Ten, Lisa Wilkinson strike deal on $500,000 legal bill in Bruce Lehrmann case
Bruce Lehrmann has been ordered to pay a multimillion dollar sum to Ten, as the network strikes a deal to pay a portion of Lisa Wilkinson’s legal fees.
Bruce Lehrmann has been ordered to pay $2m in costs following his failed defamation case against Network 10 and Lisa Wilkinson, as Ten strikes a deal to pay less than a third of its former star presenter’s legal fees.
Federal Court judge Michael Lee on Thursday made orders for the former Liberal staffer to pay a “fixed amount” of $2m to Ten, despite the network’s total bills estimated to be over $3m.
During the costs hearing, Ten agreed to pay $558,548.30 of Wilkinson’s legal fees, despite her initially trying to claim $1.8m from the network after she defended the mammoth case with separate legal representation led by top defamation silk Sue Chrysanthou SC.
Ms Chrysanthou billed Wilkinson $8000 for each full day in court, along with charging her $800 an hour for preparation, conferences, advices and travelling time.
Lawyers for Ten said the network was willing to pay Wilkinson $558,548.30 on a without prejudice basis, but argued it should not have judgment entered against it for that amount.
Ten’s barrister Zoe Graus told Justice Lee that if an external referee determined Wilkinson’s costs were less than $558,548.30, she should be required to pay the network back.
“Your Honour will see that the order below is that should the referee determine the amount is less, that Ms Wilkinson would repay it to us,” Ms Graus said.
She continued: “We’re not willing to commit to a judgment sum of that amount today.”
The court heard Ten initially offered to pay $607,850 to Wilkinson, but later found it to be “over generous”.
In ordering Mr Lehrmann to pay Ten the $2m amount on Thursday, Justice Lee described the former Liberal staffer, who is currently unemployed, as “a man of modest means”. He said it was common ground that there was “no real likelihood” Ten would be able to recover its full costs.
Mr Lehrmann’s solicitor Paul Svilans on Thursday questioned Ten’s costs, describing $170,000 in charges after the judgment as showing the case was run “in a Rolls Royce manner”. He pointed out Ten sometimes had five lawyers present in court, and said the network’s lead barrister Matthew Collins KC charged $11,000 per day.
Justice Lee, however, said he was not surprised by Ten’s bills.
Justice Lee last 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 Brittany Higgins in the office of Liberal Senator Linda Reynolds.
However, Justice Lee found the network failed to make out its qualified privilege defence and acted unreasonably in its treatment of Mr Lehrmann when airing The Project interview.
Mr Lehrmann is representing himself in an appeal against the judgment, calling on the Federal Court to set aside the judgment against him, a verdict be made in his favour, and for Ten and Wilkinson to pay his legal bills for both the appeal and the defamation proceedings.
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