Day 048 - 08 Nov 94 - Page 07

     
     1
     2   MR. RAMPTON:  While that is being sorted, can I raise one other
     3        matter which touches somewhat on what Mr. Morris is
     4        saying?  Your Lordship did invite the Defendants to say at
     5        the beginning of this week what their position was in
     6        relation to what I call the papermaking allegation.  That
     7        was Miss Carroll, originally.  She has, I think I
     8        understood it, been abandoned, and we have a problem about
     9        Mr. Bateman, which we would still like to resolve.
    10
    11   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Are you able to say more about that?
    12
    13   MR. MORRIS:  Well, can we do that after lunch, when we can
    14        check?
    15
    16   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.  Think about it.  I would like someone
    17        on either side to raise it again at the end of today; and
    18        see if you can have a decision then.  It was not all the
    19        aspects, you will remember; it was particularly the
    20        possible adverse effects of the chemical part of paper
         processing, which varies according to which process is
    22        actually used in the pulping.
    23
    24        Finally, before we go on with Mr. Hawkes, Mr. Rampton, is
    25        there anything you would wish to say -- I only want you to
    26        say anything if you consider, as a member of the Bar, that
    27        I was wrong in principle in anything I said about either
    28        the admissibility or weight of expert evidence.
    29
    30   MR. RAMPTON:  No, my Lord, I do not believe so.  I know your
    31        Lordship has quite considerable experience in relation to
    32        expert evidence.  My perception is that there are, broadly
    33        speaking, two kinds of people -- though of course there is
    34        an overlap -- who may be called experts:  one is what one
    35        might call the expert practitioner; the other is what one
    36        might call the educated observer.
    37
    38   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  With particular experience.
    39
    40   MR. RAMPTON:  Sometimes with particular experience, sometimes
         with -- I just call it a "mere" -- a mere scholarship to
    42        offer, with no practical experience whatsoever.  Mr. Miles,
    43        as far as I can tell, falls into the former category -- the
    44        expert practitioner.
    45
    46   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  If there is nothing you feel I should correct
    47        in what I said, we will leave it there.
    48
    49   MR. RAMPTON:  I entirely agree, my Lord.  If an expert offers an
    50        opinion which is not borne of his own experience in the 
    51        field and does not offer any secondhand support for it, 
    52        then less weight may be attached to his opinion. 
    53
    54   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  For the future, just remember that if someone
    55        makes a statement that "this is so" or "that is so", and
    56        you are not sure about the basis for them saying it, you
    57        can ask them that by a further question in
    58        cross-examination.
    59
    60   MS. STEEL:  Thank you.