Day 292 - 01 Nov 96 - Page 07
1 they are hoping to be ready towards the end of November.
2 We can see them working on them in court.
3 Mrs. Brinley-Codd is working on some of the employment
4 figures and things like that, which we have not even had a
5 chance to look at.
6
7 Basically, we are more or less doing it on our own.
8 Because we realised the impossibility of reading all the
9 transcripts, we did ask some other people to help out by
10 reading some of the transcripts relating to certain of the
11 issues, but nobody who is helping us is familiar with all
12 the issues, nobody who is helping us has been in court on
13 anything like more than a few days, and we have to check
14 what they produce to see whether or not it ties in with
15 what the issues have become over the course of the trial.
16 Often they do not grasp the points that need to be
17 covered. In any event, we have to put it together all in
18 one piece. And we had to brief them in the first place
19 about what to look out for. There are always things that
20 you are going to miss, and so on.
21
22 The situation is that we are part of the way on many of the
23 issues, part of the work is done. On some of them, it is a
24 long way from being done, and some of them are almost
25 there.
26
27 You make the point about us coming into court and saying we
28 are not ready straightaway and you would have more sympathy
29 if we had got through the first few issues and then said we
30 are not ready. The really big part of the problem was that
31 we just did not know what to include and how to do it, and
32 it just makes it really hard to get it ready when you do
33 not know how to do it and what needs to be covered, and so
34 on. Just really, you know, we are trying our best.
35
36 I think, as Dave said, it would help to have a bit of space
37 between each issue, because throughout the whole of the
38 animals things, for example, apart from speaking every day
39 in court between 10.30 and 4 o'clock, I was getting home at
40 5 o'clock and working until about 1 o'clock in the morning
41 and then getting up again at 6 o'clock in the morning to do
42 more preparation. I mean, I do not know, it just makes me
43 -- I am completely exhausted anyway but it makes me even
44 more exhausted and probably more incoherent and not putting
45 the points across well, and, effectively, it ends up taking
46 more in-court time. Obviously, we have made the point that
47 it would help if we could have any of Mr. Rampton's
48 arguments on any of the issues.
49
50 That is about it, really. We are not brushing this off and
51 not taking it seriously. Because we are taking it
52 seriously, we want to do a good job, but it is an
53 overwhelming task, and it is just getting to grips with it
54 really.
55
56 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Thank you. Mr. Rampton?
57
58 MR. RAMPTON: The only observation I have, my Lord, is I want
59 to correct one thing Ms. Steel has said twice now this
60 morning. I have never said that I needed until 22nd
