Day 147 - 04 Jul 95 - Page 20
1 Mechanical Recording Section, and the other side can order
2 a transcript of any part they want.
3
4 MR. MORRIS: Yes.
5
6 MR. JUSTICE BELL: There is nothing unusual about that. The
7 other party can buy their copy if they want to. I am not
8 aware, within my own practice at the bar or my time on the
9 bench, of any kind of rule or power -- so you can answer
10 me, I am telling you, if you wish -- that means that if the
11 judge or one party gets to hear that the other party has
12 ordered a transcript of certain parts of the evidence, then
13 that party is entitled free to a transcript of that
14 evidence, himself.
15
16 If that is the position (which happens not infrequently
17 with regard to parts of the evidence), then I ask
18 rhetorically: what is the distinction with the whole of
19 the evidence?
20
21 MR. MORRIS: One difference is that we are not able to buy
22 copies of transcripts, certainly not at the figures which
23 they may have to be bought at. Therefore, the only
24 difference between getting it and not getting it is the
25 fact that we just physically are unable to afford it, which
26 cannot be fair.
27
28 If a transcript is available, that one party has, then it
29 is not even a question of someone being employed to take a
30 transcript from the recording. It is just a question of
31 ensuring that the party with the transcript has to provide
32 a copy to all parties, including the trial judge.
33
34 I am going to come on to that, which is that if the
35 transcripts (which has not been said, but it has been
36 implied) are actually going to be denied to us, then we
37 would certainly consider making an application for
38 discovery of that document to us on the grounds that it is
39 obviously relevant and the content is public and,
40 therefore, it cannot be privileged.
41
42 I think that is most of our points. We are sorry if we
43 gave the impression that, if you had a copy of the
44 transcript, that we would expect you to pay for it
45 yourself.
46
47 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No. I did not think that is what you had in
48 mind when you said it. I was trying to point out that,
49 unless I can order it out of public funds, if you were
50 going to get one from me, it would only be because
51 I had paid for it myself and given it to you, which I am
52 not terribly attracted by.
53
54 MR. MORRIS: Even if you just lent it to us, we could get copies
55 made ourselves at no cost to public funds.
56
57 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Well, you cannot, you see, because that is
58 breach of copyright.
59
60 MR. MORRIS: For ourselves, for our use.
