KEY POINTS:
Disbarred barrister Christopher Harder has failed in an attempt to keep new evidence out of a hearing that could see him allowed to return to the law.
In a High Court judicial review held in Auckland yesterday, Justice Geoffrey Venning ruled the new evidence - supporting previous charges of professional misconduct - could be admitted.
His decision came at the end of a hearing that was closed to media.
Mr Harder's lawyer, Colin Pidgeon, QC, indicated this week he would seek the High Court review after a Law Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal decision to admit the new evidence into his reinstatement hearing.
The new evidence related to material that had yet to be presented when Mr Harder admitted professional misconduct at a February 2006 hearing.
He was ultimately struck off at that hearing for a range of indiscretions that included an incident in which he took a client to a brothel and made him simulate the sexual violence he had been charged with committing.
Mr Harder is now seeking reinstatement as a barrister, claiming he has been rehabilitated.
When his reinstatement hearing began on Monday, the tribunal ruled it would allow:
* Evidence proven or admitted before the tribunal that struck off Mr Harder.
* Mr Harder's disciplinary record before his striking off.
* "Other matters, subject to them being proven before us, and in respect of which proper notice has been given, where these matters bear on the issue of whether an applicant is a fit and proper person".
The Disciplinary Tribunal is due to resume in Auckland today.
