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Lisa Wilkinson’s detailed $1.8 million legal bill has been laid bare in a series of eye-watering invoices from her lawyers.
And even though he dropped the bill on Network Ten, he could still be left with thousands of dollars out of pocket.
The TV presenter won a Federal Court bid in February for Ten to cover about a year of legal fees after she hired her own team to defend her in the Bruce Lehrmann defamation case.
Wilkinson opted not to use Ten’s lawyers due to a breakdown in the relationship with her employer that left her feeling the broadcaster did not care enough about her reputation to properly represent her.
His preferred firm was Gillis Delaney Lawyers, where the supervising partner charges $750 an hour, and the lead defamation lawyer, Sue Chrysanthou SC, charges $8,000 a day.
Following a case management hearing before Judge Michael Lee on Monday, a package of documents presented to the court showed detailed invoices from Gillis Delaney to Wilkinson between February 2023 and May 2024.
Gillis Delaney sent the monthly invoices to Wilkinson, who then forwarded them to Network Ten for payment, but a letter from Ten’s lawyers last Friday, also published by the court, reveals the network questions “every entry in the packet.”
Among the thousands of charges on the bills, documents show Wilkinson was charged $214 for two phone calls from his attorneys, $1,430 for a “general time assignment” to observe court proceedings and $550 for a review of a Screenshot of text messages.
Lisa Wilkinson is pictured outside the Federal Court on sentencing day, April 15.
Pictured: A screenshot of various expenses on an invoice sent to Wilkinson by Gillis Delaney.
Featured Complaint and Personal PR
According to the invoices, Wilkinson has billed Ten for matters unrelated to the Lehrmann affair, including a formal complaint he made against Network Seven’s Spotlight program and personal publicity issues involving his celebrity agent Nick Fordham.
Wilkinson’s complaint to the Australian Communications and Media Authority stemmed from an episode of Spotlight last June which featured a recorded meeting between her and a Channel Ten producer, Ms Higgins and her partner David Sharaz.
The group could be heard gossiping about federal MPs, Parliament staff and journalists during the five-hour conversation, and it was deeply embarrassing for Wilkinson and Ten.
Also included in the bill was a combined amount of more than $3,000 for Wilkinson’s lawyers to attend court hearings into the Lehrmann rape case in Toowoomba, Queensland, which was not part of the defamation proceedings in New Wales. from the south.
Another problem outlined in a letter from Ten’s lawyers, Thomson Geer, included a Gillis Delaney associate charging $650 an hour, despite a previous cost agreement of $450 an hour.
There were also duplications in time records for invoices in February and May 2023 and February 2024, according to the letter, and there was no cost agreement with Ms Chrysanthou.
Ten also noted that Wilkinson’s invoices began on October 19, 2022, even though Lehrmann would not file defamation proceedings until four months later, on February 7, 2023, and she retained her lawyers seven days later.
Pictured: Some of the items on an invoice sent to Lisa Wilkinson by Gillis Delaney.
Pictured: Items on a bill from Sue Chrysanthou, who charges $8,000 a day in court. The bill was sent to Wilkinson’s lawyers, before being sent to her.
Why Lisa Wilkinson could run out of money
Judge Lee had ordered Network Ten to cover costs Wilkinson “reasonably incurred”, meaning the broadcaster would not be liable to pay anything outside of the Lehrmann matter.
The broadcaster also argued that it should not have to pay duplicate legal fees, where Wilkinson’s lawyers were in court but were not necessary because Ten’s lawyers led that part of the case.
However, the invoices show that Wilkinson racked up large fees for assignments that the station said were duplicative or not directly related to the Lehrmann case.
In last Friday’s letter, Ten said Wilkinson’s having three attorneys present in court, along with two attorneys, during the case management hearings and trial was “unreasonable.”
Ten asked Wilkinson to omit sections of the bill that were common to both parties.
Bruce Lehrmann, photographed outside the Federal Court on the day of the sentencing.
In court on Monday, Network Ten lawyer Zoe Graus said they had failed to distinguish which tasks were duplicative and which were not.
“There are certainly costs that we don’t discuss that Ms. Wilkinson can recover,” he said.
“It’s more about being able to identify those costs by individual items.”
He said that, ideally, invoices would specify whether the task was related to a duplicate task or not.
Judge Lee said “two sensible lawyers” with two markers could review the invoices and determine what expense belongs where by referring to a schedule.
If Ten doesn’t pay those fees, Wilkinson will likely have to shell out the money herself.
How Lisa racked up a $1.8 million bill
According to the letter, Wilkinson’s costs as invoiced are actually $1.6 million, or $200,000 less than she suggested.
Wilkinson’s attorneys charged approximately $82 to read an email, $120 for a phone call, about $700 for a video call and hundreds of thousands of dollars to appear in court.
Gillis Delaney’s invoices included thousands of entries for drafts, reviews, meetings and phone calls, all billed at the hourly rate of the attorney who completed the task.
A managing partner charged $715 for a call with a senior attorney about deposition evidence, and there was another $1,400 for a meeting at Ms. Chrysanthou’s office.
Brittany Higgins appears in the photo with her partner David Sharaz
A teleconference call cost $1,072, a draft affidavit cost $1,215, and an item called ‘general hearing preparation’ was billed at $2,288.
Ms Chrysanthou’s costs, which were sent as invoices to Gillis Delaney before being sent to Wilkinson, were substantially higher.
An invoice from May 2023 included a charge of $3,200 for four hours of material review and defense writing, $600 for consulting with the client and another $1,000 for 1.25 hours of material review and evidence preparation.
Ms Chrysanthou’s bill between October 2023 and May 2024 alone amounted to more than $405,000.
Wilkinson’s lawyers have been ordered to submit any additional materials in relation to his claim by June 21.
The defamation case
Lehrmann suffered a massive legal loss against Ten and Wilkinson in April when Judge Lee found that, considering the odds, he had raped Brittany Higgins in Parliament in March 2019.
She had filed a defamation lawsuit over a February 2021 episode of The Project, during which Higgins aired her rape allegations for the first time in an interview with Wilkinson.
The former Liberal staffer, who had denied assault allegations, was not named in the broadcast but claimed friends and colleagues were able to identify him as Ms Higgins’ rapist.
As the trial loser, Lehrmann is expected to pay 90 percent of Ten and Wilkinson’s costs for the successful truth defense, and 70 percent of the costs associated with the failed qualified privilege defense.
However, it is unlikely that Lehrmann will be able to pay the multimillion-dollar bills.
If Lehrmann goes bankrupt and bills are not paid, Network Ten will have to cover its own costs and Wilkinson’s reasonable costs.