Bid to have Brittany Higgins declared bankrupt stalls
A former senator’s bid to discover where Brittany Higgins’ $2.4 million settlement went after their slanderous libel battle has been frustrated by a bankruptcy paperwork glitch.
Former Liberal senator Linda Reynolds successfully sued Ms Higgins over a series of social media posts she believed damaged the former defense minister’s reputation.
Ms Reynolds was awarded $315,000 plus $26,109 in interest after the Supreme Court of Western Australia ruled in August that some of the posts were defamatory.
The former political employee was also ordered to pay 80 percent of his former boss’s legal costs, estimated at more than $1 million.
Ms Reynolds launched bankruptcy proceedings against Ms Higgins in October to recoup the costs she won in the libel case.
Tuesday’s Federal Court hearing was expected to result in Ms Higgins being declared bankrupt, but the case was postponed due to a technical issue.
Ms Reynolds’ lawyer, Martin Bennett, said his client would continue to pursue Ms Higgins after complying with the court’s request for more information.
“(Ms Reynolds) is incredibly disappointed that Ms Higgins took $2.4 million worth of taxpayer money and never paid a penny towards the judgment against her,” he told reporters outside the court.
“It cost him a huge amount to prove that dishonest lies were told about him and not a penny was ever recovered.”
If Ms Higgins is declared bankrupt by a court order, a receiver will be appointed and will investigate a trust the former employee used to protect the Commonwealth payment, as Ms Reynolds alleges.
“Ms. Higgins says she personally has no money (but) where is the $2.4 million?” Miss Bennett said.
Ms Higgins apologized to Ms Reynolds after the former defense secretary emerged victorious in the pair’s five-week high-profile libel case.
Judge Paul Tottle found Ms Higgins’ social media posts contained a series of accusations.
These included that Ms. Reynolds launched a harassment campaign against Ms. Higgins, mishandled the rape allegation, and engaged in questionable behavior during Bruce Lehrmann’s criminal trial, which was annulled for rape.
The 360-page ruling set out factual findings about the incidents involving Ms Reynolds and Ms Higgins, including the alleged rape in 2019 and the years thereafter.
The ruling stated that Ms Higgins made 26 false or misleading statements in media interviews following the sexual assault allegation.
She claims that her former colleague Lehrmann raped her in the senator’s ministerial office.
A Federal Court judge overseeing Lehrmann’s libel case against Network Ten found that, on the balance of probabilities, Ms Higgins had been raped by her former colleague in the office.
Lehrmann disputes this finding.
He always denied the rape allegation, and his criminal trial was derailed by juror misconduct.
Ms. Higgins’ husband, David Sharaz, has also been served with a declaration of bankruptcy by Ms. Reynolds and is expected to declare bankruptcy as well.
He was also found to have insulted the former politician and was ordered to pay $85,000 in damages, plus interest and costs.
Ms Higgins’ bankruptcy case will return to the same court next Tuesday.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Resolution Support Service 1800 211 028
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