Day 070 - 20 Dec 94 - Page 47
1 morning, at the beginning of the day -----
2
3 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Both parties should serve any documents they
4 intend to use absolutely as soon as possible. If that
5 means serving them at 4.30 one afternoon, rather than half
6 past 10 the following morning, they should be served in the
7 afternoon.
8
9 So far as indexes and bundles are concerned, that is a
10 matter for both sides. I hardly need say that it would
11 help me, if someone can find time, where documents have
12 been added to bundles, to say where the index at the
13 beginning of the bundle should be amended. But it is a
14 joint thing; it is on both sides, because both sides have
15 put in extra documents.
16
17 MR. MORRIS: We are quite prepared to co-operate with the
18 Plaintiffs in ensuring that we have up-to-date indexes, and
19 whatever. I think the case will get more and more chaotic
20 the longer it goes on, with everyone scrabbling around to
21 find where documents have been put. If they are falling
22 out of bundles, then new bundles systems ought to be made.
23
24 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I have managed, so far as I am aware, so
25 far. What I do not have is up-to-date indices at the front
26 of each bundle, like the pink sheets which appear in some
27 bundles. It would be helpful if that could be provided.
28
29 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, we will do the best we can. One problem
30 is that when the Defendants -- and it happens far more
31 frequently in their case than it does ours -- serve a whole
32 lot of documents as the witness appears in the witness box,
33 they only ever provide one copy. That is not a criticism;
34 it is a fact of life. The result of that has been that
35 Mrs. Brinley-Codd is not up to date on the Defendants'
36 documents, which makes a difficulty when it comes to
37 preparing indices and deciding where documents should go in
38 the bundle. The solution to that is for Mr. Morris to do a
39 bit of work and produce a list of all the documents he has
40 produced during the course of the case -- and it will be a
41 very, very large number -- during the course of the
42 evidence, and send it to Mrs. Brinley-Codd.
43
44 MR. MORRIS: I certainly could not do that.
45
46 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What I would have thought might happen on
47 your side, just to help, if for no other reason than to
48 assist you to be able to put your finger on a document at
49 fairly short notice, Mr. Rampton, is that in so far as
50 Mrs. Brinley-Codd, or those who assist her, can do indices
51 at the front be brought up-to-date. If and when that
52 happens, if Mr. Morris or Ms. Steel think there are some
53 documents in there which are not indexed, then it is for
54 them to find and identify them.
55
56 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, yes. But there is only one sure route,
57 or relatively sure route, to the composition of such an
58 index, which is to trawl the transcripts. I do not see why
59 somebody at Barlow Lyde & Gilbert should do that with the
60 Defendants' documents, at the expense of McDonald's, when
