Day 055 - 25 Nov 94 - Page 72
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2 MS. STEEL: No. I was going to say that Ms. Dibb cannot come on
3 Tuesday in any event. Can I just say, I did want to raise
4 this, Mr. Rampton has complained sometimes about us reading
5 out documents just to get them on the record. It occurred
6 to me this afternoon that because he did not produce any
7 reports for when Mr. Miles was giving evidence, he is now
8 attempting to get them on the record by a kind of back door
9 route. I did have concerns about that.
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11 MR. RAMPTON: No, it is not Ms. Steel's fault, my Lord, she does
12 not understand the law of evidence. "Getting them on the
13 record" is a completely meaningless phrase, so far as
14 I understand it. It is convenient because one can see it
15 on the transcript, but that is all the effect that it has.
16 It does not mean -- I wish the Defendants would realise
17 this and then they might stop doing it themselves -- it
18 does not mean that it is evidence of anything at all except
19 what the document says. I do not make those documents
20 evidence by putting them to Ms. Dibb, except in so far as
21 she agrees with them.
22
23 MR. JUSTICE BELL: But what you were doing when it came to the
24 research -- if that is what Ms. Steel had in mind -- was
25 asking her whether she accepted there was research to that
26 effect.
27
28 MR. RAMPTON: I am doing two things that I hope are perfectly
29 apparent now. I am putting to her and I am saying, as
30 I said almost at the end there: "Do you think you read
31 this when you wrote your report?" I make no secret of the
32 fact that our proposition about this report is that it is
33 highly unreliable and misleading, as I think I have already
34 said. It is to that end that the cross-examination is
35 directed.
36
37 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Were you concerned about when Mr. Rampton was
38 asking about the reputable research?
39
40 MS. STEEL: No, I was concerned he was reading out great chunks
41 of the papers that were not specifically referred to by
42 her, and in a similar situation, when it has been the other
43 way round, Mr. Rampton said, well, we should just get the
44 witness to read it to themselves and then comment on it;
45 that it is only their comment that matters in any event.
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47 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That has not been so with scientific papers.
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49 MS. STEEL: It has been with some things.
50
51 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Where were you stopped reading a scientific
52 papers out to a witness? I do not think it has been with
53 scientific papers, because the scientific papers are read
54 out with a view to seeing whether the witness agrees or
55 otherwise or has any comment on it. So far as any readings
56 this afternoon have been concerned, they have really been
57 because there are references which are quoted by Ms. Dibb
58 herself in support of statements made in "Children:
59 Advertisers' Dream". I know you have a point that it was
60 not actually Esserman who was actually being quoted in the
