Day 030 - 03 Oct 94 - Page 08
1 thought about that". But the statements have got to
2 include all the matters which you can reasonably foresee
3 that witness being asked to cover.
4
5 I know this has particularly come about because
6 I expressly raised it a few days ago, largely because
7 I was anxious that the witnesses when they came to the
8 witness box might be asked to say much more than was in
9 their disclosed statements.
10
11 If I can go on, while it is in my mind, it may be
12 inconvenient for Mr. Cannon if he, for instance, gives his
13 evidence and has to go away and come back in the future;
14 it may be inconvenient for Professor Crawford, but they
15 both, as I understand it, live in this country. What
16 happens if Dr. Barnard comes over -- he has already done
17 quite a long and detailed statement -- from the States and
18 then he produces lots of new stuff which Mr. Rampton has
19 to get to grips with? I am mentioning this now because
20 regardless of whether I give you a prompt, you have to
21 look a fair way ahead to your witnesses and say: Are we
22 going to need more than that?
23
24 MS. STEEL: What is the position then in terms of things that
25 arise out of the Plaintiffs's witnesses giving evidence?
26
27 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Things which arise out of the Plaintiffs
28 giving evidence you can deal with when you call your
29 particular witness on that topic. But, you see, I do not
30 think it is so much the detail in Mr. Cannon, but he has
31 made some very positive statements which were not actually
32 put to the relevant Plaintiffs' witnesses when they were
33 called.
34
35 I am not going to criticise you about that. I could not
36 count the number of occasions that Mr. Rampton, with my
37 support, has said that he is not going to be leaping to
38 his feet saying: "That was not put, that was not put"
39 because you are representing yourselves. But if the
40 situation is that you did not put something in positive
41 terms to someone like Dr. Arnott, for instance, and then
42 Mr. Cannon, for instance, comes to court and gives
43 evidence in positive terms, Mr. Rampton has to ask
44 Dr. Arnott about it or someone from Barlows has.
45 Dr. Arnott may have to be recalled; it extends the length
46 of this case and means it becomes much more bitty and
47 difficult to cope with.
48
49 There is one other thing I would like to point out to
50 you: If you were representing yourselves and you had
51 served a witness statement and then just before the
52 witness was going to be called there was an additional
53 statement with a lot of further information in, a possible
54 sanction would be for the judge to say: "No, I am not
55 going to allow you to call your witness to deal with those
56 points; you have had your opportunity". I am not judging
57 whether that is so in this case; I am just trying to give
58 you an example.
59
60 In fact, it must be obvious to everyone that I would be
