Awards
Like all sports, there are bush lawyer awards for achievements in the face of
litigation.
Award for gratuitous publicity from a legal threat
While the Gunns20 defendants have got impressive publicity from the beginning
of the case, the award for gratuitous publicity from a legal threat goes to Animal Lib in Canberra who
planned a demo to protest the expansion of the zoo. The zoo threatened legal
action over previous statements if the demo went ahead. With advice from
Bush Lawyers and a media release headed "Controversial protest goes
ahead despite legal threats", a protest of about a dozen people managed
page 2 of the Canberra
Times, wall to wall radio, and a number of follow up newspaper stories
- including an Opinion piece: all for a very small protest which would otherwise
have made absolutely no impact on the public consciousness! Guess what -
no legal action has ensued.
Award for the most hopeful claim
A heavily contest category. This award could go to the legendary suit for the
bumper sticker, "Barwon
Water - Frankly Foul", but it gets disqualified because the bastards
won. Gunns have put in a bid by claiming damages for interference with their
contract with the Banksia Foundation when the woodchipper of old growth forests
was taken out of the list of Banksia Environment Award finalists. Another
logging company in Tasmania has put in a strong bid with a law suit alleging
that a defendant had damaged their business by conspiring with unspecified
people to do unspecified acts on unspecified days causing unspecified damages.
However, the award goes to Animal Lib SA who actually organised to get themselves sued
for producing a T-shirt. Amid great publicity, the bush lawyers managed to twice
defeat injunction attempts and argue for their right to wear their T-shirts.
Click here for the full story.
Award for a case going nowhere
Again, the Gunns case could take this award as it has gone nowhere at all,
but with 20 defendants and over 200 pages of claims it is too easy and it would
be unfair for them to claim the award. The award must go to Animal Lib South
Australia for Takhar v Animal Lib & Or after a very public raid on
a battery hen factory in August 2000. It should have been and open and shut case, but after 5
years the pleadings still hadn't been finalised. With three thick case files on
his desk, one judge remarked that "this case has been characterised by a plethora
of pre-trial activity". The self-represented defendant bush lawyers took that as
a compliment! The case settled in May 2006: no money changes hands and the
bush lawyer's understanding is that the undertakings given were completely
meaningless.
The Houdini Award
The Houdini Award would have to go to fellow bush lawyer, Ralph Hahnheuser.
The only question is for which particular legal escape. He could get the award
for avoiding cross-examination on two mutually contradictory affidavits, or for
surviving a bankruptcy claim (arising from court costs) because there were two
debts listed on one piece of paper. And, if it was not beyond the rules
(because it was a criminal claim), the award would have to go to Ralph for being acquitted
on charges of food tampering for putting pizza ham in the food of sheep bound
for live export to the Middle East. Facing serious jail, Houdini Hahnheuser's
escape earned the ire of those who would think imprisoning sheep in stifling
conditions is business as usual. They got the law changed in Victoria, but tried
to
further lynch Ralph by suing him in the Federal Court under the Trade
Practices Act. The Houdini award goes to Ralph for winning that case -
without even turning up to the trial. Even with pro bono legal representation,
Ralph was unable to pay court fees and disbursements. He withdrew his legal team
and was a no show at trial - leaving the farmers lobby with what looked like an
empty victory, until the court did its own research and the judge found that
animal welfare actions were covered by the exemption for environmental
activities - meaning that the Act did not apply and
the farmers were again
lobbying for law reform.
Award for the best bush lawyer
The award could go to any activist who has actually managed to win with a
defence of necessity, but they would have to share it with their friendly judge
because you could almost guarantee it would not survive appeal. However, the
award must surely go to Helen Steel and Dave Morris for their spectacular McLibel efforts. The longest running libel case in British legal history
effectively took SLAPP suits off the corporate agenda for a decade. Not only did
they seriously embarrass the hamburger giant, they kept going and went to the European
Court and got a verdict against the British government for running an unfair
legal system. From one who can imagine the stress and work involved, and who
knows how important the case was, I "dips me lid" to the still undisputed
champions of bush lawyering.
There should also be a series of awards for the judges and lawyers on the
other side, but defamation laws prevent me from making awards for:
- the most reactionary judge in a SLAPP suit
- the most ludicrous claim in a SLAPP suit
- the biggest gaff by a SLAPP suiting lawyer
- the most pretentious SLAPP suiting lawyer
- the worst response to a SLAPP suit by a community organisation
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