\n<\/p>\n
Brittany Higgins has been bankrupted by her former boss, bringing Linda Reynolds one step closer to discovering where her former political staffer\u2019s $2.4m compensation payout went.<\/p>\n
Reynolds, a former Liberal senator, launched bankruptcy proceedings in October against Higgins after successfully suing her for defamation.<\/p>\n
The federal court judge Michael Feutrill on Friday made orders to sequestrate Higgins\u2019 estate under the Bankruptcy Act after a series of minor setbacks and technical difficulties that slowed the process.<\/p>\n
The date of the act of bankruptcy was backdated to 8 October.<\/p>\n
\u201c[The estate will] be handed over to the trustee of the bankruptcy who will take control of her affairs and deal with the creditors in due course,\u201d Reynolds\u2019 lawyer Rachel Ross told reporters outside the court in Perth.<\/p>\n
Reynolds\u2019 high-profile defamation victory over Higgins concerned a series of social media posts the former defence minister believed damaged her reputation.<\/p>\n
Reynolds was awarded damages of $315,000 plus $26,109 interest after Western Australia\u2019s supreme court in August found some of the posts were defamatory.<\/p>\n
Higgins was also ordered to pay 80% of her former boss\u2019s legal costs, which are estimated to be more than $1m.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Reynolds said it was not a victory and was an \u201cinevitable consequence\u201d of Higgins\u2019 actions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not a step that I wanted to take or have taken lightly,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was put to the cost of an expensive supreme court trial to prove Ms Higgins egregiously lied about my conduct and to put an end to the continuation of these lies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reynolds said that Higgins had failed to pay any of the court-ordered damages.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe has failed to engage at all and this is the unfortunate consequence,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Reynolds\u2019 lawyer Martin Bennett previously said the bankruptcy would allow Reynolds to find out how much of Higgins\u2019 commonwealth settlement remained as she attempted to recoup her legal costs for the defamation case.<\/p>\n
Arthur Carney, a partner at commercial law firm Carneys Legal, explained the trustee would now stand in Higgins\u2019 shoes, and take control of her estate and assets.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir job is to administer her assets, call them in, and satisfy the creditors,\u201d he said. This could involve selling any properties in her name, investigating any money held in trust or overseas, and potentially garnishing her earnings.<\/p>\n
Carney said that where her $2.4m compensation payout went would be of interest to the trustee.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe trustee would have to investigate what she did with the money,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
If it has been \u201clegitimately spent\u201d on expenses \u2013 whether that be flights, Higgins\u2019 own legal bills, or her wedding to David Sharaz in 2024 \u2013 that money cannot be recouped, says Carney. But the trustee would investigate any property, shares or trusts that could be liquidated to pay her creditor.<\/p>\n
Carney said that there was also significant \u201creputational damage\u201d that came with a declaration of bankruptcy.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t hold a credit card, you can\u2019t obtain credit of any kind, you can\u2019t travel overseas without the permission of your trustee,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Bankruptcy typically lasts for five years, after which period the remaining debt is wiped, though if the debt is settled earlier, the bankrupt person can apply to be released early from bankruptcy.<\/p>\n
Higgins apologised to Reynolds after the former senator emerged victorious from the duo\u2019s high-profile five-week defamation trial.<\/p>\n
Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/p>\n
Justice Paul Tottle found Higgins\u2019 social media posts carried an array of imputations.<\/p>\n
They included that Reynolds engaged in a campaign of harassment against Higgins, mishandled her rape allegation and engaged in questionable conduct during Bruce Lehrmann\u2019s aborted criminal trial for rape.<\/p>\n
The 360-page judgment made factual findings about the events involving Reynolds and Higgins, including her alleged 2019 rape and the events in the years after it.<\/p>\n
Higgins made 26 false or misleading statements in media interviews after her alleged sexual assault, the judgment said.<\/p>\n
She alleges former co-worker Lehrmann raped her in the senator\u2019s ministerial suite.<\/p>\n
A federal court judge overseeing a defamation case launched by Lehrmann against Network Ten found Higgins was, on the balance of probabilities, raped by her former colleague in the office.<\/p>\n
Lehrmann has lost an appeal against that finding but has flagged taking the case to the high court.<\/p>\n
He denies the rape allegation and his criminal trial was derailed by juror misconduct.<\/p>\n
Higgins\u2019 husband, David Sharaz, was also served with a bankruptcy notice by Reynolds and is expected to declare bankruptcy.<\/p>\n
He was also found to have defamed the former politician and was ordered to pay $85,000 in damages plus interest and costs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Brittany Higgins has been bankrupted by her former boss, bringing Linda Reynolds one step closer to discovering where her former political staffer\u2019s $2.4m compensation payout went. Reynolds, a former Liberal senator, launched bankruptcy proceedings in October against Higgins after successfully suing her for defamation. The federal court judge Michael Feutrill on Friday made orders to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37039,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[346,15848,13719,1844,3439,4718,13720,175,3274,11746,1975],"class_list":{"0":"post-37038","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-bankrupt","10":"tag-brittany","11":"tag-case","12":"tag-declared","13":"tag-defamation","14":"tag-higgins","15":"tag-law","16":"tag-linda","17":"tag-reynolds","18":"tag-wins"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}