Day 187 - 13 Nov 95 - Page 48


     
     1
     2   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It may not matter at the end of the day.
     3        Have you or Mr. Morris thought about how long you are
     4        contemplating asking the case be adjourned for between the
     5        end of the evidence and the beginning of speeches?  Had you
     6        thought about that?
     7
     8   MR. MORRIS:  I would not like to put a figure on it, but .....
     9
    10   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I think you have got to because I think you
    11        have got to ask me -- I am not saying I will give it; I do
    12        not have the first idea what it is at the moment.
    13
    14   MR. MORRIS:  I did bring it up before, if you remember, maybe a
    15        year ago or maybe even nine months ago, this issue, and I
    16        said something to the effect of I will have to read two
    17        hundred days of transcripts, which will be probably 250 by
    18        then, and I probably doubt if anyone can read more than
    19        three days' transcript in one day to make any sense of it.
    20
    21        Now, obviously, everybody is under pressure to finish the
    22        case as soon as humanly possible, but the reality is there
    23        is no point in having a case if you cannot sum it up and
    24        put your case effectively and there is a lot of information
    25        to get through.  So, you know, we are going-----
    26
    27   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You are not going to have time between the
    28        end of the evidence to read all the transcripts.  There is
    29        no possibility of that.  One has only got to do a few sums
    30        to realise how long that will involve, and the reason
    31        I raise it is this.  It is not really helpful either.  You
    32        must have a lot of the main points in your mind.  I mean,
    33        it is just as well we air it now.
    34
    35   MR. MORRIS:  We would certainly apply to be heard second.
    36
    37   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  No, I refuse that.  There is no -- you have
    38        raised that before.  There is no good reason for changing
    39        the order of speeches.
    40
    41   MR. MORRIS:  It would help us in our appreciation of what it
    42        means to make a closing speech.
    43
    44   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I am not going to do it ---
    45
    46   MR. MORRIS:  And we can have more time -----
    47
    48   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  -- so you must work on the basis that you are
    49        going first.  Every defendant in every case could say, "It
    50        would help me if the plaintiff makes his final submissions 
    51        before I do". 
    52 
    53   MR. MORRIS:  I think this is an unusual case and we are not
    54        represented.
    55
    56   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Certainly, but I am not going to accede to
    57        that.  The reason I mention it is this:  It may well be
    58        that I contemplate something like four weeks or six weeks
    59        to prepare your final speeches, and if I was contemplating
    60        a figure like that normally, of course, what one does in a

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