Day 166 - 28 Sep 95 - Page 06
1
2 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I think it is for Mr. Atkinson. I was going
3 to let both Mr. Atkinsons, as it were, get going and then
4 depending on how we went ask if you wanted to take it as
5 read.
6
7 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, may I intervene at this point because it
8 concerns the general management of the case. If my
9 witnesses are to be expected to aver their statements and
10 then expose themselves, as it were, without more ado to
11 cross-examination, I will expect the Defendants to do the
12 same.
13
14 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I tell you one way we can do it. In a sense
15 it is incredibly boring, but it might be justified in this
16 case, which would be for, in this instance, Mr. Timothy
17 Atkinson to read out loud this statement and then ask is
18 there anything which you would wish to modify in relation
19 to that. It is a half way house. It is not a course one
20 would adopt in most litigation because it is just time
21 consuming, but it might get over a concern on either side
22 that if statements are taken as read, the parts of the
23 witnesses' evidence which are declared in public are the
24 parts where they maybe making concessions rather than
25 making assertions which might be favourable to the party
26 who has called them. I am saying this when a McDonald's
27 witness is in the box, but it would apply equally well to a
28 witness which Ms. Steel or Mr. Morris called. Is there any
29 merit in that course?
30
31 MR. RAMPTON: There is a great deal of merit in it, with every
32 respect to your Lordship. I believe it is a marvellous
33 idea because what it avoids is that awful phenomenon which
34 has happened from time to time -- sometimes on our side,
35 more often on the Defendants' side for reasons which are
36 obvious -- that there suddenly starts a great departure
37 from what is in the written statement.
38
39 I am not saying that, the statement having been read and
40 the witness having said: "Yes, in principle, that is all
41 right", there should not be allowances; I think there
42 should for the odd supplementary question here or there,
43 certainly. But it will save an enormous amount of time.
44
45 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It will save time. It will also mean that
46 the traumatic arthritis in my right hand might be postponed
47 for a year or two. Not to be facetious, one can just keep
48 up rather better.
49
50 MR. MORRIS: Can I say why I raise it now is because I do not
51 think any of the Plaintiffs' witnesses on employment have
52 had their statement taken as read. Therefore, it means
53 extra work checking. I am not saying they have to because
54 it is entirely, you know, their decision, but I know that
55 as we are not getting transcripts the following day, we are
56 under an obligation to write down as much as we possibly
57 can. It helps if we have the statement we can work on.
58
59 Their statements are very carefully considered, very
60 detailed, very clear. They have obviously been done with a
