Waikato/Bay of Plenty District Law Society v Harris CA86/05

In Waikato/Bay of Plenty District Law Society v Harris, the New Zealand Court of Appeal reinstated a striking-off penalty imposed on Mr Harris, a lawyer, by the New Zealand Law Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal. The Tribunal had found Mr Harris guilty of numerous charges of professional misconduct, most of which the High Court had upheld, but had suspended the striking-off penalty in favour of a two and a half year suspension, and a prohibition on Mr Harris practising on his own account in the future, unless authorised by the Tribunal. The Law Society appealed against the High Court’s decision. The Court of Appeal held that the High Court had erred in substituting its own view of the appropriate penalty for that of the Tribunal. The absence of dishonesty on Mr Harris’s part, and the fact that the charges proved against him involved omissions on his part, not commissions, were relevant factors in the penalty assessment but did not, in the Court’s view, mitigate sufficiently to justify a penalty less severe than striking off. The Court of Appeal restored the Tribunal’s striking-off penalty.