Master Evans of the Victorian Supreme Court today refused Gunns' application for further orders compelling defendants to provide further documents. This is part of the "discovery" process which commenced in October last year.

The Gunns case was back before the court today following an application by Gunns in late March 2008. Gunns20 barrister, Michael Gronow, said in court "this application is oppressive and a complete waste of time and should not have been brought". He commented that the way in which the case was being run "reflects no credit on the plaintiff [Gunns] or their lawyers [Clayton Utz]".

On Friday November 30, Senator Bob Brown attended the Free Speech Victoria Awards night to receive the "The Voltaire Award" on behalf of the Gunns 20. The award presented at a packed dinner held at th

On 16 November 2007 Simon Brown (defendant#9) formally exited the case. This followed his acceptance of an offer from Gunns along the same lines as accepted by Russell Hanson (defendant#3) in September 2007. Simon Brown issued a brief statement saying:

Gunns have served another statement of claim on Dr Nicklason after the Court struck out the previous one on 17 September 2007. This is the fourth statement of claim in the Gunns 20 case to be struck out.

Master Evans of the Victorian Supreme Court today struck out Gunns’ statement of claim. This is the fourth statement of claim in the Gunns 20 case to be struck out.

The statement of claim sought damages from Hobart doctor, Dr Frank Nicklason for alleged comments he made in 2002 in relation to potential health risks from woodchip piles in Burnie, Tasmania. Dr Nicklason will now wait and see if Gunns file a new statement of claim. The court has given Gunns 14 days to file another statement of claim. Go to "Media Releases" and "Media Articles" on this site for more.

Gunns have applied to strike out part of Dr Nicklason’s defence. The application will be heard by Master Evans at 10.30am on Monday, 17 September 2007 in the Victorian Supreme Court. The single paragraph in question states that even if the comments allegedly made are defamatory, that they were true and published for the public benefit and/or were fair comment.

Transcript of short hearing on Monday, 20 August 2007. The hearing dealt with the departure of Russell Hanson (defendant#3) from the case following his acceptance of an offer from Gunns.

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Well what a few months it has been.
December 14th 2006 saw the second anniversary of the case come and go with two large fundraising events held at opposite sides of the country. Thank you for your support over the last two years, for standing with the defendants as they continue to speak out for the forests and refuse to be intimidated by the effects of the case on their lives.

Following the decision of Justice Bongiorno on 3 April 2007 in the Victorian Supreme Court, Gunns delivered two new statements of claim to the remaining defendants.

The first concerns five of the original ten actions in the previous claim and involves 14 of the 20 defendants. The second is against Dr Frank Nicklason only for defamation and relates to alleged comments he made to the media about a woodchip pile in Burnie.