Brittany Higgins declared bankrupt amid Linda Reynolds court saga

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Brittany Higgins has been declared bankrupt in a federal court hearing brought on by her former boss Linda Reynolds. The former-liberal senator launched the legal action after winning a defamation case against Ms Higgins earlier this year. Ms Reynolds is pursuing her former staffer for the costs for her legal action, estimated to be in the millions.

Transcript

00:00Well, Justice Michael Futril delivered his judgment in the bankruptcy proceedings for

00:08Brittany Higgins brought on by her former boss, former Senator Linda Reynolds in Perth

00:13here today. Justice Futril made those orders earlier this morning. The matter was first

00:18brought to the court here back in October. The former Liberal Senator Ms Reynolds launched

00:23this legal action after she won a defamation case against Ms Higgins that was earlier this

00:29year. Ms Reynolds is pursuing Ms Higgins for the cost of that legal action, which is estimated

00:34to be in the millions. In August, Ms Higgins was ordered to pay Ms Reynolds $315,000 plus

00:42$26,000 interest after she and her husband, David Shiraz, were found to have defamed the

00:49former Senator in a series of social media posts. She was also ordered to pay 80% of Ms

00:55Reynolds legal costs. And today, Justice Futril ordered that Ms Higgins' estate must be sequestered

01:01under the Bankruptcy Act, with a copy of that order to be served to her trustee within seven

01:06days. The act of bankruptcy is dated back to October the 8th this year. And the Justice

01:12also made an order for Ms Higgins' estate to pay the costs of Ms Reynolds, which will be

01:18$6,330. We spoke to Ms Reynolds' lawyers outside of court today, Rachel Ross. She talked about

01:27the judgment to media waiting outside. Ms Ross said the matter for how much money was available

01:34was for Ms Higgins' estate to answer. She said that was for the trustee to explore in due course,

01:40and that was out of Linda's hands. Linda Reynolds also issued a statement to the media today,

01:46and she said she did not consider this judgment a victory. She said it was rather an inevitable

01:52consequence of a failure by Ms Higgins to pay damages she was ordered to pay by the court.

01:58In this statement, Ms Reynolds also said Ms Higgins has failed to engage, and that the proceedings

02:04were an unfortunate consequence of this. She said it was not a step she had wanted to take,

02:10or has taken lightly. Ms Reynolds has also said she was put to the cost of an expensive

02:16Supreme Court trial to prove that Ms Higgins had lied about her conduct, and to put an end to

02:23continuous lies. She said she was successful at that trial, and that Ms Higgins has failed to pay

02:29any of the damages that she was ordered to pay.

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