Casey Anthony’s defamation suits look like they won’t be moving forward in state court.. Casey Anthony’s bankruptcy case will head to federal court. In 2011, Casey Anthony was found not guilty of murdering her daughter, Caylee Anthony. Casey Anthony says she is $800,000 in debt. If Anthony is granted bankruptcy protection, any awards from the suits could be nullified.

According to published reports, Casey Anthony defamation suits will be handled in federal court because the 27-year-old woman cleared of murdering her daughter is too destitute for defamation suits against her to proceed in state court.

Casey Anthony's legal team wanted the defamation suits that were brought by Zenaida Gonzalez and Roy Kronk to be handled by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge K. Rodney May in federal court, so the judge could decide whether to discharge the suits. The two plaintiffs are suing Anthony because they claim she or her attorneys hurt their reputations in the course of defending her against murder charges in the 2008 death of her daughter Caylee Anthony.

Zenaida Gonzalez claims that Casey Anthony damaged her reputation when she said that someone with a similar name kidnapped Caylee. Roy Kronk’s lawsuit claims that Casey Anthony's lawyer implicated him in Caylee's death. Casey Anthony was cleared of the charges, but she is still looked on with suspicion and is an outcast in the community. She spends most of her time in hiding, but came out earlier this year to file Chapter 7 bankruptcy. She is unemployed and still reportedly owes hundreds of thousands of dollars to her defense team.

In a key comment from a brief hearing yesterday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Tampa, Florida, Judge K. Rodney May ruled that a defamation suit would be unwise. The judge ruled that a defamation suit against Casey Anthony will be heard in his federal bankruptcy court, not in the Orange County District Court. The judge “questioned the wisdom of spending time and effort on claims that may ultimately be discharged in bankruptcy.”

In a March hearing, Casey Anthony said she had about $1,000 in assets, no job, and $800,000 in debts to defense attorneys. The two plaintiffs want to court to perform a deeper search to see if she has any assets that might be used to pay their claims. On Tuesday, the court said Anthony would have to turn over her laptop to the bankruptcy trustee to let them check it for information about her finances.

Casey Anthony wasn’t at the Tuesday hearing because she has returned to hiding.