Bruce Lehrmann considers appeal against finding he raped Brittany Higgins

The former Liberal staffer has tapped a top silk to lead an appeal against findings he raped Brittany Higgins, and is seeking assistance from funders to help carry the heavy financial burden of further litigation.

Bruce Lehrmann leaves the Federal Court after a decision his in his defamation case found in favour of Network 10. Picture: NCA NewsWire / John Appleyard

Bruce Lehrmann is considering appealing judge Michael Lee’s findings that he raped Brittany Higgins, and is seeking help from local and overseas funders to help carry the heavy financial burden of further litigation.

The Australian understands top media law silk Guy Reynolds SC has been hired to lead a team representing Mr Lehrmann in an appeal against Justice Lee’s decision, which earlier this month found Network 10 and presenter Lisa Wilkinson did not defame the former Liberal staffer when interviewing Ms Higgins on The Project in 2021.

Mr Lehrmann has 28 days to lodge an appeal to the Federal Court if he wishes to do so.

Justice Lee earlier this month delivered the long-awaited judgment in the case brought against Ten and Wilkinson by Mr Lehrmann, which found the network successfully made out its truth defence and proved, on the balance of probabilities, Mr Lehrmann raped Ms Higgins in the office of Liberal Senator Linda Reynolds.

A costs hearing for the matter is scheduled for Wednesday.

Ten has told the court Mr Lehrmann should pay all of its legal costs – which are reported to be more than $10m – because he brought the case “on a deliberately wicked and calculated basis”.

Mr Lehrmann, however, had argued he should have to pay “only a proportion” of legal costs in the action because Justice Lee found some of Ten’s conduct to be “grossly improper and unjustifiable” and that both the network and Wilkinson had failed to establish their qualified privilege defence.

Lisa Wilkinson with her silk Sue Chrysanthou. Picture: Don Arnold

The Australian understands Mr Reynolds is confident an appeal against Ten and Wilkinson’s truth case would be successful, and could result in at least some costs being borne by Ten.

Mr Lehrmann, who is currently unemployed, is seeking financial assistance from funders both in Australia and overseas.

The Australian also understands speeches made outside the court shortly after Justice Lee’s judgment was handed down may be raised at Wednesday’s costs hearing.

Justice Lee has requested copies of comments made by Ten’s lawyer Justin Quill, and has written to law firm Thomson Geer – where Mr Quill is a partner – requesting a full transcript of the comments he made to a waiting press pack following the conclusion of the trial.

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, titled: ‘Defence fails, but publishing story was reasonable’.

The letter stated: “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.”

Mr Quill gave a 10-minute address to the media after Justice Lee handed down his judgment, 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?”

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