Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty/Reuters
By filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Thursday, Rudy Giuliani triggered a stay on a federal judge’s order to begin immediately paying $148 million in damages that a jury awarded the two election workers he shamelessly defamed.
“It’s automatic,” said Ishaq Kundawala, an associate dean and bankruptcy expert at Mercer University Law School. “And it prevents creditor collection.”
But Kundawala noted that bankruptcy provisions would only apply to the debts arising from compensatory damages, in this instance, $16.2 million for Ruby Freeman and an equal amount for her daughter, Shaye Moss.