In a decision described as “ridiculous” by one legal expert, Liberal senator Linda Reynolds is suing her former staffer Brittany Higgins for defamation. But if you’re trying to save your reputation, is suing an alleged rape victim really the way to fix it?
Since legal proceedings began in early August, the senator’s defamation trial has grabbed headlines and stirred debates online.
Each detail about what happened between the staffer and the senator in 2019 are being aired in court, and swiftly reported on for all to know. Both parties are enduring the court of public opinion, but only one is doing so by choice.
It raises the question: if defamation lawsuits bring you under so much fire, why on earth is Reynolds doing this? Why would anyone?
To find out more, we spoke to lawyer and writer Michael Bradley of Marque Lawyers to get an expert’s insight on what’s at risk when suing for defamation.
What is the goal of a defamation case?
A defamation case in Australia takes place in the civil court, and involves a plaintiff initiating a trial against a defendant whom they believe has damaged their reputation.
“Most of the time people decide to sue, or are talked into suing, with this idea that the court process is going to vindicate them,” Bradley told PEDESTRIAN.TV.
“They are going to have their day in court, and then everyone will realise that they were unfairly slandered, and that will be sort of a victory for the ages.”
However, Bradley warned: “In reality that just doesn’t bear out.”
But why not?
What are the risks of a defamation case?
When two parties go to court in a defamation case, the goal of each legal team becomes to discredit their opposition’s argument in any way possible.
Because reputations and character are at stake, reputations tend to be the first point of attack for both legal teams.
And the result? An extremely expensive trip to court, where even if you win, all of your dirty laundry gets hung out for everyone to see.
This is especially the case for high-profile plaintiffs and defendants — like, say, a senator.
“It’s a bad equation for pretty much anyone, even if you’re in the right. Your reputation being completely unfairly trashed, the economics of the cost of suing, the risk of losing,” Bradley said.
“You put your reputation in issue, and so you’re just opening yourself up to be attacked.”
Does anyone really win a defamation case?
The technical “winner” or “loser” of a defamation lawsuit is decided by the judge overseeing the case.
Said judge will then typically order the loser to pay the court costs of the winner, or the cost of damages if the plaintiff wins.
So yeah, there’s a “winner” on paper. But is the taste of victory in court worth the pain? Michael Bradley sure doesn’t think so.
“I think it would probably be a rare defamation plaintiff who, when they get to the end of the process, feels the same way they did at the start,” he said.
If we look at recent history, defamation plaintiff Bruce Lehrmann was called a liar and a rapist on the balance of probabilities by the judge, while in a separate defamation case Ben Roberts-Smith was called a war criminal.
Both Lehrmann and Robets-Smith initiated proceedings themselves, and ended up with more damaged reputations than when they started. [Disclosure: Roberts-Smith sued the Nine newspapers, which are published by Nine, the owner of this masthead, and has appealed that decision.]
Some less extreme cases of other high-profile defamation proceedings include Geoffrey Rush and Rebel Wilson, who both won their cases.
“But did they really come out of that better than they went in?” Bradley asked.
While Rush and Wilson were both awarded significant payouts ($2.9 million and $4.1 million respectively), only they can say if it was actually worth it.
So why is Linda Reynolds suing Brittany Higgins?
The Western Australian politician alleges that Higgins defamed her through social media posts, which criticised her handling of Higgins’ alleged rape in 2019.
The two social media posts made to Higgins’ Instagram, in July 2023, are alleged by Reynolds to have subjected her to “public hatred, scandal, odium and contempt” and damaged her reputation.
Last year, Higgins wrote on two Instagram Stories that Reynolds “continues to harass” her in the media and Parliament. She also accused Reynolds of “mishandling” her rape allegation.
Higgins denies the allegations that she defamed Reynolds with these posts.
While Reynolds stands to gain financially in damages from Higgins if she wins, Bradley believes that once all is said and done, “even if she wins, she’s gonna lose”.”
The lawyer pointed out even just from an optics perspective, there’s a “ridiculous circulatory nature” in a senator taking an alleged abuse victim to court was “just so strange”.
“There could never be a good outcome, given what was always going to come out. Even if the case went swimmingly well for her, she was never going to come out of this looking good,” he explained.
Ultimately, the only person who knows why Linda Reynolds has decided to go through the ordeal of a defamation case is the senator herself.
“Presumably she has a very sincere sense of grievance that she’s looking to vindicate,” guessed Bradley.
“But I don’t think it was a particularly wise choice.”
Only time will tell.
[Image: Getty]
The post Why Is Linda Reynolds Suing Brittany Higgins? A Legal Expert Weighs In On The ‘Ridiculous’ Case appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
