Day 311 - 06 Dec 96 - Page 61


     
     1
     2        They have got their legal submissions and I am not going to
     3        be particular, as I indicated some time ago, as to whether
     4        they are strictly responding to new material which you have
     5        brought in or just putting legal points generally, and
     6        finally they may want to put in written submissions,
     7        principally further references to transcripts or documents,
     8        on issues of fact.
     9
    10        The question is: what sort of timetable we should have for
    11        that.
    12
    13   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, I cannot deal with that.  All I have to
    14        say is the time is now getting a bit tight.  I am
    15        desperately anxious we should, as your Lordship, I know,
    16        is, although you might not use those words, to finish the
    17        case this term.
    18
    19   MR. JUSTICE BELL: At the moment I do not see any risk of not
    20        doing so.  It is a question of just how we fix the dates.
    21
    22        So, what is the position?  You can address me on any of
    23        those matters this afternoon if you want.  I suggest, in
    24        fact, it might be better to leave it until Monday unless
    25        there is -- or not necessarily Monday, but leave it over
    26        unless there is something you do want to say.
    27
    28   MR. MORRIS:  Right.  Well, I mean, the honest situation is,
    29        although we have had some legal volunteers who had looked
    30        into some of the legal matters that we said we would be
    31        bringing up, which we identified in the schedule of our
    32        closing submissions before we started, the reality is that
    33        we have not had time to chase things up and check them and
    34        amend them, or whatever.  This weekend we are going to do
    35        that job and, as like everything else, it has all been left
    36        to the last minute because we have had continual pressure.
    37
    38   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Tell me when you think you will have them
    39        word-processed up.
    40
    41   MR. MORRIS:  I was saying to Helen at lunchtime we would like to
    42        make a submission to do the legal matters at the beginning
    43        of next term, and we did not think it would make much
    44        progress if we made that application.
    45
    46   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  No, it would not.
    47
    48   MR. MORRIS:  That would be, honestly, what we would require to
    49        do, you know, a 30 per cent good job compared to the
    50        Plaintiffs' side, because of their experience and 
    51        resources. 
    52 
    53        So, it may be thought, well, it does not matter, it is just
    54        a few legal points and Mr. Rampton has given the court the
    55        benefit of his experience, but because of the adversarial
    56        system we have in this country, obviously, Mr. Rampton has
    57        coloured and interpreted the law as favourably as possible
    58        for his clients, which is only to be expected.
    59
    60   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I do not think he has.

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