Higgins pursued compo claim on the day Lehrmann’s rape charge was dropped

Brittany Higgins’ lawyers said they would proceed with her claim hours after prosecutors dropped a charge against Bruce Lehrmann.

Former Liberal Party staffer Brittany Higgins. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

Brittany Higgins’ lawyers declared they would be proceeding with her legal claim against the government less than three hours after prosecutors dropped a rape charge against Bruce Lehrmann on the grounds it would be too traumatic for her to testify in a retrial.

Ms Higgins’ lawyers wrote to Linda Reynolds’ lawyers on the morning of December 2 last year, informing them their client would be proceeding with a mediation scheduled for December 13.

“I note that you were of the view that the mediation couldn’t go ahead until the criminal trial was finished,” Ms Higgins’ lawyers wrote. “As you will have seen, the DPP have dropped the charge against Bruce Lehrmann, which means the criminal proceedings (are) at an end.”

Announcing the decision, ACT chief prosecutor Shane Drumgold said: “I’ve recently received really compelling evidence from medical experts that the ongoing trauma associated with this prosecution presents a significant and unacceptable risk for the life of the complainant.”

Senator Reynolds’ lawyer responded after reading Mr Drumgold’s statement: “I had expected that your client would not be in a position to proceed to mediation on 13 December.”

Ms Higgins was required by the commonwealth to provide a medical report prior to the mediation that she had “legal capacity to enter into this deed”.

The Albanese government paid Ms Higgins more than $2.4m compensation in a settlement after excluding Senator Reynolds from the single-day mediation, despite the former Liberal minister’s wish to dispute Ms Higgins’ version of events.

The deed of settlement ­between Ms Higgins and the ­commonwealth was released on Thursday in the defamation trial brought by Mr Lehrmann against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson over Ms Higgins’ ­allegation he raped her in Parliament House in 2019.

The “particulars of liability” in the deed make a number of allegations against her former bosses, senators Reynolds and Michaelia Cash, including sex discrimination and victimisation.

The government’s “lightning-fast” settlement with Ms Higgins and the exclusion of key witnesses from the mediation was highly unusual, lawyers said.

“I would find that a little peculiar because the first thing you do is talk to everyone involved and ask ‘what’s happened?’,” said Sydney barrister Tony Vernier, an employment law specialist.

If the government had failed to approach witnesses such as senators Reynolds and Cash, named by Ms Higgins in her claim against the commonwealth, “that is not normal, absolutely not”.

“The person conducting an investigation would speak to all the relevant people … otherwise, how could you know that her claim has any validity if you don’t speak to the people involved? If they didn’t want to hear the other side of the story, it’s incredible. It was a lot of money if they did it without investigating anything.”

If the sexual assault did take place as Ms Higgins claimed, it may be a reasonable settlement, Mr Vernier said, but in this case it was problematic because the assault had not been proven. “If it ran in court she would have to win on every point in order to get this type of money.

“The $400,000 for hurt, humiliation and distress – if it took place – is probably reasonable.

“Then you’ve got $1.48m for loss of earnings. If the evidence is that she can never work again, that’s probably reasonable. But what medical evidence did the government get about Ms Higgins’ ability to work in the future?

“The government paid money to keep Ms Higgins quiet. It would be very embarrassing for the government if Justice (Michael) Lee, in the … defamation case, makes a finding that it wasn’t true.”

Mr Vernier could not explain how Ms Higgins could have been left with only $1.9m out of $2.4m, as she claimed in the trial this week, because personal injury claims are not taxable.

Another lawyer who did not wish to be named told The Weekend Australian a deed as detailed as Ms Higgins’ settlement would take days to draft and, for the government in particular, to be signed off by a senior official.

“If they mediated on 13 December and had the deed drafted, printed and signed on 13 December too, it smacks of a done deal,” the lawyer said.