Day 250 - 15 May 96 - Page 13

     
     1   Q.   Did you want to see if he had enough information to bring a
     2        case?
     3        A.  No.
     4
     5   Q.   Whether or not his information would stand up?
     6        A.  No.
     7
     8   Q.   Was it a discussion that he thought he had been rumbled?
     9
    10   MR. RAMPTON:  I really do think this has gone far enough.
    11        I intervened once.  Ms. Steel paid absolutely no attention
    12        to it, and just goes on asking questions about what took
    13        place, what was communicated, between the client, the
    14        witness and the solicitor at the solicitor's office.
    15
    16   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I do not think it is.  Surely, is she not
    17        entitled to ask why Mr. Nicholson should meet him?
    18
    19   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, it would be like saying, 'Why did you
    20        meet the witness', and, 'I met the witness in order to
         prepare for litigation', and that is the end of it.  These
    22        are communications made with a view to litigation.  The
    23        meeting takes place between the client, the solicitor and
    24        the witness.  The whole communication between all of them
    25        must be the subject of legal professional privilege.  The
    26        question has been answered, 'I met him, because there was a
    27        meeting with him at the solicitor's office at which he was
    28        going to attend'.  That must be the end of it, with
    29        respect.
    30
    31   MS. STEEL:  We do not know the reasons why.
    32
    33   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I am not convinced of that.  It would be,
    34        certainly, if he was talking to the solicitor.  But this
    35        is, as far as I am concerned, is it not, a communication
    36        between one investigator and another, because Mr.
    37        Nicholson, in part, is an investigator and an observer of
    38        what happens?
    39
    40   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, suppose that the meeting had been at East
         Finchley and that Mrs. Brinley-Codd had not been present
    42        but the subject matter of the meeting was to assess either
    43        Mr. Clare's credibility as a witness or else the material
    44        he had managed to collect, that would still be a privileged
    45        occasion because it is done for the sole purpose of
    46        assessing the evidence necessary to found litigation.  My
    47        Lord, there was a passage in the White Book I read to your
    48        Lordship earlier which says exactly that.
    49
    50   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Give me the page again. 
    51 
    52   MR. RAMPTON:  Yes, I will, if I can find it.  My Lord, it is 
    53        pages 444 and 445.  In this case, the relevant passage.
    54        There is a great deal more learning about it than this
    55        little paragraph at 24/5/9.  This is in relation to
    56        discovery but, of course, the rule as to privilege covers
    57        evidence, it covers interrogatories, it covers pleadings,
    58        affidavits, everything; it being a rule of public policy it
    59        must do.
    60