Overview

• The commission’s preliminary investigation involved issuing notices to departments and legal representatives, analysing thousands of documents and finding no evidence of corruption or improper intervention by public officials.
• Settlement negotiations stretched over approximately 12 months and concluded with a one-day mediation informed by independent external solicitors and counsel.
• Higgins’s $2.445 million payout covered future lost earnings, medical and legal expenses and distress and was below the maximum amount recommended by external advisers.
• The commission said the single-session mediation was standard for a non-litigated personal injury claim and was aimed at avoiding further trauma to Higgins.
• Former senator Linda Reynolds has launched legal action over her exclusion from the mediation process, and Bruce Lehrmann is appealing a Federal Court finding that he raped Higgins on the balance of probabilities.