Day 157 - 18 Jul 95 - Page 27
1 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Where is your central funds provision?
2
3 MR. MORRIS: Well, it says, "... costs of a litigant in person
4 [can] be paid by any other party to the proceedings or in
5 any other way", which I cannot see any other way except for
6 public funds which, I believe, to be the Lord Chancellor's
7 Department, because if the courts are paying whatever it is
8 a day, œ6,000 or œ7,000 a day for these proceedings for the
9 incourt costs, official costs, then the additional extra
10 needed to provide transcripts to the Defendants, which is
11 absolutely fundamental -----
12
13 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, but in order to make the order for costs
14 to be paid in any other way one has to have a power. There
15 are certain circumstances in which a court can order that
16 someone who is not party to the proceedings pay the costs
17 of a party. There are certain circumstances in which the
18 court can order that costs be paid out of public funds, but
19 one has to have the power to order that they are paid out
20 of public funds before one can order them to be paid in
21 that way. Then this section says made such an order which,
22 first of all, you have to have power to make, and then
23 there is provision for determination of the costs in
24 various ways.
25
26 MR. MORRIS: I would argue that this and the last authority,
27 which was Order 62, rule 3 that we referred to, clearly
28 indicates that the court does have the discretion to order
29 costs to be met of litigants in person, and that really it
30 is up to the Plaintiffs to argue that there is some
31 authority limiting that so that in this case it cannot be
32 exercised. Having established that there is that
33 discretion, then we would argue that it should be used for
34 our benefit because this case cries out for that.
35
36 There can probably not have been such a comparable case in
37 British history that cried out for public funds to be used
38 for the benefits of unrepresented Defendants in such a long
39 case, in such an imbalanced case, compared to the resources
40 of the other side.
41
42 So what we are asking for is not the equivalent of full
43 legal aid, but we are asking for the costs of transcripts
44 to be met from public funds and, in effect, it is probably
45 even going to be less than the full price if the Plaintiffs
46 would agree to provide a copy of their -- if they wish
47 copying charges to be paid for, then the State can pay œ20,
48 or whatever it is, to Barnett Lenton for that purpose. Of
49 course, the Plaintiffs can waive their condition which they
50 have refused to which would give them, in order to keep a
51 commercial advantage for themselves, that we are unable to
52 get the transcripts for three weeks at the cheaper price of
53 œ20 a day; but I am sure they could be asked to reconsider
54 that if the court is minded to pay for the costs out of
55 public funds.
56
57 There is something which I was advised about which I am not
58 very clear on myself, but I would like to say it - about
59 interim taxation of costs on a weekly basis, that we can
60 seek the interim taxation of costs on a weekly basis. In
