In this week’s devastating findings by Justice Paul Tottle of the Supreme Court of Western Australia, the judge found that Brittany Higgins had exaggerated and embellished aspects of her story when speaking to the media, critical elements of her narrative did not correspond with reality, others were misleading, dishonest, speculative, driven by malice or simply untrue. She had indeed defamed Linda Reynolds in the long running Higgins/Lehrmann legal jumble.
The crippling verdict has shredded her credibility, threatens her $2.4m commonwealth compensation payment and could send her into bankruptcy, as Paul Garvey writes in The Australian today (29/8/2025). Not the best profile for a newcomer to a proposed public relations career…
On another page, legal affairs contributor Chris Merritt writes: “It is worth considering what course this affair might have taken had everyone involved adopted the principle that accusations of criminal wrongdoing should be prosecuted by the justice system, not the media.
“By discarding that principle, significant parts of the mainstream media seemed utterly unaware of their limitations. They retailed falsehoods and presented it as news.”
Earlier in August, the Federal court heard Bruce Lehrmann’s appeal over the loss of his defamation suit against Network TEN and Lisa Wilkinson; the judges have reserved their decisions.