Network Ten wants Bruce Lehrmann to pay $200,000 if 'hopeless' defamation appeal goes ahead
Bruce Lehrmann should pay up before proceeding with his doomed appeal of findings that he raped Brittany Higgins in Parliament House and was therefore not entitled to a defamation payout, Ten has said.
The network and journalist Lisa Wilkinson are seeking orders that the former Liberal staffer pay $200,000 to the Full Federal Court before his appeal of a devastating defamation loss is allowed to proceed.
The 29-year-old initially sued over a February 2021 report on The Project interviewing Brittany Higgins about her allegations she was sexually assaulted in Parliament House in March 2019.
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In particular, he pointed to Lehrmann’s attack on the Federal Court’s findings from April that Ms Higgins gave impressive evidence over the rape.
Lehrmann’s account of the incident was rejected by the court.
“It must be exceptionally weak in our submission where it turns on questions of credit,” Dr Collins told Justice Wendy Abraham.
Lehrmann did not have the financial capacity to fund the appeal and if he was ordered to pay $200,000, that would be the end of the case, the court was told.
In April, Justice Michael Lee ruled that the 29-year-old sexually assaulted Ms Higgins in the Parliament House office of their then boss Senator Linda Reynolds in March 2019 based on the balance of probabilities.
Lehrmann has been ordered to pay $2 million in legal costs to Ten while his bill for Wilkinson’s defence costs is still being hashed out.
Justice Abraham has also been asked by Lehrmann to stay these costs orders while the appeal is on foot.
His appeal seeks to overturn Justice Lee’s findings, including that he would have only been entitled to $20,000 if he had succeeded in his lawsuit.
The 29-year-old denies the sexual assault and is not facing criminal charges over the incident after his trial was aborted due to juror misconduct.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
