The trial of the man accused of raping former Liberal Party staffer Brittany Higgins may be delayed after "reasons beyond anyone's control" forced a late change of lawyers.
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Queensland man Bruce Lehrmann is due to stand trial in the ACT Supreme Court next Monday after pleading not guilty to a charge of sexual intercourse without consent.
He denies raping Ms Higgins at Parliament House in March 2019, when the pair worked for Morrison government minister Linda Reynolds.
On Tuesday, ACT Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold SC told the court the lawyers originally representing Lehrmann were now unavailable because of "reasons beyond anyone's control".
Tamzin Lee, a Legal Aid lawyer now representing Lehrmann, applied for the trial to be vacated because her office had only just come into the matter.
Ms Lee told the court finding a barrister to commence the trial next Monday had proven "extraordinarily difficult", while the capacity of Legal Aid solicitors to get up to speed with the case in time was also an issue.
Chief Justice Lucy McCallum said there was not currently enough evidence before the court to justify vacating the scheduled trial dates.
She suggested that if it started on June 20 or June 27, it could still finish within the time set aside for it.
Mr Drumgold said both of these options were "workable".
Chief Justice McCallum ultimately gave Ms Lee 48 hours to make further inquiries about the availability of counsel to represent Lehrmann.
The judge noted that the unavailability of Lehrmann's former lawyers was not the Queensland resident's fault.
The matter is due to return to court on Thursday afternoon.
Lehrmann applied last month to have his case stayed by arguing "damaging publicity" had rendered a fair trial impossible, but Chief Justice McCallum disagreed and dismissed his application.
