Day 143 - 27 Jun 95 - Page 37
1 Union or one of its officers may have thought about the
2 matter.
3
4 MR. MORRIS: The only thing is that I understand the
5 admissibility of a document as evidence, and that we do not
6 have a Jury that might be confused, allegedly confused,
7 over the difference between evidence and another document,
8 which may not be evidence in itself, but if we need to go
9 through documents which indicate to us a certain situation
10 which may not themselves be admissible as evidence, then
11 that would require quite a bit of preparation, I think,
12 before we go into the witness box.
13
14 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It might do.
15
16 MR. MORRIS: To go through all the documents that are relevant.
17
18 MR. JUSTICE BELL: If you want to ask me about this further
19 later on, but ---
20
21 MR. MORRIS: It just seems to be ----
22
23 MR. JUSTICE BELL: -- what you have to be prepared -- I will
24 just make the comment I have to make and then I suggest we
25 get on with the cross-examination of Mr. Stein -- what you
26 are going to have to think about is what support there is
27 in the information available to you for what you will tell
28 me you do believe whether at the end of the day I decide
29 you are justified in your belief or not, because that
30 might, as I have explained -- I am not going to put it in
31 final terms now because I have not heard any argument which
32 Mr. Rampton may bring forward -- that may very well be
33 relevant to your counterclaim.
34
35 MR. MORRIS: Yes.
36
37 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Whether or not it is relevant to malice, I do
38 not need to grapple with at the moment because it may be
39 relevant to counterclaim, but the crunch is not going to
40 come so far as that is concerned unless and until either
41 you or Ms. Steel go into the witness box.
42
43 MR. MORRIS: All I am saying is that, as a matter of practical
44 convenience -- I understand Mr. Rampton said he is mostly
45 objecting when the press are here -- if we are going
46 through 30,000 documents over a period of a year, or
47 whatever, then it is just convenient to note the documents
48 which are key documents and the points in them.
49
50 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I think that you should note them for your
51 own purposes. You do not have to do it, in fact, I would
52 urge you not to do it publicly in court at this stage. if
53 you do give evidence and you do say: "Whether I was right
54 about it or not, I believed and I still believe this and
55 this", then you must expect to be asked: "Well, why? What
56 was your" -- it is a term of art but I use it as an
57 ordinary English word -- "justification for believing that
58 way?" You do not then have to have a list of 150 letters.
59 What you want to do is pick the ones which you say were
60 most influential on the way you thought.
