Former federal minister Linda Reynolds has ramped up her legal battle with Brittany Higgins by launching bankruptcy proceedings.
Reynolds confirmed on Monday that she had filed a creditor’s petition in the Federal Court seeking to set in motion the bankruptcy of her former political staffer.
The moves comes just days after Ms Higgins husband, David Sharaz, accepted service of a bankruptcy notice as Reynolds seeks to recover damages awarded in her favour.
Proceedings were escalated after Ms Higgins failed to comply with a bankruptcy notice recently issued to her by Reynolds.
‘It is unfortunate I have to take this step in this long-running saga,’ Reynolds told The Australian.
Ms Higgins and her now-husband were sued for defamation by her former boss over a series of social media posts that the ex-defence minister successfully argued had damaged her reputation.
Last month, WA Supreme Court Justice Paul Tottle ordered Mr Sharaz to pay Reynolds $92,000 in damages, plus legal costs expected to exceed $500,000.
Mr Sharaz is also jointly liable with Ms Higgins to pay a further $135,000 in damages over a separate post shared about the former minister.
Brittany Higgins has had bankruptcy proceedings launched against her by her former boss
Linda Reynolds described the move launched against her ex-political staffer as ‘unfortunate’
Justice Tottle’s subsequently found Ms Higgins liable for 80 per cent of Reynolds’s legal costs. That alone is estimated at around $1.5m, the publication reported.
The former senator has given Mr Sharaz a 21-day deadline to pay what’s owed to her before she proceeds to formally bankrupt him after he accepted a bankruptcy notice.
‘Mr Sharaz today agreed to accept service of the bankruptcy notice I had issued to him several weeks ago, but not before forcing me to incur further legal expenses in applying for substituted service orders,’ Reynolds said.
‘Again, this is predictable conduct that I have unfortunately become accustomed to in the pursuit of justice.’
Daily Mail understands that Mr Sharaz cannot pay the debt – estimated to be $700,000 and will apply to go bankrupt via Australian Financial Security Authority in the coming weeks.
He and Ms Higgins were forced to sell their chateau in France in June amid their mounting legal costs.
Justice Tottle ruled that Higgins and Sharaz’s social media posts falsely implied Ms Reynolds had taken part in a political cover-up of Ms Higgins’ rape allegation.
‘The defendant and Mr David Sharaz published a tweet on 27 January 2022, which contained two imputations,’ Justice Tottle said in his judgement.
The moves comes just days after Brittany Higgins husband, David Sharaz, accepted service of a bankruptcy notice
‘First, that the plaintiff had pressured the defendant not to proceed with a genuine complaint of sexual assault. And second, that the plaintiff is a hypocrite in her advocacy of gender equality and female empowerment.
‘Both imputations were defamatory The defendant has not established her defence of truth or any of her other defences.’
A second Instagram post published by Ms Higgins on 4 July 2023, which conveyed the imputations that Reynolds had engagement in a campaign of harassment against her, that she had mishandled the allegation of rape and engaged in questionable conduct during Bruce Lehrmann’s trial, was also found to be defamatory.
Justice Tottle awarded damages worth $180,000 to Reynolds for that post.
A third post, in which Ms Higgins posted tweets on 20 July 2023 which conveyed the imputation that Reynolds wanted to silence the victims of sexual assault was also found to be defamatory.
Reynolds, who reportedly re-mortgaged her house to fund her defamation case, said the recent WA Supreme Court ruling by Justice Tottle was a ‘great relief’.
‘There was no conspiracy and no political cover-up of a rape,’ she said.
‘This was never about Ms Higgins’ allegation of rape and it was also never about the money.
‘It was always about the dishonest and devastating attack on my reputation that was based on very curated lies by Ms Higgins, Mr Sharaz and the well documented co-conspirators with them.’
Brittany Higgins alleged she was raped by colleague Bruce Lehrmann (pictured) in Reynolds’ ministerial office in 2019
Court documents revealed Ms Higgins offered her former boss a $200,000 settlement payment just days before the trial started, which was rejected by Reynolds.
The high-profile five-week defamation trial, which ended in September 2024, was just another twist in the never-ending saga which has engulfed the worlds of Australian politics, media and the law since a fateful night in March 2019.
It was then that Ms Higgins alleged she was raped by colleague Bruce Lehrmann in Ms Reynolds’ ministerial suite.
A Federal Court judge overseeing a defamation case launched by Lehrmann against Network Ten found Ms Higgins was, on the balance of probabilities, raped by Lehrmann in the office.
Lehrmann is currently in the process of appealing that finding.
He has always denied the rape allegation and his criminal trial was derailed by juror misconduct.
