Day 147 - 04 Jul 95 - Page 33
1 CaseView until such time as the Defendants -- and I am not
2 talking about months or even weeks; I am talking about a
3 week or so -- until the Defendants have had time enough to
4 find somebody who can take a proper note. In other words,
5 there would be no need for an adjournment, because we would
6 go on supplying the transcripts and the full CaseView
7 equipment until such time as such a notetaker had been
8 found.
9
10 MR. JUSTICE BELL: So what you are suggesting is that for a
11 period of time, if I ruled, essentially, in your favour --
12 leaving aside for the moment the question of whether I have
13 a copy of the transcript or not -- you would continue for
14 some days to provide transcripts and CaseView?
15
16 MR. RAMPTON: Yes, my Lord. I have no wish at all to embarrass
17 the Defendants in the conduct of this case. I have every
18 wish to embarrass and inhibit them in the distribution, the
19 illegitimate distribution, of selective pieces of the
20 transcript. To that end, I am willing to provide every
21 facility and every indulgence to allow them to get their
22 house in order. I have offered for them to accept what we
23 would say is a perfectly reasonable undertaking. If they
24 refuse to give it, then we -- and no doubt your Lordship --
25 will draw our own conclusions.
26
27 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Can you help me on one other matter which
28 I think you should reply to or, at least, should have the
29 opportunity of replying to, and that is the suggestion that
30 a transcript, once it is in your possession, is a
31 discoverable document.
32
33 MR. RAMPTON: No, my Lord. It plainly is not. Discovery
34 relates to documents in the hands of a party -- "hands" is
35 short for possession, custody or power -- hands of a party
36 which are relevant to an issue in the case. It is not an
37 issue in the case what the witness said yesterday. It
38 might be an issue in the case what the witness had said the
39 day before he gave evidence, but, once he has given
40 evidence and it is in court, it is no longer an issue in
41 the case.
42
43 On that basis, my Lord, the judge's notes would be
44 disclosable, or might be. He could be subpoenaed,
45 perhaps. If a party happened to have taken a rotten note
46 of a day's hearing, he could demand discovery of the other
47 side's written notes, or he could subpoena the notes of a
48 reporter who was sitting in court.
49
50 MR. JUSTICE BELL: The very final thing -- I am sorry to bring
51 you to your feet again, Mr. Rampton -- is the question of
52 whether you should have the CaseView technology if others
53 do not.
54
55 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, I cannot see why not. We are paying for
56 it. We have not been making any misuse of what we have
57 been paying for. We have not been interfering with the
58 course of justice. Indeed, we might be assisting it,
59 because we have the only independent contemporaneous record
60 of what was said in court, apart from your Lordship's
