Judge intervenes in Linda Reynolds' case against Brittany Higgins, David Sharaz

Linda Reynolds will come face-to-face with Brittany Higgins and David Sharaz on Tuesday, after the couple flew back to Australia.

Liberal Party senator Linda Reynolds. Picture: Colin Murty

A Supreme Court judge is expected to personally intervene in a last-ditch bid to avert a costly and protracted defamation case by former Liberal minister Linda Reynolds against Brittany Higgins and her partner David Sharaz.

Senator Reynolds will come face-to-face with Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz in a court-ordered mediation in Perth on Tuesday, after the couple flew back to Australia for the first time since they left for a new life in France last year.

If the two-day mediation does not result in a compromise, the parties are heading for a six-week trial slated for July that could become a re-run of the criminal trial against Bruce Lehrmann and the still-to-be-decided defamation case brought by Mr Lehrmann against Network Ten and journalist and presenter Lisa Wilkinson.

So high are the stakes that judge Marcus Solomon may take part in the mediation, a move that would mean he could not preside over the case if it goes to trial.

Under normal circumstances, the mediation would be left in the hands of a court registrar, in this case Danielle Davies, but Justice Solomon has been emphatic in his concerns about the “human cost” of a prolonged trial.

WA Supreme Court Justice Marcus Solomon.

Senator Reynolds is suing both Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz over separate social media posts but the cases are being heard together, with evidence in one available in the other.

On Tuesday, a bank of lawyers – five on one side, seven on the other – will line up across the table in Perth’s David Malcolm Justice Centre before each of the three parties withdraws to their own conference room, with the mediator shuttling between them in a form of defamation diplomacy.

Senator Reynolds’ five-lawyer team will be headed by Perth barrister Martin Bennett, while Ms Higgins’ team of three will be led by Sydney silk Nicholas Owens SC, who oversaw Nine’s successful defence against Ben Roberts-Smith’s lawsuit over alleged war crimes, and her personal lawyer Leon Zwier. Mr Sharaz has a four-person team headed by barristers Jason MacLaurin SC and James O’Hara.

Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz had wanted the case transferred to Canberra, where it would get more coverage by the press gallery; Senator Reynolds wanted it heard in her home state of Western Australia, where her constituents would be more likely to see it.

There appears to be little ­wiggle room for a compromise between the parties. Senator Reynolds has just received an apology and a $90,000 settlement from the ACT government over accusations against her by former chief prosecutor Shane Drumgold, the fifth successful action by the former defence minister over allegations against her.

Last year, she reached a settlement with publisher Harper­Collins and Australian Financial Review journalist Aaron Patrick over statements in his book Ego: Malcolm Turnbull and the Liberal Party’s Civil War, which featured a chapter about the rape allegations. The settlement is believed to include a payment to Senator Reynolds and amendments in a new edition of the book.

Brittany Higgins and her fiance David Sharaz depart Brisbane international Airport bound for France in December. Picture: Backgrid/news.com.au

Equally, Ms Higgins’ public statements and private actions do not suggest she is in the mood to compromise. In the recent Lehrmann defamation case, evidence emerged that she instructed her lawyer, Mr Zwier that she would only assist Ten’s defence if the network agreed it would “not offer Lehrmann a payment of damages or a retraction of the defamatory statements or an apology or costs (or any other relief) to settle the civil claims commenced by Lehrmann”.

Senator Reynolds claims she was defamed in social media posts last year in which her former staffer accused her of harassment.

In an Instagram post in July, Higgins highlighted reports that Senator Reynolds would refer her compensation settlement to the National Anti-Corruption Commission, saying: “This is from a current Australian senator who continues to harass me through the media and in the parliament.”

Senator Reynolds is seeking aggravated damages from Mr Sharaz, saying she has suffered highly distressing trolling, and that Mr Sharaz has been “a constant participant” in that trolling.

Among the defamatory imputations claimed against Mr Sharaz’s tweets were that Senator Reynolds pressured Ms Higgins not to proceed with a genuine complaint to police; “is a hypocrite in her advocacy for women’s interests and empowerment”; and interfered in Mr ­Lehrmann’s trial and bullied Ms Higgins.

Senator Reynolds applied for freezing orders against Ms Higgins, which restrain a party to a case from selling or moving assets while a legal action is still in process.

Ms Higgins hit back, telling her 65,000 Instagram followers she would not be bullied.

“I’m not the same naive 25-year-old girl from Parliament House,” Ms Higgins wrote.

“You don’t scare me anymore and I won’t be bullied.”