Brittany Higgins lodges appeal to stall bankruptcy after defamation ruling

Brittany Higgins has lodged a last-minute appeal against a Western Australia Supreme Court ruling that found she defamed former senator Linda Reynolds, a move that has temporarily stalled bankruptcy proceedings initiated by Reynolds's lawyers.

In August the WA Supreme Court awarded Reynolds $315,000 in damages plus about $26,000 in interest and ordered Higgins to pay 80% of Reynolds's legal costs. Combined with Higgins's own legal bills, media reports estimate her potential liabilities at roughly $2 million. Higgins's lawyers accepted a bankruptcy notice served by Reynolds's legal team this week, but the filing of an appeal stays any bankruptcy action while the appeal is decided.

The defamation case centred on a series of social media posts made by Higgins and her partner, David Sharaz, in 2022 and 2023 that Reynolds said caused her to suffer health problems, damaged her reputation and harmed her career. Higgins's counsel, Rachael Young SC, told the court that a trust established after Higgins's 2022 settlement with the Commonwealth — the Brittany Higgins Protective Trust — had been intended to hold the settlement proceeds and that there were no creditors at the time the trust was set up.

Higgins was awarded a reported $2.4 million in an out-of-court settlement with the Commonwealth in 2022 over the handling of her 2019 allegation of rape by former colleague Bruce Lehrmann. Two months after that settlement she registered an Australian business number for the trust, records show. Higgins has said she received about $1.9 million of the settlement. Public records indicate the trust's ABN was cancelled several months before Reynolds won the defamation suit, and Higgins told the court she now has about $10,000 available.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Peter Quinlan declined to determine Higgins's intentions in establishing the trust but granted Reynolds's legal application to obtain details of the trust, saying that setting it aside was the "only way" Reynolds might have "any hope of recovery of any sum that might be owing to her." Reynolds's lawyer, Martin Bennet, told the court the former senator was "mortgaged to the hilt" to fund her own legal costs, which he said were estimated at more than $1 million.

The judgment released last month also revealed that Higgins offered to settle with Reynolds by contributing $200,000 toward Reynolds's legal fees, to be funded by Higgins's parents, on condition the women issue a "statement of mutual regret" and Reynolds donate $10,000 to a women's charity or refuge. Justice Paul Tottle described that settlement proposal as "unreasonable."

How much of the reported settlement funds remain available to Higgins is unclear. Since 2022 she has had a high-profile wedding, travelled internationally and purchased a home in France that was later sold amid mounting legal bills, according to court material and media reports.

The defamation dispute is one of several legal matters that have unfolded since Higgins went public with her allegation in 2019. A criminal trial of Bruce Lehrmann was abandoned after juror misconduct and he later lost a defamation case against Network 10 and presenter Lisa Wilkinson. Reynolds has also launched separate legal action against the federal government, challenging the handling of Higgins's settlement and alleging a breach of duty.

With the appeal in place, bankruptcy proceedings are on hold until appellate courts reach a decision. The timing of any further hearings or rulings was not immediately clear. The Daily Mail reported that it had contacted Higgins for comment.