Christian Porter’s lawyers to fight $550k legal bill
An estimate of former Attorney-General Christian Porter’s total legal bill has been revealed in court.
Police & Courts
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Christian Porter’s total legal bill could be close to one million dollars after part of the hefty price tag was revealed in court but his lawyers are still fighting with an appeal already underway.
The former Attorney-General sued the ABC and journalist Louise Milligan after Four Corners broadcast allegations of misconduct against an unnamed cabinet minister in November 2020.
Mr Porter would later identify himself as the subject of allegations made by a woman named “Kate” who accused the politician of raping her when they were teenagers in the 1980s.
No charges have ever been laid.
He strenuously denied those allegations and took legal action before settling the defamation case against the ABC for no damages and no apology in late May.
That came shortly after he lost a “sideshow” court challenge that saw his prized barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC removed from his legal team.
Justice Thomas Thawley last month ordered Mr Porter and Ms Chrysanthou to pick up the bill for the legal challenger — Kate’s friend Jo Dyer.
The court on Tuesday heard Ms Dyer’s legal team had sent through a bill close to $550,000 for the case.
It’s unclear how much Mr Porter spent on the main defamation proceedings, some have estimated it was about $500,000.
The only solid guide comes from the ABC which revealed it spent $680,000 defending its side of the case.
Mr Porter’s bill will be cushioned, however, because the ABC also agreed to pay $100,000 of his mediation costs.
Ms Chrysanthou’s barrister, Anne Horvath, and Mr Porter’s barrister, Callan O’Neill, on Tuesday told the court they wanted to see the timesheets for Ms Dyer’s lawyers.
Ms Horvath called the bill a “substantial sum for what was a reasonably confined dispute”.
“We don’t know who did what when, we’re not able to interrogate it at all,” Ms Horvath said.
The court ordered the timesheets for Ms Dyer’s lawyers would need to be provided and the costs assessed.
Ms Chrysanthou, a high profile defamation barrister, was removed from Mr Porter’s legal team over a potential conflict of interest after she met with Ms Dyer months earlier.
Ms Chrysanthou had met with Ms Dyer in the wake of Kate’s story coming to light but had not gone on to represent Ms Dyer.
Kate had taken her own life some months earlier after declining to be interviewed by police investigating her allegations.
Mr Porter’s primary lawyer Rebekah Giles appealed the removal of Ms Chrysanthou.
If successful the $550,000 bill for Ms Dyer could be torn up.
The ABC reports that spawned the complex legal battle remain online with a note saying the broadcaster “regrets” some readers concluded Mr Porter was guilty.
The ABC acknowledged it could not prove the allegations to a criminal or civil standard.
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