AFLW player Deni Varnhagen faces $70,000 bill for vaccine mandate challenge

Her final legal challenge has ended in another defeat but Deni Varnhagen still has one more piece of business left with SA’s courts – her bill.

Nurse and AFLW footballer Deni Varnhagen has lost her final challenge against the state vaccine mandate and now faces paying a legal bill of up $70,000.

On Tuesday, the Court of Appeal unanimously dismissed Ms Varnhagen’s bid to overturn her earlier loss against the mandate in the Supreme Court.

That earlier case incurred an estimated $50,000 in legal costs, while the unsuccessful appeal has amassed a further $20,000 in spending.

AFLW plater Deni Varnhagen leaves court after a previous appearance on April 6. Picture: Tom Huntley

The Court of Appeal will hear argument as to how much of that bill Ms Varnhagen and her co-litigants should pay in December.

In September, the Supreme Court dismissed a challenge, by Varnhagen and others, to the vaccine mandate imposed upon workers during the pandemic’s quarantine phase.

That mandate no longer existed, and had been overtaken by new laws, by the time the repeatedly-delayed case made it to trial.

A month later, the Court of Appeal granted her application for an urgent hearing, which was heard last Friday.

On Monday, the short hearing was telecast to a second courtroom to allow Ms Varnhagen’s supporters – many of whom have donated financially to her case – to watch the judgment.

Outside court, they applauded Ms Varnhagen’s legal team and cheered for her as she left the building.

Ms Varnhagen did not comment outside court.