Day 148 - 05 Jul 95 - Page 05
1 checking up quite a lot of previous evidence, which is a
2 very long and arduous task, because it is all based upon
3 evidence that has been given.
4
5 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am not going to put you to going off at
6 half cock on it, but what you must do is make sure that we
7 fix one day for this. You may not need the whole day, but
8 we fix one day for this at least a week before the last
9 Tuesday that we are going to sit, because I may be in a
10 position to give an extempore judgment straightaway, but if
11 I feel I need time to think about it I must have it.
12
13 So, in fairness to yourself and Ms. Steel, I advise you --
14 it is a matter for you but I advise you -- to come back to
15 it not later than a week before the Tuesday in the last
16 whole week of term.
17
18 MR. MORRIS: That is what I was going to say, that we would like
19 a day fixed for amendments and, hopefully, the nutrition
20 skeleton will be ready. Then we can do those matters in
21 the same day. That might be quite a hefty day so,
22 hopefully, it may need a day and a half or something. It
23 might be prudent.
24
25 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, at the moment, since this affects
26 scheduling, we have precisely after today 14 sitting days,
27 up to and including 25th July. We are presently able to
28 fill every single one of those days probably with witnesses
29 whom we have now notified which later on -- perhaps at the
30 end of today -- I will tell your Lordship what the proposed
31 schedule is, the order of the witnesses which I now have.
32 Obviously, if a day is to be fixed for a further
33 interlocutory hearing, I doubt whether we are going to
34 finish all the other matters today ---
35
36 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That may be.
37
38 MR. RAMPTON: -- because there are some things I shall no doubt
39 have to respond to. It would help with our witnesses if
40 your Lordship were to indicate, roughly speaking, or
41 perhaps more than roughly speaking, which day or day and a
42 half your Lordship would wish to set aside for further
43 interlocutory hearings. Can I, perhaps, do it this way and
44 tell your Lordship now? For want of anybody else, because
45 we cannot find them, we propose to bring Mr. Alistair -----
46
47 MR. MORRIS: Can I just say, before we do the details, we have a
48 thing to say about the scheduling of these witnesses before
49 that matter is broached. When Mr. Rampton gave his list of
50 employment witnesses that he proposed to call between now
51 and the end of term -- I have not checked this -- from my
52 understanding, most of them are people that are either new
53 witnesses or ones that have made recent substantial
54 supplementary statements. None of those witnesses have we
55 had a chance to -- as they are all witnesses that are
56 responding to our witnesses, then it puts us to a
57 disadvantage that we have not had time to contact our
58 witnesses to see if they can comment.
59
60 I do not know where that leaves us. For example, Florence
