Higgins vs Reynolds drags on as planned mediation conference called off in defamation case

Any progress made in the attempt to broker peace between Brittany Higgins and Senator Linda Reynolds seems to have stalled – with a planned court conference on Wednesday cancelled at the 11th hour.

For more than nine hours on Tuesday, Ms Higgins and her former boss tried to resolve their differences during mediation ordered by a judge in a bid to stave off a potentially emotional and expensive defamation trial.

That trial will centre around social media posts published by Ms Higgins and her fiancée David Sharaz which the former defence minister says defamed her.

And ahead of a potential July trial, the warring parties were called together by Justice Marcus Solomon in a bid to find a settlement in Perth in person this week.

That bid failed to find an immediate settlement, with both sides only saying they would continue the process as they left the court building late on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, the sides were due to come together again to thrash out more details.

But The West Australian has confirmed that hearing has been called off.

Because Justice Solomon personally involved himself in the mediation, he is now not eligible to conduct any trial.

A new judge – believed to be Justice Paul Tottle – needs to read the swathe of materials to ready himself for a potential place on the bench.

And that needs time, with a new date for another hearing likely to be set down for next week.

The mediation had originally been set down for two days, to be heard in private — with only those involved permitted onto the eighth floor of the David Malcolm Justice Centre.

In her Supreme Court writ, Senator Reynolds says a story published on Ms Higgins’s Instagram account defamed her and breached a settlement deed they had reached.

In one, she chastised her former boss for continuing “to harass me through the media and in the parliament”.

Senator Reynolds claims she suffered loss and damage as a result of the posts.

A similar claim has been made against Mr Sharaz over a number of social media posts published online in the wake of Ms Higgins’ allegations of being raped by a former colleague in Senator Reynolds’ Canberra office.

Justice Solomon has overseen the action since it emerged last year, and has consistently called on both sides to mediate — ordering the sessions face-to face.

Besides suing the couple, Ms Reynolds has also threatened to freeze their assets after the couple moved to France.

Overarching all those moving parts is the impending decision of Justice Michael Lee in the Federal Court – where Ms Higgins’ alleged attacker Bruce Lehrmann is suing Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson for airing the interview with Ms Higgins.

That decision could come by the end of this month.

It is understood that the conclusions contained within are likely to influence both sides as to the potential to settle Ms Reynolds’ claim against Ms Higgins.