- Bruce Lehrmann to hit huge legal bill after defamation loss
- If it cannot afford it, Network Ten will have to pay its own lawyers.
Network Ten may have to shell out millions to cover its own legal bills for the Bruce Lehrmann defamation case if the former employee is unable to pay.
Lehrmann lost the case against the network and Lisa Wilkinson in Federal Court in April, which he initiated in a bid to restore his reputation after Brittany Higgins accused him of rape on The Project in 2021.
Judge Michael Lee found, on a balance of probabilities, that Lehrmann had raped Brittany Higgins in Parliament in 2019, much like she described during her television interview with Wilkinson.
On Friday, the judge ordered Lehrmann to pay the winning parties’ legal costs, rumored to be worth around $6 million.
If Lehrmann can’t cover the costs, the network could be forced to pay its own bills.
Bruce Lehrmann appears outside court after losing his defamation case against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson.
Lehrmann was also ordered to pay Wilkinson’s legal fees, which were worth $700,000 in mid-2023, but are rumored to have reached around $2 million after the month-long trial in December.
If Lehrmann is unable to pay Wilkinson’s bill, Network Ten will have to pay a portion of his fees which were “duly incurred and of a reasonable amount”.
During a costs hearing in early May, Ten’s lawyer Matthew Collins KC said discussions about costs were “academic” because Lehrmann was unlikely to be worth millions of dollars.
He said “someone” would have to bankrupt Lehrmann to recover the costs.
Dr Collins told the court: “Alternatively, someone has to go and bankrupt Mr Lehrmann.”
The network had ordered Lehrmann to submit bank statements, contracts or agreements with third parties to cover the costs of the trial if he lost.
However, his lawyer Paul Svilans said in court last week that Lehrmann had nothing to present.
The only deal Lehrmann had was a no-win, no-fee deal with Svilans’ firm, Mark O’Brien Legal, which meant he had no obligation to pay his lawyers if he lost.
During his sentencing on Friday, Judge Lee said there were “no real winners” in the defamation trial.
Lisa Wilkinson appears (right) with her lawyer, Sue Chrysanthou SC, after the libel sentencing in April.
He accepted Ten’s claim that Lehrmann proceeded with the defamation case knowing that Brittany Higgins’ rape allegations were substantially true.
Lehrmann saiddefended the criminal charge on a false basis, lied to the police and then allowed that lie to go uncorrected before the jury.”
“He wrongly directed his lead attorney to cross-examine a sexual assault complainant in two legal proceedings, including, relevantly for present purposes, in this case, on a deliberately false premise.”
Network Ten and Wilkinson were asked to submit their estimated legal bills by May 24, ahead of a case management hearing on May 27.