AU CONSULTANCY at Land Tribunal – (Day 2)

The second day (Friday) saw the respondents witnesses take to the stand. After the somewhat “difficult” performance of the Respondents expert witness this was a far less painful affair. The XIC (“examination in chief”) was brief and but for confirming factual details and the WS (“witness statement”) there was much more added. The Applicants counsel took the XX (“cross examination”) in a far more detailed fashion.

The closing speech of the Respondents counsel lasted in excess of some one and a half hours. The Adjuducator whilst quite agitated at times by the Respondents counsels performance, seemed to cut a little more slack and gave a lot of room and time for the counsel to ‘meander’. In the end the Adjudicator asked very directly what it is summary the Respondents client seeks? The answer seemed to be to let the ‘status quo’ remain.

The Applicants counsel was allowed the opportunity to close after a short lunch break.

The bundle of cases that the Applicants counsel was using as authority (whilst oddly the Respondents counsel stated that they were not presenting a bundle of authority) was brought to the Adjudicators attention.

The Applicants counsel gave a shorter and far more sharper performance and reminded the Tribunal of the facts that the experts agreed on and those that were found to be challenging. The Adjudicator seemed to deliberately make a point of ‘challenging’ a few of the points that the Applicants counsel making, almost as if to try and balance out the previous days performance.

It all ended with the Adjudicator saying he would need about a month or so to come to his decision and cost would be dealt with thereafter.

On balance it still would appear to be 50/50 and at the Adjudicators’ discretion.

(Further update to follow).