Day 041 - 28 Oct 94 - Page 65

     
     1   MS. STEEL:  If I could say so, there is absolutely no way we are
     2        deliberately trying to prolong witnesses.  We do not
     3        particularly enjoy doing that.
     4
     5   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  The other thing I would invite you to
     6        consider, cross-examination can be very valuable, but if
     7        you are in an area where you think you have witnesses who
     8        have a positive point of view or factual evidence to give,
     9        you have to balance that against the amount of
    10        cross-examination you think it is necessary to put to the
    11        witnesses on the other side.  You have seen Mr. Rampton, if
    12        I may say so, where he has felt he has got a good witness
    13        to call.  He may turn out to be right or he may turn out to
    14        be wrong, but he has felt able to be quite short in
    15        cross-examination.  Maybe he will have misjudged that, I do
    16        not know; but he has been prepared to take the judgment
    17        that he can be fairly short about it.
    18
    19   MS. STEEL:   He does have considerably more experience than us.
    20
    MR. JUSTICE BELL:  He does, which is why I am saying to you it
    22        is not any sign of weakness.  I am not saying you have been
    23        too long in cross-examination.  It is not any sign of
    24        weakness that one is relatively brief in cross-examination.
    25
    26   MS. STEEL:  The problem is, if we cut it short and do not ask
    27        questions that we do think are important, they may turn out
    28        to be and we might not necessarily realise that.
    29
    30   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, may I make an observation about that?  My
    31        objection is not to a long cross-examination or any
    32        cross-examination which is actually focused on the issues.
    33        My complaint -- and I have to say that they are separate
    34        Defendants, therefore I will say it; it is directed
    35        primarily at Mr. Morris and not to Ms. Steel -- my
    36        complaint is that the cross-examination which Mr. Morris
    37        conducts for much of the time very often appears to have no
    38        reference to the issues in the case.  It does not matter
    39        what is in the leaflet.  What matters is what case the
    40        Defendants are trying to make according to the pleadings
         and the witness statements, which they have got.  For much
    42        of the time Mr. Morris seems to forget that, and I do mean
    43        forget it.  I do not mean he is doing it deliberately.
    44        That is what takes up so much time.
    45
    46        What follows from that is this.  The more time Mr. Morris
    47        actually spends in preparation and in focusing on what are
    48        the real issues in the case, the less time do we waste in
    49        court.
    50 
    51        Having said that, I go on to say that what this chart does 
    52        not, of course, show are the two days of every weekend, 
    53        which certainly, for my part, are spent working.  I really
    54        do not see why there should be some kind of alarm in the
    55        Defendants' camp from looking at this chart that they will
    56        not have enough time to prepare, because, quite honestly --
    57        I have said it before and I said it sarcastically; I do not
    58        mean it sarcastically this time -- there are 24 hours in
    59        each day and 48 of those 24 hours fall at the weekend.
    60