Brittany Higgins has officially been declared bankrupt by a judge following a massive court battle with her former boss.
A snap judgment hearing in Ms Higgins’ bankruptcy case was called by the Federal Court on Friday morning.
Justice Michael Feutrill said former senator Linda Reynolds had seven days to serve a copy of the order to trustee Daniel Juratowitch.
He ordered Ms Higgins’ estate be sequestered under the Bankruptcy Act and Ms Reynolds’ court costs be fixed at $6330, to be paid out of the estate.
The date of bankruptcy was backdated to October 8 when Ms Reynolds filed the action against her former junior staffer.
Linda Reynolds said this was not a victory but the but the inevitable consequence of a failure by Brittany Higgins to pay the damages she was ordered to pay by the Court. Picture: NewsWire / Sharon Smith
Ms Reynolds said in a statement that she did not consider this to be a victory, but the inevitable consequence of a failure by Ms Higgins to pay the damages she was ordered to pay by the court.
“This is not a step that I wanted to take or have taken lightly, the fact of the matter is that I 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,” she said.
“I was successful at that trial and Ms Higgins has failed to pay any of the damages she was ordered to pay. She has failed to engage at all and this is the unfortunate consequence.”
Ms Higgins was not present in court and was not represented by a lawyer at the hearing.
Brittany Higgins posted photos to social media celebrating her birthday in Byron Bay.
Photos posted to social media show she had been recently celebrating her birthday in Byron Bay.
“The most magic time introducing our little guy to one of our favourite spots and the first place I ever called home,” she said.
“Big thank you to dad for shouting us the flights for my (birthday) and making it happen.”
Ms Higgins is being pursued by her former boss for hundreds of thousands of dollars after she was successfully sued for defamation, alongside her husband David Sharaz.
Mr Sharaz faces a bankruptcy hearing on Tuesday related to Ms Reynolds’ defamation win against them.
The pair made a series of social media posts that were critical of how Ms Reynolds handled Ms Higgins’ allegation that she was raped by former colleague Bruce Lehrmann in her office at Parliament House, an allegation he continues to deny.
