A WOMAN jailed for a decade for trying to poison her husband before she was set free has won the right to sue the state of NSW for malicious prosecution.

Roseanne Beckett was convicted of nine offences in 1991, including the attempted murder of Barry Catt, and served nearly 10 years of a 12-year-jail term before a judicial inquiry found she had been set up.

Ms Beckett today flagged she would continue her two-decades-long fight to clear her name after the High Court overruled a NSW's court's finding that she must prove her innocence before she could sue for damages.

"I can only say I am elated," Ms Beckett told reporters outside the court in Canberra.

"I am overjoyed, words fail me at the moment.

"I just thank every Australian, I thank you, I thank you for justice."

But she said she still needed closure.

In 2005, the Court of Criminal Appeal quashed some of Ms Beckett's convictions and ordered a retrial on five counts.

She was cleared of maliciously wounding Mr Catt, giving false evidence by saying she did not strike him with a rock, endangering his life by causing him to ingest toxic lithium and two charges of soliciting men to murder the panel beater from Taree, on the NSW north coast.

When the crown decided not to proceed with the retrial on the remaining charges, Ms Beckett sued the state of NSW, claiming malicious prosecution and false imprisonment.

The NSW Supreme Court, however, threw out her suit on the basis of a 90-year-old legal precedent.

But the High Court today ordered her appeal be allowed, with costs.

The judgement ruled the plaintiff's guilt or innocence of the criminal charge, in this case, was not an issue in the action for malicious prosecution.

Five of Ms Beckett's closest supporters flanked her outside court and cried out that "today is the day for celebration".



Originally published as Woman wins right to sue NSW