The Court of Appeal has ordered a doctor who complained that a lawyer had conducted a campaign to discredit him to pay the lawyer's costs.
A Law Society Standards Committee dismissed the doctor's complaints, but they were upheld in two subsequent reviews including one by a High Court judge.
Following a review hearing in 2010, an ACC manager told Dunedin clinical psychologist James Hegarty that a lawyer at the hearing had criticised him and called him a crook.
However, a transcript revealed the actual words used were: "I'm not saying he's a crook".
The Court of Appeal says there were many unsatisfactory aspects to the way the complaint was handled, including that it was prompted by an ACC manager breaching confidentiality and giving the doctor an inaccurate account of what the lawyer had said.
The court has reinstated the earlier ruling in favour of the lawyer and ordered Dr Hegarty to pay his costs. It has also permanently suppressed the lawyer's name.
