Barrister fined for punching court colleague

Colourful criminal lawyer Christopher Harder has been censured and fined for last year's attack on fellow lawyer Barry Hart as an example for new lawyers, says a legal tribunal.

Mr Harder pleaded guilty to conduct unbecoming a barrister at a disciplinary hearing into his assault of Hart during a courtroom scuffle in November last year.

Mr Harder was censured, fined $1750 and ordered to pay costs of $4602 by a disciplinary tribunal of the Auckland District Law Practitioners in a ruling released last week.

The hearing stemmed from an incident at the North Shore District Court in May last year when Mr Harder attacked Mr Hart after a row over who would represent double-murderer Wen Hui Cui. Mr Harder had been insulted during the row.

Mr Hart went on to defend Cui who was sentenced in September at the Auckland High Court to mandatory life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 19 years for the murder of his estranged girlfriend and one of her friends in Auckland last year.

Mr Harder admitted two charges of common assault when he appeared at the North Shore District Court.

He was discharged without conviction, after claiming he had been using a weight-loss drug at the time, volunteering to pay a $1000 donation to the SPCA, and $500 in court costs.

In its decision the tribunal found Mr Harder's "quite simply abhorrent behaviour" in the "presence of the public" could not help but bring the legal professional into disrepute.

It went on to say it was "appropriate that others of the profession, particularly the recently-admitted and younger members should know the outcome of the case".

The tribunal said its verdict was mitigated by Mr Hart's provocation including allegations that he said Mr Harder was "no good as a lawyer", and that he "was a loser".

Mr Harder grabbed Mr Hart by the collar, held him against a wall and placed his closed fist against his face four times, then threw Mr Hart to the ground and again placed his fist against his face.

He then went on to strike Mr Hart with a closed fist in "the chest or stomach".

The tribunal said other factors in mitigation were that there was no lasting injury from the attacks, and that Mr Harder apologised almost immediately after the incident.

However the tribunal did not "place great weight" on Mr Harder's defence that his actions were influenced by prescription medication, Duromine, which he said could create an "over reaction in an acute stress situation".

CHRISTOPHER HARDER

Mr Harder has appeared before the Auckland District Law Society's disciplinary tribunal four times previously.

His former appearances in 1991, 1992, 1994, and 2000 cost him up to $150,000 in fines and costs.

He has acted in many high-profile criminal cases, including the Parnell Panther rape cases and the Peter Plumley-Walker and Michael Choy murder trials.

Since 1993 he has attempted to resolve some of the world's ugliest standoffs in troublespots such as Fiji, Waco in Texas, Peru, the Balkans and Pakistan.