The Snowdon costs

Stuff reports:

Lynne Snowdon’s husband has spoken of the heavy psychological toll of her 11-year battle against former employer Radio New Zealand, which cost the couple about $3.5 million.

“Litigation destroys people – there are no winners in litigation,” said John Hickling, a lawyer who spent years working on his wife’s long-running case.

So why did you pursue it? Radio NZ did not sue you. You sued them?

His comments come as figures released under the Official Information Act show the publicly funded state broadcaster spent more than $2m fighting the employment case after it sacked Snowdon as managing news editor in 2005, including nearly $1.3m in legal expenses.

By the time Snowdon was dismissed, she had already been on sick leave for more than two years.

That’s all taxpayer money wasted.

He said a relatively straightforward employment dispute seemed to have spiralled out of control, involving 23 preliminary hearings, and 70 formal minutes, orders and rulings even before the 47-day full hearing began last year.

It is understood RNZ is now seeking costs of about $1.1m from Snowdon.

Good. Not to be vindictive, but because we need to discourage this from happening again.