Auckland lawyer fined $30,000 for 'serious' conduct
Wednesday, 21 March 2018
An Auckland barrister who asked a female lawyer to bend over through a window, has been censured and fined a total of almost $30,000 for 'serious' conduct.
A decision from the Lawyers Standards Committee said John Revans Eichelbaum's conduct was 'of a serious nature'.
The decision said the female lawyer, referred to only as Ms B, complained about the way Eichelbaum behaved in a dispute with her client over undisclosed defects in a property he had purchased.
She said that he had failed to treat her, as opposing counsel, with the required respect and courtesy expected from a member of the legal profession.
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She said on one of her visits to the property, Eichelbaum would not allow her and her expert to enter the site unless she agreed to bend over through a window down to the skirting board level to sign a piece of wood.
She said she reluctantly agreed to do so, so as not to waste time and money. She said that it was clear she was not dressed appropriately to undertake such a manoeuvre. When doing it, she hurt her head. Ms B alleged Eichelbaum laughed after she signed the wood.
The committee censured Eichelbaum and fined him $10,000 for failing to treat another lawyer with courtesy and respect. It also ordered him to pay $5000 costs.
In a separate matter, he was also censured and fined $10,000 in relation to a complaint laid by the woman who had sold the property in question.
The committee found he had threatened, bullied, insulted and intimidated the woman over five years.
As well as the censure and fine, the committee ordered Mr Eichelbaum to pay $3000 costs. In total across both matters he was ordered to pay almost $30,000.