Judge nicked judgements

A BRISBANE magistrate has been told to take a two-month break after being caught nicking judgements from other court cases that were published online.

Federal magistrate Jennifer Rimmer is alleged to have cut and pasted huge chunks of a Melbourne magistrate's work in a sexual harassment case to save her the trouble of typing it.

Her 'break' is on full pay and is designed to make sure she gets "additional training, counselling and appropriate mentoring".

According to the Aussie version of News.com ,the plagiarism will cost taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars, because lawyers in the cases she presented the material are almost certain to want a re-trial.

She can't be fired from her $200,000 a year job because no one seems to have the statutory power to do so.

More here. µ