Day 165 - 27 Sep 95 - Page 41
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2 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Apart from anything else, in some ways it is
3 an advantage to you if you do have one or two dates like
4 that which are not all part of a block, because otherwise
5 when you come to your block, you may find you have one, two
6 or three witnesses who say: "I am sorry, I cannot do it
7 any time during that three or four-week block" for some
8 reason. You might find there is someone who is grateful to
9 come along on 18th and/or 19th.
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11 MR. MORRIS: I was going to see if there was anything else
12 I wanted to say on this subject.
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14 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I have another suggestion to make. I wanted
15 to ask Mr. Rampton first. If, in principle, I thought it
16 reasonable that we should work in court just two days of
17 the half term week ---
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19 MR. RAMPTON: That is entirely a matter for your Lordship.
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21 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Is there any reason from your side of the
22 court why it should be any particular two days during that
23 week?
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25 MR. RAMPTON: None at all. I would rather it was three but
26 there it is. None at all.
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28 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What I suggest that you do, and I address
29 you, Mr. Morris, because it maybe you are most concerned
30 with the employment witnesses, having done your best to
31 fill the 18th and 19th with employment evidence, I would
32 like you to do your best to fill any two days of the half
33 term week also with employment evidence. You have some
34 slack there which will help you because I am totally
35 indifferent and it does not concern Mr. Rampton which two
36 days they are. So, they do not necessarily even have to be
37 back-to-back days, though it would be probably more
38 convenient if they were. So, you can choose two days which
39 suit your convenience and the witnesses you manage to get
40 to come along.
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42 MR. MORRIS: OK. Obviously, we will try to firm up at least
43 some kind of skeleton of a schedule for our employment
44 witnesses the closer we get to actually calling them.
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46 MR. RAMPTON: I hope it is obvious. I have to cross-examine the
47 witnesses, therefore, I do require some sort of notice of
48 the order in which they are going to be called; a couple of
49 days beforehand is simply not good enough.
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51 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What it seemed to me it would be sensible to
52 do is to do your very best by the beginning of the week of
53 Monday 9th October and if we have Monday and/or Tuesday
54 10th as preparation days, certainly at the latest when we
55 come back on the morning of Wednesday 11th, to say what
56 your batting order for Wednesday 18th, Thursday 19th and
57 two days of the half term week is. Then what you should
58 also be trying to do is to fill the week beginning Monday
59 30th October. When I say "fill", I will be understanding
60 about the odd short day. What I suggest is that the
