Lisa Wilkinson hits back at Ten over ‘impermissible’ costs bid

Lisa Wilkinson has fired back at the Ten Network over its refusal to pay her legal bills in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation action, accusing her employer of failing to accept the umpire’s verdict.

Sue Chrysanthou SC hugs Lisa Wilkinson. Picture: Getty Images

Lisa Wilkinson has fired back at the Ten Network over its continuing refusal to pay all her legal bills in Bruce Lehrmann’s failed defamation action, accusing her employer of “impermissibly seeking to reagitate” the claim she won against the network ­earlier this year.

On Wednesday Wilkinson filed a fresh submission to the Federal Court after Ten told Justice Michael Lee earlier that The Project host should be liable for any “duplicative or wasteful” work by her legal team.

With the jobless Mr Lehrmann unlikely to be able to foot even a fraction of the estimated $10m cost of the case, Ten wants its former star presenter to pay for all aspects of the case where it wasn’t necessary for her to have separate representation.

After a successful cross-claim by Wilkinson, Ten earlier this year agreed to pay “reasonable” costs for her team, led by top defamation silk Sue Chrysanthou SC. In October, those legal costs had already exceeded $700,000 and have since ballooned to estimated $2m.

Wilkinson’s cross claim against the network allowed into evidence documents that showed Ten’s lawyers approved her controversial Logies speech.

Other documents described Wilkinson as “almost hysterical” that she might have to sell her harbourside mansion if the network didn’t cover her fees, according to Ten chief Bev McGarvey, who had called her.

“(I have subsequently confirmed … so far we have invoices for 20k from her lawyers and she is still getting paid by us on full salary and lives in a lavish multi-million dollar home with a pool and a tennis court and harbour views so I hope this is not a real risk),” Ms McGarvey said in her notes of the call.

Wilkinson is still on Ten’s payroll but has not been on air since the defamation case began.

In submissions released by the Federal Court this week, Ten’s barrister Matt Collins KC argued Wilkinson “was not entitled to incur costs in respect of her separate interests as she pleased on the assumption that Network Ten would ultimately pick up the bill”.

Dr Collins agreed Wilkinson had legitimate “separate interests” in relation to her Logies speech and questions around whether she had acted reasonably in preparing and broadcasting the story, but said other aspects of the case, such as the truth defence, involved “common interests” which were ­almost entirely handled by Ten’s legal team. But Wilkinson’s lawyers say Justice Lee has already ruled in the cross claim against an assessment of her costs based on a distinction between “common” or “non-common” issues, which “could not sensibly be maintained and was not”.

Ten’s new submissions “impermissibly seek to reagitate that issue”, her lawyers said.

Wilkinson agreed that the issue should be considered by a referee appointed by the court.

In his judgment handed down last Monday, Justice Lee found Ten and Wilkinson had made out their truth defence in the defamation battle, ruling that on the balance of probabilities Mr Lehrmann had raped Brittany Higgins.