Brittany Higgins suffers final blow in legal saga with former Liberal Senator boss Linda Reynolds
Brittany Higgins has abandoned her last-minute appeal against a ruling she defamed former boss Linda Reynolds, a week after being issued with a bankruptcy notice.
Reynolds had claimed a series of social media posts made by Higgins and partner David Sharaz in 2022 and 2023 led to her suffering health issues, damaged her reputation and stymied her career.
In August, the WA Supreme Court awarded Reynolds $315,000 in damages plus $26,000 in interest and Higgins was ordered to pay 80 per cent of her legal fees, which, combined with her own legal bills, is an estimated $2million bill.
A month later, Higgins’ lawyers accepted a bankruptcy notice served by Reynolds’ lawyers and also lodged an appeal on the defamation ruling, meaning that any bankruptcy proceedings were stalled until after it was finalised.
But, it is understood that on Monday, Higgins’ lawyers submitted a notice to discontinue the appeal with the Supreme Court.
It comes a week after Reynolds filed a creditor’s petition in the Federal Court, claiming Ms Higgins ‘failed to comply’ with a bankruptcy notice issued to her several weeks ago.
‘It is unfortunate that I have to take this step in this long-running saga,’ the former parliamentarian said in a statement.
‘As I have said, this is conduct which comes as no surprise to me; however what should be plain now is that I am committed to seeing this through to the end.’
Former political staffer Brittany Higgins (pictured) has withdrawn her appeal against a ruling she defamed former senator Linda Reynolds in a series of social media posts
Federal Court records show Reynolds filed bankruptcy proceedings against Ms Higgins, and the former staffer’s husband David Sharaz has also been served with similar proceedings. He is expected to declare bankruptcy following the action.
Ms Higgins has been contacted by the Daily Mail regarding the withdrawal of her appeal.
In a statement after the ruling, she said she accepted the judgement and wanted to ‘rebuild’ her life.
‘I accept that Linda Reynolds’ feelings were hurt by these events and I am sorry for that. I wish her well for the future,’ she said.
Before going to trial, Ms Higgins had offered to pay Reynolds $200,000 as a contribution to her legal costs with her parents to pick up the tab, but the sum was rejected.
The ex-political staffer apologised to Reynolds following the former defence minister’s high-profile, five-week defamation trial victory in September 2024.
The trial centred on a tweet Ms Higgins and her husband published in January 2022.
It carried imputations that Reynolds pressured Ms Higgins not to proceed with a sexual assault complaint, and that she was a hypocrite in her advocacy of gender equality and female empowerment.
The decision comes a week after Reynolds filed a creditor’s petition in the Federal Court, claiming Ms Higgins ‘failed to comply’ with a bankruptcy notice issued several weeks ago
Justice Paul Tottle found Ms Higgins’ social media posts were defamatory as they implied Reynolds engaged in a campaign of harassment against Ms Higgins, mishandled her rape allegation and engaged in questionable conduct during Bruce Lehrmann’s aborted rape trial.
Ms Higgins alleges Lehrmann, her former co-worker, raped her in the senator’s ministerial suite, a claim he has always denied.
His criminal trial was aborted due to juror misconduct.
A Federal Court judge overseeing a defamation case Lehrmann launched against Network Ten found Ms Higgins was raped in the Parliament House office, on the balance of probabilities.
Lehrmann is appealing that finding.
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