Federal Court judge Michael Lee requests copies of comments made outside court by Ten lawyer Justin Quill

The Federal Court judge has written to Ten’s lawyers requesting copies of comments made by solicitor Justin Quill moments after the judgment was handed down.

Federal Court judge Michael Lee has requested copies of comments made by Ten’s lawyer Justin Quill outside court shortly after the highly-anticipated judgment was handed down in the defamation trial on Monday.

Justice Lee has written to law firm Thomson Geer – where Mr Quill is a partner – and requested a full transcript of the comments he made to a waiting press pack following the conclusion of the trial between former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann against Network Ten and TV host Lisa Wilkinson.

In the correspondence Justice Lee also requested a copy of an article written by Mr Quill that was published in News Corp’s newspapers including the Herald Sun and Daily Telegraph on Tuesday, titled: ‘Defence fails, but publishing story was reasonable’.

The letter from Mr Lee states: “It’s been drawn to his honour’s attention that a public statement has been made on behalf of the first respondent (Network Ten), and various public statements have been made by a solicitor (Mr Quill) for the first respondent to the media.”

Justice Lee also said an article had been published by the solicitor (Mr Quill) and he has requested copies of the comments and article in advance to the costs hearing that will be held on May 1.

Mr Quill spoke publicly outside the Sydney court on Monday and it was televised live after Justice Lee found Mr Lehrmann raped Brittany Higgins in Parliament House in 2019.

Defamation action was taken by Mr Lehrmann after Ten’s show, The Project, aired an exclusive sit-down interview led by Wilkinson with Ms Higgins in 2021.

Justice Michael Lee. Picture: Supplied.

Mr Quill gave a 10-minute address to the media on Monday and said the result was a “resounding win for Channel 10”.

“In term’s of Channel 10’s reasonableness, the way in which judges and barristers – and this is a problem with defamation law in Australia – the way in which judges and barristers pick apart and dissect what journalists did or didn’t do in applying a legal threshold or legal test of reasonableness is quite often divorced from reality,” Mr Quill said.

“It’s why the qualified privilege defence does rarely get up.”

Mr Quill then said: “One shouldn’t conflate or confuse the application of the legal test of reasonableness with what is good reasonable.

“Ultimately, I’ve got to say this, how can it be unreasonable to publish something that was true?”

Mr Quill was contacted but would not comment.

News Corp Australia is publisher of The Australian and the newspaper also uses Thomson Geer as its legal representatives.

This week former Channel 7 Spotlight producer Taylor Auerbach’s lawyer Rebekah Giles also issued a concerns notice to his former employer regarding reports of comments made by Seven West Media chief executive officer and managing director James Warburton, former chief commercial officer Bruce McWilliam and producer Rob McKnight.

The comments are in relation to the allegations of use of cocaine and sex workers that Auerbach made in testimony in the Lehrmann versus Wilkinson and Network Ten trial.

Seven has vehemently denied these claims.