Day 147 - 04 Jul 95 - Page 33


     
     1        CaseView until such time as the Defendants -- and I am not
     2        talking about months or even weeks; I am talking about a
     3        week or so -- until the Defendants have had time enough to
     4        find somebody who can take a proper note.  In other words,
     5        there would be no need for an adjournment, because we would
     6        go on supplying the transcripts and the full CaseView
     7        equipment until such time as such a notetaker had been
     8        found.
     9
    10   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  So what you are suggesting is that for a
    11        period of time, if I ruled, essentially, in your favour --
    12        leaving aside for the moment the question of whether I have
    13        a copy of the transcript or not -- you would continue for
    14        some days to provide transcripts and CaseView?
    15
    16   MR. RAMPTON:  Yes, my Lord.  I have no wish at all to embarrass
    17        the Defendants in the conduct of this case.  I have every
    18        wish to embarrass and inhibit them in the distribution, the
    19        illegitimate distribution, of selective pieces of the
    20        transcript.  To that end, I am willing to provide every
    21        facility and every indulgence to allow them to get their
    22        house in order.  I have offered for them to accept what we
    23        would say is a perfectly reasonable undertaking.  If they
    24        refuse to give it, then we -- and no doubt your Lordship --
    25        will draw our own conclusions.
    26
    27   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Can you help me on one other matter which
    28        I think you should reply to or, at least, should have the
    29        opportunity of replying to, and that is the suggestion that
    30        a transcript, once it is in your possession, is a
    31        discoverable document.
    32
    33   MR. RAMPTON:  No, my Lord.  It plainly is not.  Discovery
    34        relates to documents in the hands of a party  -- "hands" is
    35        short for possession, custody or power -- hands of a party
    36        which are relevant to an issue in the case.  It is not an
    37        issue in the case what the witness said yesterday.  It
    38        might be an issue in the case what the witness had said the
    39        day before he gave evidence, but, once he has given
    40        evidence and it is in court, it is no longer an issue in
    41        the case.
    42
    43        On that basis, my Lord, the judge's notes would be
    44        disclosable, or might be.  He could be subpoenaed,
    45        perhaps.  If a party happened to have taken a rotten note
    46        of a day's hearing, he could demand discovery of the other
    47        side's written notes, or he could subpoena the notes of a
    48        reporter who was sitting in court.
    49
    50   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  The very final thing -- I am sorry to bring 
    51        you to your feet again, Mr. Rampton -- is the question of 
    52        whether you should have the CaseView technology if others 
    53        do not.
    54
    55   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, I cannot see why not.  We are paying for
    56        it.  We have not been making any misuse of what we have
    57        been paying for.  We have not been interfering with the
    58        course of justice.  Indeed, we might be assisting it,
    59        because we have the only independent contemporaneous record
    60        of what was said in court, apart from your Lordship's

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