Brittany Higgins lodges appeals to Supreme Court defamation damages, legal costs award to Linda Reynolds
Brittany Higgins is appealing her Supreme Court loss to Linda Reynolds, drawing out their bitter and costly defamation battle.
Ms Higgins lodged an appeal notice on Wednesday against the $315,000 in damages, plus more than $26,000 in interest, that Justice Paul Tottle awarded her former boss three weeks ago.
It was her last day to submit, being 21 days since her bruising defeat to the ex-politician, who she was working for when she was allegedly raped by colleague Bruce Lehrmann at Parliament House in Canberra in 2019.
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Ms Higgins also lodged an appeal notice against the judge’s subsequent order that she pay 80 per cent of the former Liberal Senator’s legal bills, which Ms Reynolds has described as being in the “millions”.
The notices do not detail any grounds of appeal and show the mother-of-one continues to be represented by Perth solicitor Carmel Galati - and is not applying for taxpayer-funded Legal Aid.
At an epic trial last year, Ms Reynolds alleged her ex-junior media adviser defamed her in a series of social media posts in 2022 and 2023.
In them, Ms Higgins referred to being “bullied” and refusing to “stay silent”, alleging her then-boss mishandled her rape claim.
Justice Paul Tottle last month found Ms Higgins had indeed defamed Ms Reynolds on three occasions.
But the appeal dashes any hope Ms Reynolds may hold of swift payment.
While it is not known how much of Ms Higgins’ $2.4 million settlement with the Federal Government remains, Ms Higgins and her husband David Sharaz reportedly had to sell their chateau in France recently for an estimated $700,000.
Ms Galati is being sought for comment on her client reportedly accepting service of a bankruptcy notice by Ms Reynolds, lobbed in a bid to gain access to a protective trust set up to hold the settlement.
It was reached over the mishandling claims and Ms Reynolds is now suing the Commonwealth and law firm HWL Ebsworth over it.
She says she was completely excluded from the process, preventing her from defending herself with her own legal counsel.
The first case management hearing is scheduled for October 8.
Ms Reynolds’ lawyer Martin Bennett last year said that Ms Higgins went on a “splurge of spending” after receiving the big payout, including a trip to the Maldives.
His client, however, had to mortgage her house “to the hilt” to pay for the litigation.
Mr Lehrmann faced trial over the rape accusation but it was aborted in October 2022 due to juror misconduct.
He continues to maintain his innocence.
