Higgins’ team hits out at ‘selective’ reporting
Written by admin on July 9, 2024
EXCLUSIVE
Brittany Higgins’ legal team has dropped objections to media outlets accessing Linda Reynolds’ explosive statement of claim in her defamation case, but urged the media to properly report Ms Higgins’ defence to avoid one-sided and “selective reporting” in the matter.
The WA Supreme Court has declined initial requests from news.com.au and The Australian to release the statement of claim for the purpose of fair and accurate reporting, in the latter case citing objection from Ms Higgins’ legal team.
However, it has previously released an earlier version of Senator Reynolds’ statement of claim to the journalist and publisher Richard Ackland who uploaded the entire document on his 500 words website on June 25.
On Tuesday, this same material was then reported by The Australian after it obtained a copy outside of its formal release by the WA Supreme Court where an application is ongoing.
In the document, Senator Reynolds has alleged her former staffer Ms Higgins “acted maliciously” when making social media posts, for which she is now suing Ms Higgins for defamation.
But lawyers acting for Ms Higgins have now complained to the WA Supreme Court registrar that by reporting that document and not Ms Higgins’ July 8 response that the “selective” reporting is harming their client.
“It seems the very concern that my client had, namely selective reporting, has taken place, in that some media organisations have published extracts from the statement of claim, in today’s newspapers and online,’’ the email from Ms Higgins’ lawyer Carmel Galati states.
“My client’s concern has been to ensure a fair and accurate reporting of the pleadings, in circumstances where there are very serious allegations being levelled against her. My letter to the court of 1 July submitted that it was appropriate for those very serious allegations to be made in the proper context of the trial.
“Given today’s developments and the capacity for the one-sided allegations in the statement of claim to further harm my client, and given that the amended defence (responding to the plaintiff’s new allegations) was filed and served on the plaintiff yesterday, my instructions are to withdraw the objection to the release of the pleadings, to enable members of the media to have access to both sets of pleadings for the ultimate purpose of reporting the trial.”
In May, Ms Higgins’ lawyer Leon Zwier wrote to the WA supreme court asking that all pleadings be released to the media.
“Because of the prior leaking to the media about the proceedings and other related proceedings or proposed applications for freezing orders, our client would welcome the release of all the pleadings (not just the Statement of Claim) so that the future media reports of the proceeding are balanced and fair, reporting on not just the Plaintiff’s claim but the defences and reply,’’ he wrote.
But after Senator Reynolds’ lawyers expanded the statement of claim to include new allegations in June, Ms Higgins’ new lawyer Ms Galati objected to the new June 4 allegations being released to the media until Ms Higgins had responded. That occurred on Monday, July, 8.
On his 500 words website, Ackland wrote a colourful account of Senator Reynolds’ statement of claim on June 25.
It was, he wrote, “a 65-page masterpiece of wounded grief”.
“From where the senator sits, or stands, a few social media posts by Higgins and her husband, David Sharaz, have rendered the poor woman into a lip-quivering mess,’’ he said.
“Normally anyone with the rhino hide of a politician would brush off snitty remarks on Instagram and Twitter as inconsequential noise. But not Linda.”
However, The Australian’s Janet Albrechtsen wrote on July 9 that “this is the statement of claim that lawyers for Brittany Higgins didn’t want us at The Australian to see”.
“They didn’t want us to report it, to analyse what Linda Reynolds set out in her defamation claim against Higgins in the West Australian Supreme Court,’’ she wrote.
“Fear not. We’re fighting objections by the Higgins team to us accessing all the documents filed in this litigation. I filed further submissions with the WA Supreme Court on Monday. The wheels of justice move slowly – court orders are currently not due until the end of this month.”
News.com.au has again applied today for an official copy of the June 4 statement of claim by Senator Reynolds including updated claims of tortious conspiracy and the July 8 response from Ms Higgins.
The development follows the WA Supreme Court declining to release a 61-page amended statement of claim lodged by lawyers acting for Senator Reynolds without a formal application that can be objected to by parties to the case.
The explosive allegations are tied to social media posts made by the couple, which Senator Reynolds says “maliciously” targeted her by falsely alleging she had “harassed” Ms Higgins and mishandled the former staffer’s claim she was raped by Bruce Lehrmann.
“They were published in furtherance of a plan by the defendant and Mr Sharaz to use the defendant’s allegations of a rape and the political cover-up… as a weapon to inflict immediate political damage upon the plaintiff and the then government,” the Senator’s statement of claim reads.
Since the statement of claim was first lodged it has been updated to include the serious allegation of tortious conspiracy.
The tort of conspiracy has been well established in Australia by the High Court, however it is a fairly uncommon cause of action.
It is a serious allegation involving two or more persons who agree to effect an unlawful purpose, whether as an end, or a means to an end, and in the carrying out of that agreement damage is caused to another, then those who have agreed are parties to a tortious conspiracy.
