all.
    32
    33   MR. MORRIS:  Can I just say one other thing about the facts and
    34        fair comments ---
    35
    36   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.
    37
    38   MR. MORRIS: -- analysis of the fact sheet, which me and Helen
    39        were going to do after we finished, and get legal advice on
    40        that.  So, that is not something that would bother you if
    41        it came after we read this, or anything like that?
    42
    43   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What I want you to do is, when Mr. Rampton
    44        has finished, I want you to stand up; if you want to
    45        address me on certain matters, tell me what they are, and
    46        I will say "yes" or "no".
    47
    48   MR. MORRIS:  Right.  But can we assume that the fact and fair
    49        comment thing is something you want us to do?
    50 
    51   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I think it would be helpful as part of your 
    52        submissions on law.  So far as what is fact and what is 
    53        comment, at the moment, the note I have is that the stand
    54        you appear to me to have taken so far is that the headlines
    55        or subheadlines which come throughout this leaflet, save
    56        for when we get to employment, are comment and that the
    57        rest is fact, save, perhaps, for one statement at the end
    58        of the section on rainforests about "when you bite into a
    59        Big Mac", et cetera.
    60

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