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In a rare step, the Employment Court has ordered an employment advocate to personally pay costs after his conduct was found “entirely unacceptable”.
Lawrence Anderson – who is not a lawyer – made comments such as “the lawyers who work in the employment law jurisdiction are incapable of dealing with matters that require the use of the human brain.”
He also attacked the Employers & Manufacturers Association and the New Zealand Bar Association in an email, saying they should “pull their finger out of their arses” and calling them “idiots.”
Catherine Stewart, convenor of the Employment Law Committee at The Law Association of New Zealand, brought the application against Anderson.
She says this case is a line-in-the-sand moment that underlines the urgent need to close the loophole in the Employment Relations Act which allows unregulated advocates to operate.