Lawyer censured for serious misconduct
A lawyer who used his position to gain access to police cells and confront a man who had robbed someone he knew, has been censured by a court for his actions.
Justin Harder appeared before the Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal on Tuesday to be handed his penalty after being found guilty of serious misconduct for the incident earlier this year.
After an associate of Harder’s was robbed and assaulted by three or four people at her home, the lawyer visited one of the alleged perpetrators in a court house interview booth. Harder didn’t introduce himself but said he had a close connection to the victim. He then questioned the man about his gang affiliations, the burglary, and assault as well as the names of the co-offenders and the whereabouts of the stolen property.
Harder told the man to “take care of himself” which was interpreted as a threat, though that wasn’t Harder’s intention, he later said.
However, he told the tribunal that in hindsight and in the context of the situation he could see how it could have been interpreted that way. “This was a clear misuse of privilege and power,” the tribunal said in its decision. “There is a very important relationship of trust and confidence between prison authorities and the legal profession … “When lawyers abuse this privilege that important relationship is damaged and all members of the profession suffer as a result.”
Four out of the five tribunal members considered his conduct to be so reprehensible that, at that point in time, he was not fit to practise as a lawyer. The tribunal’s chair Dale Clarkson disagreed and said: “I assess Mr Harder’s poor judgment, leading to his admittedly appalling conduct, existed for about 15 minutes”. Harder was censured and must pay $14500 court costs.