Back to reality in the Rolls Building. This week the liability trial began in the mammoth group action involving a tailings dam collapse, Brazilian law and a claim with a ‘high water level mark of £36 billion’.

We have sat in Court 30 (very hot, very crowded and a fire alarm halfway through the day), and listened in both remotely (very easy, with only the most minor of tech issues) and from the overflow court (glitches galore).

Three points from the first few days of the 12-week trial deserve mention. First, the reserving of seats on the first day, which reminded Obiter just how annoying that is. Second, fleshy skeletons running to a combined total of more than 600 pages. And last but not least, the Portuguese live translation. Obiter knows someone who learned English by watching Neighbours: with a three-month trial ahead, maybe something similar can happen here.

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