Fiji In 1988, Harder was briefly detained in Fiji after travelling there to represent eight
Rotuman chiefs accused of
sedition and five
Fijian Indians charged following the discovery of a cache of
Soviet-made weapons.
Plumley-Walker murder trial In 1989, the decomposing body of cricket umpire Peter Plumley-Walker was found floating in New Zealand's
Huka Falls with its hands and feet bound, allegedly after a
bondage session gone wrong. Teenage
dominatrix Renee Chignell (then aged 18) and her boyfriend Neville Walker – the latter represented by Harder – were originally convicted of murder but were eventually acquitted in June 1991 after two retrials. This is believed to be the only case in New Zealand legal history where two individuals have faced three murder trials and have been acquitted after the third. The second jury was unable to reach a verdict, while the third jury accepted the defence claim that Plumley-Walker was already dead when Chignell and Walker threw his body off the Falls, Plumley-Walker having died accidentally during a "punishment" session. Harder published a book about the case,
Mercy, Mistress, Mercy.
2003 assault charge In 2003, Harder pleaded guilty to a charge of assaulting fellow lawyer Barry Hart in an Auckland courtroom scuffle. His defence was that his use of the prescription
weight-loss medication Duromine had affected his temperament. Harder was
discharged without conviction after offering to pay court costs and making a donation to charity.
2006 disbarment In 2006, Harder was struck off New Zealand's law practitioners' roll by the Law Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal for several offences, including taking a client to a brothel and making him simulate the sexual violence he had been charged with committing; swearing at the client and drinking alcohol while taking instructions; sexual harassment and threatening clients. In 2008, he applied to be reinstated to the roll of barristers and solicitors but eventually withdrew his application. ==Post-disbarment career==