EXCLUSIVE
A former Channel Seven producer says he racked up a legal bill of almost $60,000 and wants Bruce Lehrmann to pay most of it after giving evidence and filing documents in the defamation trial against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson.
Taylor Auerbach was on Seven’s Spotlight team when she secured exclusive interviews with Lehrmann, which aired in June and August last year.
In April, he managed to reopen Lehrmann’s defamation case when he filed four affidavits packed with accusations against the former liberal staffer and his former employer.
Auerbach claimed Seven reimbursed Lehrmann for those interviews with lavish dinners at fancy restaurants with $300 steaks, as well as covering his costs for prostitutes, Thai massages and cocaine.
Lehrmann specifically denied receiving $10,000 worth of Thai massages on Seven’s corporate credit card, prompting Auerbach to threaten to sue him for defamation.
He hired $900-an-hour defamation attorney Rebekah Giles and made those same claims on the witness stand in Federal Court, racking up a huge legal bill at the same time.
Lehrmann lost his defamation trial on April 15 when Judge Michael Lee found, on a balance of probabilities, that he had raped Brittany Higgins in Parliament in 2019, and is now liable for the legal costs of his opponents, including Auerbach. .
Taylor Auerbach hired $900-an-hour defamation attorney Rebekah Giles (pictured)
Taylor Auerbach is pictured outside the Federal Courthouse in April. He was a producer on Seven’s Spotlight programme.
A costs hearing was held at the Federal Court on Wednesday, during which Network Ten, Wilkinson and Mr Auerbach made submissions outlining what Lehrmann should have to pay.
According to the affidavit filed on Mr. Auerbach’s behalf by Ms. Giles, the costs associated with presenting evidence for Lehrmann’s attorneys in response to a subpoena issued at his request amounted to $38,145.25, backdated to April.
The evidence included his letter of dismissal from employment at Channel Seven, medical reports referencing psychiatric injuries and material referencing allegations of embezzlement while working at Seven.
The costs were broken down by the hourly rate of each lawyer at Ms Giles’s firm, Giles George.
Auerbach owed Ms. Giles and special prosecutor Jeremy Marel a total of $24,420 for nearly 30 hours of work combined, two associates were owed $13,428.25 for a total of 26 hours of work, and a paralegal was owed They owed $297 for almost an hour.
Lehrmann was offered a discount on April 19 of about $2,000, bringing the cost to $36,000.
He then received another offer on April 30 with an additional $4,000 off, bringing the price down to $34,000.
Bruce Lehrmann appears in front of the Federal Court on April 15, after the sentence was handed down.
Lehrmann’s lawyers rejected both offers.
Court documents show Auerbach also charged Network Ten $20,000 because the broadcaster subpoenaed him to be a witness in the trial and he had to fly back from New Zealand to appear in court.
However, he then offered the network a 15 percent discount, bringing the total figure to $17,000.
In court on Wednesday, Judge Lee He said, ‘That’s not going to happen.
‘The idea that someone could spend $17,500 complying with a subpoena to testify seems to me… not right.
“People who receive a subpoena should not assume that they are entitled to legal costs, except in special circumstances and some costs.”
Judge Lee will make orders on costs at a later date.