Day 157 - 18 Jul 95 - Page 34
1 and unable to pay for daily transcripts and that they will
2 almost undoubtedly actually save public costs because less
3 time will be taken up in court in preparation and in
4 argument over what has been said and in terms of actually
5 taking a note at the time. We would ask that the trial
6 does not continue until either there is a decision, an
7 order made in this court for us to be -- to have access to
8 the transcripts that are being produced, or until we have
9 an answer from the Lord Chancellor's Department.
10 Obviously, we did ask for the Lord Chancellor to reply as
11 soon as possible.
12
13 MR. MORRIS: In the terms and conditions of the provision of
14 transcripts, the standard terms of trading, I only have one
15 copy of it here actually, but I can hand it up; condition
16 3.1 is: "Rates payable for services ordered on this form"
17 -- this is for official transcripts -- "will be disclosed
18 by transcribers on request and will be as agreed with the
19 Lord Chancellor's Department". For that reason, we believe
20 that the Lord Chancellor's Department has discretion not
21 only to pay for transcripts out of public funds but also to
22 waive the costs of the official transcripts, or any
23 official transcripts, that are made for impecunious parties
24 such as ourselves. I do not know if you want to look at
25 that. (Handed). We have a spare copy that is not marked
26 actually, so if you would like to have that one.
27
28 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No, the marking does not matter.
29
30 MR. MORRIS: The other thing I had marked was 5.7 which seems to
31 be that the arrangement on what has been called the
32 commercial advantage to the party who gets the transcripts
33 first, seems to be also open to interpretation and
34 flexibility, whatever the party that gets the transcripts
35 say on the matter. I cannot see how the commercial
36 advantage can possibly be something that accrues from the
37 law. It must have been something that has developed over
38 time and, we would say, that it has to be -- the Lord
39 Chancellor's Department would have the power to waive that
40 in any event.
41
42 I have missed some things out, but I want to come to the
43 next major point which is the Order 18, rule 19 on page 344
44 of the White Book. I presume that is Volume 1.
45
46 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
47
48 MR. MORRIS: Under that, it is an explanation of what abuse of
49 the process of the court means. I actually have not got
50 the extract in front of me that that is referring to, but
51 in any case abuse of the process of the court, paragraph
52 1(d):
53
54 "... confers upon the Court in express terms
55 powers which the Court has hitherto exercised
56 under its inherent jurisdiction where there
57 appeared to be 'an abuse of the process of the
58 Court.' This terms connotes that the process of
59 the Court must be used bona fide and properly
60 and must not be abused. The Court will prevent
