The lawyer in question, who has remained unnamed in the media, reportedly became verbally abusive after a court registrar declined her request to change the time of a scheduled hearing. According to the registrar’s complaint to the New Zealand Law Society, the lawyer reportedly told the registrar to ‘go back to North Korea and get a job in a camp there.’ The lawyer herself has admitted to making a general statement that court staff who ‘changed the dates and times of cases without letting defence counsel know’ might want to consider working in ‘a country that doesn’t have defence counsel such as North Korea.’

Discriminatory intent

Though the lawyer denies that the comments were directed specifically to the registrar in question, a Law Society standards committee found that comment to be discriminatory in its intent given the Southeast Asian heritage of the registrar. The standards committee has ordered the lawyer to pay $1,000 in damages and $750 in costs relating to the incident, as well as to provide a written apology to the registrar.

Source: New Zealand Herald; Radio New Zealand