Bruce Lehrmann has been ordered to pay $2m to Network Ten after his failed defamation case in what the former Liberal staffer’s lawyer said “might be the deal of the century”.
In a costs hearing before Justice Michael Lee on Thursday, Ten’s barrister, Zoe Graus, told the court Ten calculated its costs at the end of May were $3,668,420.83 but it was seeking a lump-sum costs order of $2m.
Lehrmann’s lawyer, Paul Svilans, said his client neither “contests nor opposes” the order sought by Ten for a $2m lump sum, and told the court he did not know whether the discounted amount was realistic.
“It might be the deal of the century, the $2m, for all I know,” Svilans said.
By all accounts, Lehrmann is jobless, homeless and lacking in significant means to pay Ten’s costs, so having successfully defended the case, the network could still be saddled with the bill.
Last month the court ordered Lehrmann to pay most of Ten’s legal costs from his failed defamation suit against the TV network and The Project host Lisa Wilkinson because he brought the case on a “knowingly false premise”.
Lee found that on the balance of probabilities Lehrmann raped Brittany Higgins on a minister’s couch in Parliament House in 2019.
Lehrmann has always denied the allegation and pleaded not guilty at the criminal trial of the matter, which was aborted due to juror misconduct.
Ten also agreed to pay Wilkinson the sum of $558,548.30, which is less than a third of the $1.8m in indemnity costs she sought.
Wilkinson hired her own legal counsel, Sue Chrysanthou SC, and won an earlier claim that the network indemnify at least some of the costs.
Graus said if an external referee found Wilkinson’s costs were less than that she should be required to pay the network back.
Lee agreed, saying: “And if, for some reason, Network Ten didn’t comply with its promise, then I could make an order. I have no reason to think that would be the case.”
In a separate action, Network Ten is asking the court to dismiss Lehrmann’s appeal against his defamation defeat if he cannot pay the broadcaster $200,000 in security.
On Friday, Ten’s lawyers filed an application that the court should order Lehrmann to pay $200,000 within 42 days as security for the network’s costs in the appeal.
The application also sought for the court to order the appeal proceeding be dismissed if Lehrmann fails to comply with the order.
Ten filed another document on Friday which said the decision should be affirmed on grounds other than were found in the initial judgment.
Wilkinson’s lawyers have similarly told the federal court in fresh arguments ahead of the appeal that Lehrmann was not “indifferent” to Higgins consenting to sexual intercourse, but instead knew she was not consenting.
