One more appeal to go for Dotcom

The Court of Appeal has rejected every aspect of Kim Dotcom’s appeal against the decision of the High Court judicially reviewing the decision of the Justice Minister to extradite Dotcom. No doubt he will try to appeal this to the Supreme Court, but after that it will finally be over.

Apart from losing on every issue, Dotcom also got hit with a 50% increase in costs because of his attempt to adjourn the hearing the day before. The Court noted:

In our view, whatever the intentions were in seeking an adjournment, the fact remains it was sought. The respondents could not just ignore the application which was sprung on them at the very last minute. They were put to unnecessary expense in having to review the material and then respond to it literally overnight under urgency.

To suggest that the eleventh-hour timing was simply a function of when the Cox decision was released was a misleading explanation in so far as Mr Dotcom was suggesting he had only just become aware of the decision. The tweets indicated hehad in fact been aware of it and its claimed effect on his own case back on 27 March.

In short, the respondents were unreasonably taken by surprise.

It was a desperate attempt to get another delay, which thankfully the Court did not fall for.