Mr Guest, who has an application before the tribunal for restoration to the roll of barristers and solicitors, sought the suppression order yesterday after the Otago Daily Times alerted him to the presence of the letter, which he says was wrongly included in papers posted on the tribunal website with his application.
The application was posted in mid-April, along with his supporting affidavit and 90 supporting letters.
But filed with the supporting letters was a March 26 letter from Mr Guest to barrister Len Andersen, who is representing the New Zealand Law Society.
The contents of the letter cannot be published for legal reasons.
When the ODT advised Mr Guest yesterday afternoon of the letter's presence on the website, at the end of the support letters, he said it was "quite wrong" that the letter was there.
It was obviously a mistake, "a very bad mistake to make".
He said he would be seeking an urgent suppression order and the removal of the letter from the website.
The tribunal office advised such an application was received late yesterday afternoon.
A spokesman indicated a ruling on the application by Judge Dale Clarkson would not be made before today.
However, by yesterday evening the letter was no longer on the website.
• The legal profession's previous disciplinary body, the New Zealand Law Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal, ordered Mr Guest, a former district court judge, to be struck off in December 2001 on two counts of professional misconduct.
These involved lying to a client when he told her she had been declined legal aid and taking $25,000 more of her funds for his costs than he was entitled to.
His 2002 High Court appeal against this decision was dismissed.
No date has yet been set for the hearing of his reinstatement application.
The ODT reported yesterday the council of the Otago branch of the New Zealand Law Society is to oppose Mr Guest's application to again practise law.
When asked the reason for the objection, University of Otago associate law professor Donna Buckingham, speaking on behalf of the branch, said there were "matters within the society's knowledge that are considered relevant to the issue of whether or not Mr Guest is fit and proper".
She was not sure if those matters had been in the public domain before.
