Day 048 - 08 Nov 94 - Page 04

     
     1        I can see that there may well be argument at the end of the
     2        day as to what weight should be attached to it -- firstly,
     3        just in itself; and, secondly, in so far as it is in
     4        conflict with anything which any of your witnesses say.
     5
     6        If it reassures you, nothing happened yesterday which
     7        surprised me in any way.  In some cases where expert
     8        witnesses are called, they seek to support their statement
     9        or their opinion by reference to articles which have been
    10        written.  In other cases, they just rely entirely upon
    11        their own training, specialised education, knowledge and
    12        experience -- be they engineers giving evidence in a road
    13        accident case as to how fast a vehicle was likely to have
    14        been going, or doctors who have specialised in a particular
    15        area who have years of experience of treating disease, or
    16        accountants who are telling one what the financial or tax
    17        consequence of certain facts or certain figures are.
    18
    19        When you come to call Miss Dibb -- I tried to illustrate it
    20        the other day.  I can see, when you call Miss Gallatley,
         that she is very much going to speak from her own
    22        experience.  When you come to Miss Dibb, or have called
    23        anyone who seeks to support a view which they have come to
    24        uphold by saying, "There was research carried out by MORI,
    25        or by some other body", or, "I have read a paper written by
    26        someone who has made a particular study of this topic, and
    27        I share the view which they have expressed", then it is
    28        only right that we see the paper, book, article, whatever
    29        it is, to which they have referred.
    30
    31        But, at the end of the day, it all comes down to a question
    32        of the weight one attaches to a particular witness's
    33        statement, and you can point at one thing or another.  You
    34        can say:  "Well, he is unlikely to have known that from his
    35        own experience and he did not refer to any source of
    36        information to support it" -- as an example.
    37
    38   MS. STEEL:  I think that would be -- I do not know -- the area
    39        of doubt, then, where someone may be basing what they are
    40        saying on things that they have read, but they are not
         explicitly saying that.
    42
    43   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  One thing you could do, if you have this
    44        point in mind -- and, certainly, with any witness in the
    45        future you can consider it -- you can say:  "Do you state
    46        that of your own knowledge and experience, or are you
    47        relying upon something you have read somewhere"; and if the
    48        answer is the former, there we are, and you can pursue that
    49        if you want:  "Well, what is the basis of your knowledge
    50        and what actual experience of that point have you had?"  If 
    51        it is the latter, you are perfectly entitled to say: 
    52        "Well, we need to look at that document to check whether 
    53        you have made a proper interpretation of it."
    54
    55   MS. STEEL:  All right.  Thank you.
    56
    57   MR. MORRIS:  Just while we are on this general area, we were
    58        also a bit concerned over the pressure that we are
    59        currently under, partly because of the documentation, but
    60        also because this week, effectively, we have five different