Jock Anderson

Vowing to reinvent himself after being struck off in February former high-profile crime barrister Christopher Harder is preparing a come back.

Mr Harder, 58, is preparing to launch a new website called LawyerMeUp which he describes as a multipurpose one-stop legal portal designed to help people in trouble and the legal profession.

He expects to go “live” with his LawyerMeUp site within the next couple of weeks and will also be accessible by a click-through from www.caseload.co.nz - my own law-flavoured news website.

Mr Harder says LawyerMeUp will be the only website of its kind in New Zealand and  lawyers will be able to advertise themselves and their skills on it at very affordable prices..

“Much cheaper than the Yellow Pages, for example,” he says.

The flamboyant Auckland lawyer and constant irritant to the Auckland district law society in particular, previously agreed at a disciplinary tribunal hearing to be struck off the role of barristers and solicitors after admitting charges of professional misconduct.

At the time Mr Harder said that after 25 years of working “24/7” solving other people’s nightmares and eight appearances before disciplinary tribunals – none of them for dishonesty – “Everything has taken its toll.”

He said he had dropped the ball and would take his punishment like a man.

Now, after nine months below the radar, Christopher Harder says he is ready to bounce back.

His LawyerMeUp brainchild is designed to enable the public and lawyers to have quick online access to a wide range of legal-related services and information nationally and in local areas.

It includes directories of criminal and civil lawyers in local areas; a guide to hiring a lawyer from a Quite Clever Local lawyer bureau (QCLlb); legal specialists in local areas; skilled lawyers in a range of fields including crime, civil, agency, drink drive, employment, limited licence, family, youth, restorative justice or conveyancing.

LawyerMeUp will also feature sections for legal jobs, including para legals and legal executives; finding specialists such as private investigators, psychologists, mediators and problem solvers and often asked criminal and immigration questions.

It will include easy to use links to common legislation; how to find courts, police stations and probation offices; plus lawyers’ e-mail and other contact details.

A section Mr Harder says should have special appeal is one which profiles judges, their decisions and their comments during trial and on sentencing.

“This will give a person a useful inside look at the Judge they are appearing before,” he says.

Legal news sites including www.caseload.co.nz will also be available.

Mr Harder, who is considering posting revised extracts from his popular 2002 book Through The Legal Looking Glass on LawyerMeUp, says he still has some surprises up his sleeve.

Watch CaseLoad for more details.

Feedback on this story to jockanderson@ihug.co.nz