Former Liberal senator Linda Reynolds has initiated bankruptcy proceedings against Brittany Higgins in an effort to recover damages and legal costs exceeding $1 million, following her defamation victory against the former staffer.
Reynolds won the case in the Western Australia Supreme Court in August, with Justice Paul Tottle ordering Higgins to pay $315,000 in damages plus $26,109 in interest. Higgins' husband, David Sharaz, was held jointly liable for the damages, and the couple were also ordered to cover 80% of Reynolds' legal costs, a figure expected to surpass $1 million.
The defamation finding related to an Instagram story posted by Higgins in July 2023, which accused Reynolds of mishandling her alleged rape and waging a harassment campaign. Justice Tottle found the post defamatory, though he ruled that Higgins had successfully defended another tweet on the grounds of honest opinion, fair comment, and qualified privilege.
Reynolds escalated the legal action on Friday in the Federal Court, after taking similar steps against Sharaz. The move comes despite Higgins' legal team filing an appeal in September against the judgment and the order to pay legal fees.
The case stems from Higgins' allegations that she was raped by a colleague in Reynolds' ministerial office in March 2019, and that Reynolds failed to support her. Reynolds' legal team argued during the trial that Higgins had cast the senator as a 'villain' in a 'fairytale' of political cover-up.
This is the latest development in a long-running legal saga that also saw a federal court judge rule in 2023 that Bruce Lehrmann had raped Higgins, on the balance of probabilities, though Lehrmann maintained his innocence and faced no criminal conviction after his trial was aborted.
