Linda Reynolds claims she was ‘obliged’ to sue Brittany Higgins in a civil defamation case
In new legal filings, the Liberal Senator’s legal team argues she “has suffered, and is continuing to suffer, loss and damage”.
Liberal Senator Linda Reynolds will claim she was “obliged” to sue Brittany Higgins in a civil defamation case in new court documents seeking taxpayer-funded compensation for her losses and damages.
In the latest branch of the byzantine web of legal action associated with the saga, her legal team have asked the Federal Court to consider whether taxpayers should make a contribution to cover her “losses” including legal costs in the WA Supreme Court.
While the total amount she has spent on the case is not stipulated it is conservatively estimated to be hundreds of thousands of dollars.
In new legal filings, the Liberal Senator’s legal team argues she “has suffered, and is continuing to suffer, loss and damage.”
“These losses include: Legal costs associated with being obliged to commence proceedings so as to vindicate and restore her reputation,’’ the document states.
“Further particulars of the legal costs incurred to date in vindicating the Applicant’s reputation will be provided prior to trial.”
The firm is claiming equitable damages or alternatively, damages for breach of fiduciary duties; or damages for negligence; further or other relief as the Court deems just.
The defamation case in the WA Supreme Court is tied to social media posts on Instagram and Twitter made by Ms Higgins and her husband David Sharaz which Senator Reynolds says “maliciously” targeted her.
She argues the posts falsely alleged she had “harassed” Ms Higgins and mishandled the former staffer’s claim she was raped by Bruce Lehrmann.
“They were published in furtherance of a plan by the defendant and Mr Sharaz to use the defendant’s allegations of a rape and the political cover-up… as a weapon to inflict immediate political damage upon the plaintiff and the then government,” the Senator’s original WA Supreme Court statement of claim reads.
Mr Lehrmann has always denied the rape allegation and was charged but never convicted before the trial collapsed as a result of juror miscondct
Now, there is a new legal case spawned by the ongoing saga in the Federal Court.
Liberal Senator Linda Reynolds is suing the commonwealth for unspecified damages over its conduct in Brittany Higgins’ compensation case in the Federal Court.
Senator Reynolds’ legal team will argue that the $2.4 million taxpayer-funded payout offered to Ms Higgins in late 2022 had the effect of “publicly affirming” Ms Higgins’ allegations against her.
As a result, she argues to clear her name she then had to sue Ms Higgins for defamation in a civil lawsuit in the WA Supreme Court.
The civil defamation case lodged in the WA Supreme Court was concluded in September but no judgment has been made and Justice Paul Tottle has reserved his decision.
In legal documents lodged with the Federal Court, Senator Reynolds says the commonwealth was in breach of its duty to act in her best interests when it settled Ms Higgins’ claim after a one day mediation.
The mediation follows around 12 months of discussions between Ms Higgins legal advisers and the Commonwealth, a process that was delayed by the criminal trial.
Taxpayers paid for legal advice for Senator Reynolds and Liberal Senator Michaelia Cash in the original negotiations over the compensation claim for Ms Higgins because it was an issue that arose in the course of their work as ministers.
But Senator Reynolds is now taking legal action against those lawyers– including for negligence – against law firm HWL Ebsworth which acted for the commonwealth in the case.
Senator Reynolds’ has long argued that the Commonwealth threatened to not to pay her legal fees and any costs awarded if she attended the mediation.
As a result she agreed not to attend the mediation despite the fact that she wished to do so.
As a result of that decision the Defence Minister argues she was unable to dispute any of Ms Higgins’ allegations in her compensation claim.
Last month, Senator Reynolds told The Australian newspaper that the commonwealth and its lawyers had been “hopelessly conflicted”.
“The Attorney-General and his ministers had been such staunch public supporters of Ms Higgins, politicising her untested, unsubstantiated and untrue allegations against me and it is impossible to reconcile how they considered they could act in my best interests and advocate for me in those circumstances,” Senator Reynolds said.
“Ms Higgins’ allegations concerning me were entirely defensible but in settling the claim against me it sent a message to the nation that those allegations were so true, so damning, so abhorrent that the commonwealth was prepared to pay her $2.445 million after only a single instance of mediation, in a single day for proceedings not yet filed and quite possibly statute barred.
“That settlement validated the sustained defamation and fuelled further defamation which I have been forced to defend and prosecute, at great personal and financial cost.”
She confirmed she had appointed her own lawyers Clayton Utz, to help defend Ms Higgins’s claims.
However, she says the Commonwealth took over the claim on behalf of Senator Reynolds and their solicitors, HWL Ebsworth, were appointed to her.
Senator Reynolds’ lawyers had written to HWL Ebsworth stating their concerns and pointing out that “the plain conflict of interest by reason of the public support offered to Ms Higgins and her version of events by the Attorney-General and other approving Ministers”.
In her statement of claim, Senator Reynolds’ notes that Ms Higgins was permitted to extend her claim beyond the one-year limitation period, which was due to expire on December 6, 2022.
A 27-page annexure to the statement of claim outline multiple examples where Senator Reynolds says the evidence is contrary to Ms Higgins’ particulars of liability concerning Ms Reynolds.
A spokesperson for HWL Ebsworth has previously declined to comment while the matter was ongoing.
In a separate action, Senator Reynolds’ former chief of staff, Fiona Brown has lodged a fair work case against the commonwealth.