Day 274 - 04 Jul 96 - Page 03
1 in law.
2
3 Thirdly, documents which are not in themselves admissible
4 as evidence of the facts contained in them may become so,
5 directly or indirectly, if the parties agree that they can
6 be relied upon as evidence of the facts stated in them, but
7 all the parties must agree that the document in question be
8 treated in that way if that is to happen.
9
10 Fourthly, a party who intends to rely on documents as
11 evidence of the facts stated in them may put forward for
12 agreement a batch of documents relating to a particular
13 topic. I foresee that if the other side says "we will
14 agree some but not all of that batch of documents", then
15 the party or parties putting the batch forward may say that
16 partial agreement is not acceptable to them. The result
17 would then be that the party putting forward the documents
18 would prove the documents which were not admitted, or they
19 would say "well, we will not agree any of them", so that
20 the documents would not be in evidence and the opposing
21 party, who had been prepared to agree to some of them but
22 not all of them, could not rely on any of the batch of
23 documents, even the ones which they would wish to admit in
24 order to rely on them themselves.
25
26 Next, although I indicated yesterday that I might allow the
27 plaintiffs to prove documents which the defendants do not
28 accept after the middle of this month when Ms. Steel and
29 Mr. Morris have completed any evidence which they may
30 choose to give, I did say yesterday that I did not find
31 that course attractive if it can be avoided. I have
32 thought about the matter overnight, and subject of course
33 to any argument from either side, I am unwilling to hear
34 any evidence, be it to prove documents or anything else,
35 after the end of this legal term. That is after the end of
36 this calendar month. If otherwise inadmissible documents
37 are not admitted between the parties or proved before then,
38 there will be a real risk that I will not take them into
39 account; indeed, that I will not in law be able to take
40 them into account.
41
42 If during submissions during the autumn a document which is
43 inadmissible is referred to and valid objection is taken to
44 its admissibility, I will not then be prepared to hear
45 additional evidence to prove it and I will not be able to
46 take it into account. Of course, we may come across
47 documents which have not been proved or admitted and which
48 are not themselves admissible; for instance, as admissions
49 against interest by one party or another.
50
51 Where the parties then agree during submissions that they
52 should be taken into account, that is another matter.
53 Obviously I would be prepared to take note of any document
54 where the parties agree, however late in the day, that it
55 shall be admitted. The later it gets, the less confidence
56 one side can have that the other party will agree a
57 document which they suddenly decide has not been proved.
58 And I need hardly say that the more agreement there is on
59 all sides with regard to the admission of documents or
60 anything else, the better.
