Brittany Higgins, live blog on defamation case against Bruce Lehrmann: Big twist as Lisa Wilkinson’s concerned texts about Higgins’ ‘bruise photo’ are revealed in court – as secret recording of lawyer emerges

Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation hearing resumed in the Federal Court on Tuesday with references to two news stories published overnight.

The articles were published by Sky News and news.com.au and claim they contain recordings of Ms Higgins’ lawyer, Leon Zwier, speaking to her fiancé David Sharaz in the Park Hyatt lobby bar last Monday.

At the time, Ms Higgins was in the middle of cross-examination and therefore was not allowed to speak to her legal adviser.

Violating this rule may amount to contempt of court.

According to the Sky News article, which was tendered to the court on Tuesday, Mr Zwier could be heard giving Mr Sharaz advice on how Ms Higgins should respond to questions about her compensation in the witness box the next morning.

He said: ‘She should say: privilege, your honor, my lawyer has told me I don’t need to discuss legal advice, that’s what she should say.’

The conversation is said to have been recorded on Monday, December 4, from a nearby table in the lobby of the Park Hyatt hotel in Sydney.

He was also accused of writing Ms Higgins’ draft medical report, which was submitted after Mr Lehrmann’s criminal trial in the ACT Supreme Court collapsed in October last year.

The report said Ms Higgins’ mental health was too fragile to testify at another trial, and charges against Mr Lehrmann were dropped.

Mr Zwier did not respond to questions about whether the medical report he prepared had been submitted to the Commonwealth when contacted by Sky News.

The conversation was recorded without the knowledge of Mr. Zwier or Mr. Sharaz, which could make the recording inadmissible in court.

However, the recording may be admitted into evidence if it was recorded in a public place and it is reasonable that others could overhear it.

Judge Michael Lee said one of the issues was whether it was a private conversation or not.

A subpoena has been issued to Sky News for the audio recordings.

Responding to the claims, Mr Zwier told Sky there was a general understanding that no one would speak to Ms Higgins about her testimony.

“All my private conversations with David Sharaz and Emma Webster were based on the general understanding that Brittany was being cross-examined and that no one was allowed to talk to her about the content of her evidence or the manner in which she provided it,” Mr Zwier said. . Daily Mail Australia suggests no otherwise.

When contacted by Sky News, he did not respond to additional questions about whether the medical report he had prepared had also been submitted to the Commonwealth.