Bruce Lehrmann files appeal against defamation defeat

Bruce Lehrmann has lodged an appeal against a landmark decision dismissing his multimillion-dollar defamation case against Network Ten and high-profile presenter Lisa Wilkinson.

The former federal Liberal staffer had until Friday to file any notice of appeal after Federal Court Justice Michael Lee extended the usual 28-day window from May 13 to May 31.

Bruce Lehrmann outside the Federal Court in Sydney after his defamation loss.Credit: Wolter Peeters

Court records show it was lodged on Friday morning. The record does not disclose if he has lawyers acting for him in the appeal, and it appears he filed the document himself.

On April 15, Lee dismissed Lehrmann’s defamation suit over an interview with his former colleague Brittany Higgins, aired on The Project in February 2021. Higgins is set to marry her fiance, David Sharaz, in Queensland this weekend.

Thousands watched the trial and the judgment live on YouTube as the Federal Court embraced technological developments accelerated during the pandemic.

Lee found Ten and Wilkinson had proven to the civil standard – on the balance of probabilities – that Lehrmann raped Higgins in March 2019 in the Parliament House office where they worked as advisers to the then Liberal defence industry minister Linda Reynolds.

He ordered Lehrmann, an unemployed law student, to pay a substantial part of the media parties’ multimillion-dollar legal costs. However, Lehrmann is unlikely to be able to meet that order, leaving Ten on the hook for its own costs as well as part of the costs of Wilkinson’s separate legal team.

The Federal Court heard earlier this month that Lehrmann’s own lawyers agreed to act for him on a no-win, no-fee basis.

“It was a conditional costs agreement whereby there’s no obligation to pay the amount of costs in the event the proceedings were unsuccessful,” Lee said of the agreement.

The court also heard that Ten offered to settle the proceedings in a letter on August 31 last year. The “walk away” offer, under which the proceedings would have been dismissed without any admission of liability or any costs order, was swiftly rejected.

In the offer, released by the court this year, Ten’s lead solicitor, Thomson Geer partner Marlia Saunders, referred to Lehrmann’s first interview on Seven’s Spotlight program and said: “Your client has previously stated he has nothing to lose.

“Indeed, your ... communications [with Ten’s lawyers] repeat this as if to suggest your client is litigating from a position of strength. Frankly, he is not, and he, in fact, has a great deal to lose if he proceeds to a trial in this proceeding.”

Funds for appeal

It is not yet clear how Lehrmann would fund an appeal.

War veteran Ben Roberts-Smith agreed last year to orders requiring him to pay almost $1 million as security to cover the legal costs of Nine newspapers in the event he loses his appeal against his own devastating defamation loss. Ten and Wilkinson may also seek security for costs from Lehrmann.

An appeal would not require witnesses, including Higgins and Wilkinson, to give evidence afresh in court.

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