Day 087 - 10 Feb 95 - Page 23
1 be saying, "Do not pay much attention to their views
2 because they are in the pay of one of the Plaintiffs", but
3 that is not an attack on their expertise. That is an
4 attack on their impartiality. What you are really doing
5 here is saying, "This is a scientific paper. Therefore,
6 I am entitled to treat any assertion of fact in it as
7 evidence of that fact".
8
9 MS. STEEL: Can I finish this one for a minute? If there was a
10 scientific report saying that we have investigated
11 advertising and it completely brain washes children, and we
12 put that to Mr. Hawkes and said, "Do you not think you
13 ought to stop using advertisements because the effect is
14 you are brainwashing children?", is that something we would
15 be allowed to do?
16
17 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You would because Mr. Hawkes is, to some
18 extent, an expert. You would certainly be able to test him
19 on that and he might agree or he might say, "The person who
20 wrote that is very eminent, but I do not agree with his
21 view", and you would be entitled to have that reaction from
22 Mr. Hawkes.
23
24 MS. STEEL: Even if he had just been in the advertising job for
25 a year and he could not possibly be called an expert by any
26 stretch of the imagination, could we still put an expert
27 report to him saying that then?
28
29 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I cannot see any point in doing that.
30 I might not stop you but I cannot see where you were trying
31 to go, because you were asking someone who you, yourself,
32 would assert is not an expert to give an expert view on
33 something.
34
35 MS. STEEL: No, but to say, "Do you not think you ought to stop
36 your advertising for this reason"?
37
38 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No, that would not be the right question.
39 The question would be: If it were a fact that this kind of
40 advertising is brainwashing children, then you ask your
41 question and to me you then say, "The hypothesis we put to
42 Mr. Hawkes was a correct one in fact. Look at the expert
43 opinion we have called in relation to that".
44
45 MS. STEEL: I do not understand. Can you ask a witness of fact
46 about a scientific journal, a scientific report, an expert
47 report, a published expert report?
48
49 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, it would depend, would it not -- and I am
50 trying to be helpful -- whether the person, such as
51 Mr. Hawkes or Mr. Green, could be expected in the course of
52 a long experience in a job to have known about that. It
53 could go to his credibility as a witness, and the extent to
54 which he is entitled to put himself forward as an
55 experienced person who knows what his business is about.
56 The other example Ms. Steel gave plainly cannot be done.
57 It would have to be done in the way your Lordship put it.
58
59 MR. MORRIS: This all came out because of the Preston report.
60 We wanted to put that report to the Plaintiffs' witnesses,
