Day 109 - 28 Mar 95 - Page 30
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2 Thirdly, we have straight after Mr. Nicholson Mr. Beavers
3 who is another kettle of fish in terms of his role and his
4 evidence. Then we are back to Fairgreave. It is, in fact,
5 quite a broad sweep of the issues of the case, especially
6 considering Mr. Beavers' role. We got the impression from
7 the Plaintiffs that he was on sabbatical.
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9 We have not worked out exactly what our alternative
10 suggestion is, but the most important is that we do not
11 feel that we are going to get enough time to have a break
12 and to prepare, bearing in mind the large range of matters
13 we are going to have to deal with -- many for the first
14 time -- some will require rereading, although I do not
15 think Mr. Fairgreave is a big problem on that subject.
16 Mr. Beavers may be a bigger problem.
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18 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Mr. Beavers may be, but my experience so far
19 has led me to believe that the case progresses better, and
20 you do better, if you have a reasonably frequent number of
21 breaks. If one is having reasonably frequent breaks, they
22 cannot be too long or the trial grinds to a halt. You do
23 not need to persuade me that it is important that you stay
24 fit; you do not need to persuade me that it is important
25 that you have a reasonable time for preparation. But,
26 having reread the employment statements and having had
27 another look at the publication side of things, I think you
28 could be ready to cross-examine Mr. Nicholson at the
29 beginning of the week, which is Monday, 1st May, and you
30 should be able to go on with Mr. Beavers.
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32 Do not forget, that we had a bit of Mr. Beavers and that is
33 really revision rather than pure preparation. I appreciate
34 that things have occurred since Mr. Beavers gave evidence
35 which you may want to put to him. It might well be then an
36 advantage to have a short break after Mr. Beavers before we
37 went on with the remaining witnesses which I have so far
38 got on the schedule which Mr. Rampton gave me a little time
39 ago, that is, Mr. Fairgreave, Mr. Barnes, Purslow, Mead and
40 Stein, as they are.
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42 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, I should say that this schedule is not
43 marked obviously because one does not know until one gets
44 the Defendants' estimates of the length of
45 cross-examination for which your Lordship has asked for
46 these witnesses, but this schedule has built into it a
47 whole range or string of natural breaks after Mr. Beavers.
48 Mr. Fairgreave's return will not be, I hope, a very long
49 one. He is only coming back -----
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51 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I can see Mr. Fairgreave taking some time,
52 but I would be very surprised if he took a whole week.
53 Since a whole week is there, if, for instance, the estimate
54 when everyone has thought about it (and I will ask for an
55 estimate from both sides) is that he is a three-day
56 witness, or something like that, it matters not whether one
57 says we will have Monday, 15th and Tuesday, 16th for
58 preparation rather than him finishing earlier than would
59 otherwise be scheduled in that week.
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