Day 109 - 28 Mar 95 - Page 32
1 cross-examination of particular witnesses. You could give
2 each other a rest from time to time by saying: "Well, you
3 do this witness and that witness, and I will do the
4 others".
5
6 I am conscious that has happened in considerable part with
7 some witnesses. It does not only apply to
8 cross-examination, but taking your own witnesses in-chief
9 and preparing for that, and asking yourself: "Now, which
10 parts of which documents do I need to put to my own
11 witness?"
12
13 So, I would like you to give more thought to that. I am
14 quite happy with you continuing to box and cox, as it were,
15 with particular witnesses, but I do not actually think
16 there is any need for it. You might find you were under
17 less strain if you gave a bit more thought to how you
18 apportion the work ---
19
20 MR. MORRIS: Yes.
21
22 MR. JUSTICE BELL: -- or within a particular witness, one of you
23 dealing with one topic either in-chief or cross-examination
24 and another person dealing with another topic if the
25 witness covers more one topic. When doing that, if that
26 appeals to you, do not just divide the topics up into 100
27 subjects; try to put things in bigger boxes as well.
28
29 We have what I might call general aspects; we have
30 publication; we have seven heads which we call tabs 1 to 7
31 and we have cross-examination. So, there are 10 major
32 chapters, as it were. So, if a particular witness covers
33 more than one chapter, see if one of you can take one
34 chapter and another another. If a witness covers only one
35 chapter but various topics within that chapter, see if you
36 can divide up the topics without feeling that you each need
37 to work as long stop for the other. If one of you can
38 concentrate on one witness altogether and give the other a
39 rest, just sitting there, being observant and listening
40 carefully, but not having the nervous tension of thinking:
41 "What do I ask next?" or "What am I going to put in
42 cross-examination?" I think you might find it less
43 sapping.
44
45 MR. MORRIS: Can I just say -----
46
47 MS. STEEL: I just wanted to say, apart from the statements of
48 employment witnesses there are nine or 10 documentary
49 files.
50
51 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, there are.
52
53 MS. STEEL: There is, obviously, considerable work involved.
54 During every term paperwork in our houses tends to build up
55 and it has to be sorted in the break. By the time we have
56 sorted that out and had something of a break entirely from
57 the case, there will be just about a week left -- slightly
58 more.
59
60 It is not a lot of time, I do not think, and I would
