{"id":315898,"date":"2025-11-13T14:08:46","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T04:08:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=315898"},"modified":"2025-11-13T14:08:50","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T04:08:50","slug":"wheres-the-2-4-million-brittany-higgins-bankruptcy-order-delayed-by-court-technicality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=315898","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Where\u2019s the $2.4 million?\u2019: Brittany Higgins\u2019 bankruptcy order delayed by court technicality"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A decision on whether Brittany Higgins<\/a> will be declared bankrupt has been delayed due to a court technicality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Higgins and her husband, David Sharaz, have been ordered to pay Higgins\u2019 former boss, former Liberal senator Linda Reynolds<\/a>, upwards of $341,000 in damages and likely more than $1 million in legal costs after her defamation action against the pair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Justice Paul Tottle found in August that social media posts from Higgins and Sharaz had conveyed an imputation that Reynolds and her office had orchestrated to \u201ccover up\u201d the alleged rape of Higgins by colleague and parliamentary staffer Bruce Lehrmann at Parliament House in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Tottle said Reynolds and her staff had been appropriately supportive of Higgins following the allegation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Federal Court on Tuesday, Reynolds\u2019 lawyer Martin Bennett said his client was yet to see a cent of the money she was owed, despite Higgins being awarded $2.4 million in compensation from the Commonwealth in 2022 over the handling of her rape complaint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMs Higgins got $2.4 million worth of taxpayer money and has paid not a cent towards the judgment, so [Reynolds] is incredibly disappointed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEffectively, Ms Higgins is saying she personally has no money left, so where\u2019s the $2.4 million? That is the question.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reynolds has commenced bankruptcy proceedings against both Higgins and Sharaz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Bennett said due to Higgins\u2019 mental health and desire to deal with the issue at \u201carms-length\u201d, it was agreed her notice would be served via her Perth-based lawyer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Justice Paul Tottle found in August that social media posts from Higgins and Sharaz had conveyed an imputation that Reynolds and her office had orchestrated to \u201ccover up\u201d the alleged rape of Higgins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":315899,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[273,35],"tags":[9035,18761,11339],"class_list":["post-315898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australia","category-breaking-news","tag-brittany-higgins","tag-david-shiraz","tag-linda-reynolds"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t