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Parts of judgement may remain secret
Buncefield trial: Final Day. Parts of the final judgement in the Buncefield civil case may not see the light of day, the High Court heard on the last day of the trial.
On Tuesday, December 16 the court heard that a judgement is expected in the spring, but even then oil giant Total and Hertfordshire Oil Storage Limited (HOSL) may apply for some aspects of it to be kept out of the public eye.
The companies are considering the move because the judgement may prejudice the separate criminal prosecution due to start in January.
Total and HOSL are among the defendants in the prosecution by the Health and Safety Executive over the Buncefield disaster.
Lord Grabiner, acting for Total, asked for time to consider Justice David Steel's judgement before it is made public and said an application could be made under the Contempt of Court Act.
"The suggestion is that interested parties should have an opportunity to consider the judgement in draft before they decide whether to make an application," he said.
Initially Mr Justice Steel said there were 'enormous amounts of claimants who would like to know what the outcome is'.
"My instinct is that it would be difficult to adopt the proposal of distributing my judgement to HOSL and Total in advance of it being handed down, on the basis it may give rise to an application under the Contempt of Court Act, and at the same time keeping the content of my judgement confidential vis a vis the claimants," he said.
Philip Edey, acting for HOSL, said a new firm of lawyers now appointed in the criminal proceedings would need time to absorb the judgement before it was made public to decide whether to make an application.
After there was no objection from the claimants Mr Justice Steel said: "Subject to any different view, my initial view would be yes."
Residents and businesses are seeking damages of around 700million from Total and HOSL.
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Friday 25 May 2012
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