Day 279 - 12 Jul 96 - Page 28
1 more concerned about is that if there is something which
2 might not be obvious that I should be told about it. But
3 what I suggest you do is let Mrs Brinley-Codd check your
4 note and then an agreed list of corrections, which it is
5 thought are important enough to bring to my attention, can
6 be sent to Mr. Glen.
7
8 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, just a few very short matters, I will not
9 detain anybody very long with any of this. It would be a
10 great help to me, I do not know about anybody else, if
11 before the end of next week your Lordship would give an
12 indication, if inclined to do so, which your Lordship may
13 not be, first of all obviously the time, the date when you
14 would like those submissions to be made. Secondly, without
15 laying down, I am not asking for rules or regulations, but
16 the sort of form and length which your Lordship would find
17 convenient in a case of this size.
18
19 I made a suggestion the other day, I am not convinced
20 it was a terribly good suggestion, but it was one that way
21 of doing it that occurred to me. I am not asking your
22 Lordship to give me an indication now.
23
24 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I have an idea in my mind. What I think is
25 absolutely essential is to finish submissions comfortably
26 before the end of next term.
27
28 MS. STEEL: Is there a date for the end of next term? We never
29 know what the dates are.
30
31 MR. RAMPTON: There is, but I cannot say what it is.
32
33 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It is normally around 21st December. I mean,
34 in another case I would have asked both sides to reduce
35 their submissions to writing. I do not actually think it
36 would be productive to insist on that from the defendants,
37 for a variety of reasons I need not go through. If I am
38 not going to call on the defendants to do it, I am not
39 going to ask you to do it, Mr. Rampton. If you choose to
40 do it, it would be very welcome. But, as I am not going to
41 direct that the defendants do, I am not going to direct
42 that you do.
43
44 What seems to me to be fair, because I think everyone
45 should have a fair amount of time to prepare and deliver
46 their submissions, but a stage comes where the public
47 interest steps in. From Monday 22nd July to Monday 7th
48 October is eleven weeks. If we resumed then, as I am quite
49 convinced everyone ought to be able to, ready to go on
50 submissions, there would be one week which could be
51 available for formal proofs, if necessary, but otherwise
52 submissions could start. Then, after that one week, there
53 are about nine weeks to the end of term.
54
55 It seems to me that from now, or Monday 22nd July, to
56 Monday 7th October, allowing a period of complete break
57 from the case, is enough to prepare submissions. If they
58 are taking longer than that to prepare, they have got too
59 complicated. It is, in fact, although I have not reasoned
60 it out in this way by doing a sum, it would be the
