Lehrmann bid to appeal rape case without putting up $200k surety
Bruce Lehrmann is returning to court in a bid to appeal against the finding that he raped Brittany Higgins - but without stumping up a $200,000 surety or paying Network Ten’s $2m legal costs.
Bruce Lehrmann returns to court on Monday in a bid to launch an appeal against the rape finding by judge Michael Lee without having to provide a $200,000 surety demanded by the Ten Network, or pay the $2m legal costs that have been awarded against him.
Mr Lehrmann wants the Full Court of the Federal Court to overturn Justice Lee’s ruling that on the balance of probabilities, the former Liberal Party staffer raped his former colleague Brittany Higgins in the then ministerial office of senator Linda Reynolds in Parliament House in March 2019.
The court was previously told that Mr Lehrmann – now on Centrelink – could be forced into bankruptcy if he couldn’t meet the costs order.
Mr Lehrmann argues that it is in the public interest that the appeal proceeds.
He says that he was denied procedural fairness in his defamation case against Ten and Wilkinson and that Justice Lee failed to properly apply the “Briginshaw principle”, which requires higher standards in civil cases involving serious allegations.
He says Justice Lee made findings that were neither advanced by Ten and Wilkinson nor put to him in cross-examination, amounting to a denial of natural justice and procedural fairness.
The case pleaded by Ten involved “forceful sexual intercourse” but the case found proved by Justice Lee involved no force, Mr Lehrmann submits.
He also challenges Justice Lee’s ruling that he would have been awarded just $20,000 in damages had he won as “manifestly inadequate” for a false charge of rape and that he would have been entitled to either a seven-figure sum or at least hundreds of thousands dollars.
Mr Lehrmann was ordered to pay Ten $2m for their legal costs,
The network has now demanded that he pay a $200,000 surety to secure its legal costs if his appeal is not successful.
Mr Lehrmann argues that it was partly Ten’s conduct in labelling him a rapist that has led to his inability to pay costs.
“Mr Lehrmann is arguably Australia’s most hated and recognisable man who is continuously subject to ridicule (and) vilification, thus making him unemployable and impecunious,” his submission states.
He was claiming that his lawyers had not been “entitled” to pay Ten more than $100,000 from a trust account holding his settlements with other media organisations.
Mr Lehrmann’s new lawyer, Zali Burrows, told Federal Court judge Wendy Abraham that her client’s former lawyers were in breach of a conditional costs agreement when they paid $117,000 to Ten out of the trust account.
Justice Abraham declined to deal with the costs matter between Mr Lehrmann and his lawyers, suggesting that was an issue for the registrar or for Justice Lee.
“What has this got to do with me?” Justice Abraham said.
“This is an appeal.”
Justice Abraham also said Ms Burrows was “in breach of two orders” in failing to file evidence in relation to Ten’s security for costs application or an amended notice of appeal before the deadline.
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