Lawyers for Linda Reynolds handled Brittany Higgins payout ‘unbelievably poorly’

Documents subpoenaed from lawyers appointed by the commonwealth to represent Linda Reynolds in Brittany Higgins’ compensation claim show that the firm handled the matter ‘poorly’, the senator’s lawyer says.

Senator Linda Reynolds. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Documents subpoenaed from lawyers appointed by the commonwealth to represent senator Linda Reynolds in Brittany Higgins’ compensation claim show that the firm handled the matter “unbelievably poorly”, Senator Reynolds’ lawyer has said.

Appearing on Wednesday in the WA Supreme Court, where Senator Reynolds is suing Ms Higgins for defamation, Senator Reynolds’ lawyer, Martin Bennett, applied to have documents received under subpoena from HWL Ebsworth tendered as ­evidence. Mr Bennett told the court the documents showed that HWL Ebsworth waived a limitation period that had expired for Ms Higgins just one day after the firm was appointed to act for Senator Reynolds in her former staffer’s compensation claim against the commonwealth.

He said the documents also showed that there was “new evidence” that Senator Reynolds had called Ms Higgins a “lying cow” – despite that matter having already been ventilated and settled more than a year earlier.

“How they could actually ­entertain a lying cow submission, in circumstances in which there had been a full and final release by Ms Higgins, is breathtaking and it emphasises the legitimate anger that Senator Reynolds had, that they were her solicitors and they weren’t telling her things,” Mr Bennett said. “If they’d forgotten the nationwide press about the lying cow settlement, they could have asked her and she would have said that was settled in March of 2021.”

The handling of that claim is central to Senator Reynolds’ case that her complaints about the commonwealth settlement – which saw Ms Higgins collect $2.445m for the trauma from the handling of her allegation that she was raped in Parliament House – were not about harassing Ms Higgins, but drawing attention to the commonwealth’s questionable conduct in the case.

“These are matters we want to elevate to show the legitimacy of Senator Reynolds’ fury about this conduct and her determination to refer it as an incidence of corruption to the National Anti-Corruption Commission, not to harass Ms Higgins but to deal with something that was so unbelievably poorly handled,” Mr Bennett said.

Ms Higgins’ lawyer, Rachael Young SC, opposed the application to tender the documents, saying Senator Reynolds could not rely on information she had just learned to justify her actions of more than a year ago.

“They are irrelevant to these proceedings, because how can documents produced on subpoena last week bear any relevance upon the senator’s conduct at the pleaded time, that is December of 2022 and July of 2023?” Ms Young said.

It came as judge Paul Tottle ­accepted the medical evidence put forward by Ms Higgins to justify her non-appearance at the trial.

Ms Higgins had been scheduled to give evidence this week, but her lawyers have decided not to call her. Ms Young has said the decision reflected a belief that they would successfully defend the case without her testimony, as well as Ms Higgins’ health.

Ms Higgins – who still resides in France – is pregnant, and has had issues with her physical and mental health in recent years.

Senator Reynolds is suing Ms Higgins and her husband, David Sharaz, over social media posts she says implied she had mishandled Ms Higgins’s rape allegation and had harassed her former staffer. Federal Court judge Michael Lee found in April that, on the balance of probabilities, Mr Lehrmann had raped Ms Higgins. He denies the allegation.