Day 002 - 29 Jun 94 - Page 46
1 that counterclaim must be taken seriously.
2 In fact, it may be useful to recognise that instead of the
libel laws putting all the burden of obligation on one
3 party and, therefore, at the end of a libel trial, in
general, the truth is not established. What is
4 established is whether the defendants have been able to
prove some allegations, and then no doubt at the end the
5 plaintiff gets up and says: "Here you are, it is all
lies; we have proved it", but they have not proved it. The
6 burdens has been on the defendants to prove, but it is
useful for both parties to have the obligation to prove
7 their points; the truth of the matter.
8 McDonald's have resisted strenuously any obligation --
they resist strenuously the disclosure of any documents
9 except those very strictly defined by our pleadings, or
that we could identify, convince the court to order that
10 they should be disclosed. I give an example of this.
I have already mentioned the national statistics on
11 accidents in their restaurants. McDonald's have to prove
that that statement is false, that they have poor
12 conditions, they should release their national
statistics. They are under an obligation to. It also
13 applies to environment/index.html">litter complaints where we have made a pleading
but Paul Preston, the UK president, has said environment/index.html">litter is
14 their biggest complaint.
15 Like everything else in McDonald's Corporation, we are
absolutely certain that they would keep records and
16 statistical records, summaries, other whatever, otherwise
of course, he would not know they were the biggest
17 complaints they get. So the national statistics on that
must be released to us.
18
It would be helpful if that was done at the earliest
19 possible stage, rather than wait until witnesses have been
cross-examined, then have to be recalled, if there are
20 still points of dispute later on over the obligations of
the plaintiff to proffer their points about them.
21
So that is my plea really on the eve of trial -- or on the
22 second day of trial, in fact, that the counterclaim is
taken seriously by the parties, including the plaintiffs,
23 and by the court as a whole, to be taken seriously as soon
as humanly possible, so that the trial is not damaged
24 through procedural problems. We do not know what case we
have to meet.
25
We have said that McDonald's have an improper motive --
26 well, we have not said -- sorry, we are drafting up a
reply. We are waiting for their further and better
27 particulars. But as we can see at the moment that on the
eve of the trial there clearly was an improper motive for
28 issuing these national leaflets or press releases.
29 At the end of trial it is our belief that you will have
the job of identifying on each point, point by point,
30 first, whether we have proved something is true; second,
whether the plaintiffs have proved something is untrue;
