Law discharged from Gunns case

Geoff Law
“It’s wrong that a large company with deep pockets can spend millions of dollars pursuing citizens in the courts in order to seek damages that are puny by comparison with lawyers’ fees.” “All jurisdictions in Australia should follow the lead of the ACT in passing laws that discourage companies from taking such expensive, complex and time-consuming actions against individuals and community organizations.”

MEDIA RELEASE 7 November 2008

LAW DISCHARGED FROM GUNNS CASE

Ex-defendant calls for law reform to stop future attacks on environmentalists

Wilderness Society Campaign Manager, Geoff Law, has called for state and national law reform to prevent large companies from pursuing community groups or individuals in court cases that cost many times more than the likely damages to be awarded.

Mr Law, the second defendant in the complex and costly ‘Gunns 20’ case, was discharged by the Victorian Supreme Court on 31 October 2008 following a settlement of an undisclosed amount pertaining to a protest in the Styx valley in November 2003. The settlement was a very small fraction of Gunns’ original claim against Mr Law of $180,000.

“Personally, I think Gunns’ claim against me was without foundation, but I’ve made this settlement to stop the haemorrhaging of funds to lawyers,” said Mr Law. “I protested against logging in the Styx valley to defend the area’s World Heritage values and would do so again.”

“Our protest was eventually vindicated by Federal Government action to protect oldgrowth forests in the Styx from logging.”

“It’s wrong that a large company with deep pockets can spend millions of dollars pursuing citizens in the courts in order to seek damages that are puny by comparison with lawyers’ fees.”

“All jurisdictions in Australia should follow the lead of the ACT in passing laws that discourage companies from taking such expensive, complex and time-consuming actions against individuals and community organizations.”

Earlier this year, the ACT Parliament passed anti-SLAPP legislation – as have many states in the USA over the past decade. ‘SLAPP’ means ‘strategic lawsuit against public participation’, a tactic sometimes used by corporations whose effect can be to quell public debate.

MEDIA RELEASE
7 November 2008

Court rejects Gunns’ “fishing expedition”

The Victorian Supreme Court today rejected an appeal by Gunns Ltd seeking a raft of documents from conservationists in the long running “Gunns20” case arising out the campaign to protect Tasmania’s forests. Gunns had appealed a decision by Master Evans in September this year denying the timber company’s application to force The Wilderness Society to hand over a range of minutes, financial records, and the contact details of over 120 conservationists. Justice Kaye today dismissed that appeal, saying that the orders sought had “the hallmarks of a fishing expedition”. He ordered Gunns to pay The Wilderness Society’s costs of the appeal.

Spokesperson for The Wilderness Society, Dr Greg Ogle said This is another blow for Gunns who have made a whole range of allegations against us over actions we deny doing. In an attempt to find evidence to support their claims, Gunns has sought to trawl through all sorts of our documents. We are glad the court has rejected this as a fishing expedition.

Given the nature of the documents Gunns was seeking this is a significant win for civil rights – the right to privacy and the right to take lawful political action without having your personal details and associations dragged through the court in a McCarthyist inquisition.

Yet today’s win has been a costly exercise for us. This 12 month long battle over “discovery” of documents has cost The Wilderness Society in excess of $150,000 and we won’t get a lot of that back even with costs awarded to us.

On a similar theme, the second defendant, Geoff Law (The Wilderness Society Tasmania Campaign Director) announced today that he had paid to settle the case against him relating to a two day protest in the Styx valley in November 2003. The Wilderness Society supports the move, but says that the fact that Geoff was forced to make a payout highlights the problem with cases like these – they are simply too expensive to defend even where the action was taken to protect world heritage value forests and the defendant denies causing any damage to Gunns.

The Wilderness Society renews its call for law reform to prevent litigation which has the effect of constraining public debate and political protest.