Day 126 - 17 May 95 - Page 05
1 just a few questions before the other takes over and asks
2 them some more. We do not have to follow that procedure;
3 it has just been convenient to operate in that way.
4
5 We have another advantage in that we have what I have to
6 say is a pretty good instantaneous transcript of what is
7 said on CaseView which is there to be played back each
8 evening, and you get the transcripts the following day.
9 I would have thought, quite apart from the consideration
10 which Mr. Rampton has brought into the picture, quite a lot
11 could be achieved with witnesses with you bearing the
12 cross-examination in the immediate future, helped, no
13 doubt, with the work Mr. Morris would be able to do if he
14 were at home. This is all quite apart from Mr. Rampton's
15 feature. I have said this anyway, although it may be quite
16 unnecessary in the light of what Mr. Rampton has suggested.
17
18 MS. STEEL: I have to say that neither of us would be happy
19 with one of us carrying on on our own, and also the fact
20 that Mr. Morris is at home, because his son is unable to
21 move he gets bored very rapidly and I think Mr. Morris is
22 spending virtually the whole time attending to his needs
23 and cannot really concentrate on anything else at the
24 moment.
25
26 In particular, Mr. Morris has done most of the preparation
27 and talking to witnesses on the employment issue. It would
28 be a particularly difficult one for me to just step in and
29 take it all over; also, because he has experience with his
30 union position and things like that.
31
32 But just generally because it is often the case that we
33 think of different things and we would not really like to
34 miss this -----
35
36 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I appreciate that. I hope in the light of
37 what Mr. Rampton has said it will never ever come to it.
38 All I am doing is saying that if you sit down and think
39 about it, I think really quite a lot can be achieved.
40 Quite regardless of Mr. Rampton's suggestion, which I will
41 come back to in a moment, I can envisage the case
42 continuing without any injustice whatsoever to either you
43 or Mr. Morris, with him making appearances from time to
44 time over the next few weeks.
45
46 But I will not go through the witnesses we have on the
47 schedule with you, because all this talk may be academic.
48 I have mentioned it because I would like you to think about
49 it and Mr. Morris can read what I have said about it.
50
51 All this, I hope, will be academic in the light of the
52 suggestion which Mr. Rampton has made. The first few days
53 after an injury may be one thing, but I would hope the
54 situation pretty soon comes where a six year-old does not
55 need attention from minute to minute, even with his leg in
56 top to toe plaster, being the only child in the home. But,
57 anyway, I say that so that you can bear it in mind. I hope
58 it is academic in the light of Mr. Rampton's suggestion.
59
60 MS. STEEL: I think it might be helpful also to bear in mind
