Day 157 - 18 Jul 95 - Page 12
1 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, may I make an objection? I will not sit
2 here and listen to my submissions being deliberately
3 misrepresented for the benefit of the waiting press and
4 public. Your Lordship knows that the whole basis of the
5 stance which we have taken is that the Defendants have been
6 using the transcripts over a period of time to generate
7 misleading and damaging reports of the evidence. That is
8 the whole and only basis for it.
9
10 MS. STEEL: As I said on a previous occasion, if the statements
11 that have been reported are inaccurate they cannot have
12 been taken from the transcripts, and if they are accurate,
13 then Mr. Rampton has absolutely nothing to complain about.
14
15 MR. JUSTICE BELL: All I am doing is giving you the opportunity,
16 which you can either accept or reject, to explain to me or
17 put your argument on how you will be handicapped in the
18 conduct of your action in court or how your preparation of
19 the case will be interfered with, which is the ways you
20 have expressed the matter, if you obtain copies of the
21 transcript on the conditions set out in Barlow Lyde and
22 Gilbert's letter dated 17th July.
23
24 You do not have to respond to that, but I am making sure
25 that you are aware that it is a matter in my mind and,
26 therefore, I am expressly giving you the opportunity, not
27 necessarily now but at some stage in your argument, to tell
28 me.
29
30 MS. STEEL: Firstly, they have no right to impose those
31 conditions and, secondly, it will have an effect on us
32 because we will be intimidated; we will be frightened to
33 speak about what is going on in this case. If we are
34 frightened to speak about what is going on in this case
35 that will prevent us potentially meeting further
36 witnesses. It will prevent us getting potential advice
37 from anybody else that we talk to, friends, family,
38 whatever; they all have made helpful suggestions in the
39 past and no doubt they will in the future, but if we are
40 afraid to tell them what is going on in the case we will
41 not have any of that benefit. It will affect our conduct
42 of this case.
43
44 MR. MORRIS: I will try and go back to the plan that I had.
45 I will cover all the points that you have raised.
46
47 McDonald's have asserted that we could rely on taking our
48 own notes of the proceedings whilst, of course,
49 simultaneously doing cross-examination and making legal
50 submissions and preparing questions and cross-referencing
51 answers, and all that kind of thing.
52
53 Mr. Rampton added it is hard work, of course, and I know
54 that in some senses the Defendants are resistant to that.
55 It is not for the press. The point is that Mr. Rampton
56 seems to think there is something wrong with us if we are
57 unable to take verbatim notes whilst conducting our case in
58 court, never mind cross-referencing their notes or even
59 being able to read them because my handwriting is so poor.
60
