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:

"I’m pleased that I’m exiting the case without paying any damages or costs to Gunns.”

“It’s been almost three years since the case first started and nearly four years since I was last involved in the forest campaign, and still the case has years left to run.”

“Personally I think it’s rather silly that we were sued at all. In my view Gunns' corporate reputation has been, and will continue to be, tarnished by these proceedings."

Certain undertakings were also given to the court by two defendants about the release of correspondence between the parties. An article in the Australian precipitated this (see attached). The transcript of the proceedings is also attached.