Daily London
A former senator’s act of kindness towards Brittany Higgins might have backfired, with a bankruptcy case aimed at discovering where the former staffer’s $2.4 million compensation payout went delayed further.
Ex-Liberal MP Linda Reynolds successfully sued Higgins over a series of social media posts the former defence minister believed damaged her reputation.
Reynolds was awarded damages of $315,000 plus $26,109 interest after Western Australia’s Supreme Court in August found some of the posts were defamatory.
Higgins was also ordered to pay 80 per cent of her former boss’s legal costs, which are estimated to be more than $1 million.
Reynolds launched bankruptcy proceedings in October against Higgins to recoup the costs awarded in her defamation win.
Federal Court judge Michael Feutrill today reserved his decision over Reynolds’ creditors petition to formally bankrupt Higgins after the ex-senator unusually served the documents to her lawyer and not her personally.
“All we were trying to do was facilitate service in a manner respecting mental health and fragility and that’s proving more difficult than just blindly rushing in oblivious to the effect,” Reynolds’ lawyer, Martin Bennett, told reporters outside the court in Perth.
“Because this is an unusual, novel point, and there’s no precedent for it, His Honour is correctly going to write reasons for his decision in the next few days.”
Bennett said Higgins had instructed her lawyer to accept the documents, was not fighting the proceedings and he was confident the court would accept the application.
“If somebody takes the trouble to instruct a solicitor to accept service on their behalf, they’re not contesting service,” Bennett said.
“What they’re doing is just distancing themselves from it, avoiding a knock on the door at night in front of neighbours and the like.”
If Reynolds’ application is accepted, her legal team could find out how much money Higgins has within months.
“Get behind the trust. Where’s the $2.4 million? How much has been spent, how much has been dealt with, what’s left?” Bennett said as he described the next steps in the proceedings.
Higgins apologised to Reynolds after the former defence minister emerged victorious from the duo’s high-profile five-week defamation trial.
Justice Paul Tottle found Higgins’ social media posts carried an array of imputations.
They included that Reynolds engaged in a campaign of harassment against Higgins, mishandled her rape allegation and engaged in questionable conduct during Bruce Lehrmann’s aborted criminal trial for rape.
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.
Higgins made 26 false or misleading statements in media interviews after her alleged sexual assault, the judgment said.
She alleges former co-worker Lehrmann raped her in the senator’s ministerial suite.
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 co-worker in the office.
Lehrmann has lost an appeal against that finding but has flagged taking the case to the High Court.
He denies the rape allegation and his criminal trial was derailed by juror misconduct.
Higgins’ husband David Sharaz was also served with a bankruptcy notice by Reynolds and is expected to declare bankruptcy.
He was also found to have defamed the former politician and was ordered to pay $85,000 in damages plus interest and costs.
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