Day 068 - 16 Dec 94 - Page 05

     
     1
     2   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I do not think it is an abuse of procedure,
     3        because I have said on occasions to witnesses that if they
     4        do not know the answer, they really should say so.  It is a
     5        fact of experience in our courts that, very often, people
     6        -- and it does not matter in this case which side they are
     7        on, whether they are witnesses called by you or whether
     8        they are witnesses called by Mr. Rampton -- in their
     9        anxiety to try to help the court, they often embark on
    10        answers in relation to matters about which they know
    11        nothing.  I, myself, would much rather they were aware that
    12        if they do not know, it is best to say so, because
    13        otherwise the answers, on whoever's behalf they are given,
    14        can be rather misleading.
    15
    16   MR. RAMPTON:  They can be, because the witness, as your Lordship
    17        says, may think there has to be an answer; he strives to
    18        give an answer which may be not borne of his own knowledge
    19        and may be inaccurate.  It is very unhelpful.
    20
    MR. JUSTICE BELL:  The reason I have mentioned it in this case
    22        is partly because of the nature of the case itself.  If you
    23        have an accident occurring or which has occurred and you
    24        just asking the witness, "What happened next", he or she
    25        will normally give you their recollection or say, "I do not
    26        know." In this case, we have had witnesses on both sides
    27        who are being asked for opinions a lot of the time, and
    28        quite a large proportion of the evidence is not purely
    29        factual, so there has been a tendency (which not only I but
    30        all the parties ought to be wary of) of taking the witness,
    31        through an anxiety to try to get information, into areas
    32        which the witness actually does not know anything about.
    33        But there we are.  I say no more about it.
    34
    35   MS. STEEL:  We would like to say something further, but not at
    36        the moment; we would rather save it for the day when we are
    37        going to have legal argument.
    38
    39   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Very well.  Let us continue.
    40
    MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, I make the observation that there is now
    42        in our courts, except in rare circumstances, a tendency or
    43        movement away from the element of surprise.  If the
    44        Defendants have some application to make in relation to the
    45        evidence as it has already been given, or whatever, which
    46        they wish to raise in interlocutory argument, then they
    47        must give notice of it.
    48
    49   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What I would like you to do, if we are going
    50        to have some time with interlocutory argument next week -- 
    51        and that is entirely up to parties whether they want to 
    52        raise matters next week or not -- what I would like to do 
    53        is just have some notice, albeit just on a sheet of paper,
    54        as to what the topics are.
    55
    56   MR. RAMPTON:  I was not talking about a formal application.
    57        Generally speaking, if one is going to make a particular
    58        submission on a particular discrete part of the case, it is
    59        one's obligation to notify the other side.
    60