Mediation talks between Linda Reynolds, Brittany Higgins and David Sharaz postponed

Mediation between Linda Reynolds, Brittany Higgins and David Sharaz is due to resume in coming weeks after initial talks failed, the supreme court of Western Australia has said.

Reynolds said she had proposed a fortnight’s pause in her defamation case after what she called a “a tiring and difficult day” of discussions on Tuesday. Higgins reportedly attended hospital after Tuesday’s proceedings, which lasted more than nine hours. A further conference scheduled for Wednesday was abandoned.

Higgins, the former Liberal staffer, alleged she was raped in 2019 by then-colleague Bruce Lehrmann inside Reynolds’ ministerial office. Lehrmann has always denied the allegation, and his trial in the ACT supreme court was derailed by juror misconduct. Prosecutors decided not to pursue further action, citing concerns of the effect it might have on Higgins’ mental health.

Reynolds, the former defence minister, is suing Higgins and Sharaz over a series of social media posts she says damaged her reputation.

She is suing Sharaz over tweets and a Facebook comment made in 2022. Among the defamatory imputations claimed against Sharaz’s tweets were that Reynolds put pressure on Higgins not to proceed with a genuine complaint to police, that she “is a hypocrite in her advocacy for women’s interests and empowerment”, and she interfered in Bruce Lehrmann’s trial and bullied Higgins.

Higgins is accused of posting defamatory material on two occasions on her Instagram and X accounts.

Justice Marcus Solomon had encouraged the parties to work to resolve the matter before a lengthy and costly trial. A court spokesperson said on Wednesday that the conference scheduled for that day had been vacated, but that mediation was expected to resume in future.

The court proposed the matter be listed for a directions hearing in coming weeks.

In a statement, Reynolds said: “Legal negotiations are unfortunately sometimes difficult and testing for all participants and [Tuesday] was a tiring and difficult day for all of us”.

“I attempted to minimise stress by avoiding any direct contact that may have been confronting and relying on a very experienced judge to interact with Ms Higgins.

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“I proposed today [Wednesday] through my solicitor a two-week pause in the case to enable Miss Higgins and all parties to recover and get past the stress of the court attendance and significant media attention. I hope Ms Higgins makes a swift recovery.”

Higgins said earlier this week: “I think everyone is acting in good faith trying to get an outcome.”

Higgins and Sharaz moved to France in December. The couple travelled back to Australia for the court proceedings. Speaking outside court this week, Higgins said Perth was “beautiful, but just personally it’s hard being back in Perth”.

Lawyers for the parties appeared in the Western Australian supreme court in February, when they sorted out key dates in preparation for a trial should mediation fail.