Senator hits Higgins with fresh legal action
Written by admin on August 22, 2024
Senator Reynolds has hit Ms Higgins with fresh legal action over the trust that holds part of the proceeds of her multi-million dollar compensation payment from the Commonwealth.
The Brittany Higgins Protect Trust was created the day after Ms Higgins entered into a Deed of Settlement with the Commonwealth.
Ms Higgins was to receive a $2.4m compensation payment as part of the settlement after she was allegedly raped by a colleague at Parliament House.
The payment was made in relation to future lost earnings, medical bills, legal bills and the distress she endured.
The writ shows Ms Higgins retired as trustee of the Brittany Higgins Protective Trust on February 23, 2023, and the trust was handed over to Power Blazers Pty Ltd, a company owned by Ms Higgins, her father and friend Emma Webster.
The writ claims the transfer was made by Ms Higgins with the intention of defeating or delaying creditors.
The writ is seeking order to return the settlement funds to Ms Higgins.
This would allow Senator Reynolds, a potential creditor, to claim against the trust should she be successful in her defamation case against Ms Higgins.
Outside of court on Thursday, Senator Reynolds’ lawyer Martin Bennett told reporters that the writ was filed to start proceedings to set aside the capitalisation of the trust.
“We seek to have what remains of the $2.4m returned into the estate of Ms Higgins in the event that Senator Reynolds is successful in this action,” he said.
“It would be available under the Civil Judgements and Enforcement Act to recover in this instance.”
Senator Reynolds is suing Ms Higgins and her husband David Sharaz over a number of social media posts the pair made in 2022 and 2023.
The posts were critical of Senator Reynolds’ handling of Ms Higgins’ allegation she was raped in Parliament House in 2019 by her then-colleague Mr Lehrmann.
He was charged with rape and faced trial in 2022, but the trial was aborted due to juror misconduct.
The charge was dropped and Mr Lehrmann continues to maintain his innocence.
Mr Lehrmann lost a subsequent civil defamation case in April this year when the Federal Court determined, on the balance of probabilities, that Mr Lehrmann had raped Ms Higgins at Parliament House.
