Brittany Higgins appeals damages, costs order after defamation loss to ex-senator Linda Reynolds

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Brittany Higgins has filed appeals against court decisions ordering her to pay damages and legal costs to her former boss Linda Reynolds in the wake of their bitter defamation stoush.

The appeals, lodged by Higgins’ lawyer Carmel Galati in the WA Supreme Court on Wednesday, challenge Justice Paul Tottle’s August and September decisions, which awarded Reynolds $315,000 damages and $26,109 interest, and ordered Higgins to cover 80 per cent of the former senator’s legal costs.

Brittany Higgins outside the Perth Supreme Court in 2024.

Those costs included fees for high-profile Perth barrister Martin Bennett, who represented Reynolds during the five-week defamation trial in 2024.

Tottle found Higgins had falsely alleged that Reynolds harassed her and mishandled her rape complaint against colleague Bruce Lehrmann.

In the later ruling, Tottle said a last-minute settlement proposal Higgins made in the days before the trial began was not reasonable, and did not contain an apology to vindicate Reynolds’ reputation.

Higgins had offered for her parents to pay Reynolds $200,000, and for her to take a $10,000 loan to donate to a women’s charity or shelter.

The case arose after the alleged 2019 rape of Higgins in Reynolds’ office by fellow staffer Lehrmann, and the political firestorm that followed her going public in 2021.

HIggins later received a $2.4 million compensation pay-out from the federal government.

Lehrmann’s criminal trial in 2022 was aborted due to juror misconduct, but it was later found to have been proved to the civil standard that Lehrmann had raped Higgins, following a separate defamation trial he initiated against Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson.

Lehrmann is currently appealing that decision.

Reynolds, who retired from politics last year, must now decide whether to contest Higgins’ appeals.

If she does, she is required to file a response in the Court of Appeal within seven days of service of the notice.

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