Lehrmann court docs reveal amounts paid by Seven, ABC, News Corp.

Amounts paid by Seven, ABC and News Corp have been revealed during the Bruce Lehrmann v 10 / Lisa Wilkinson defamation trial this week.

ABC agreed to pay Bruce Lehrmann $150,000 towards his legal costs in an out-of-court settlement of his defamation claim, according to documents filed in the federal court.

According to the deed of settlement and release between Lehrmann and the ABC, the ABC agreed to remove a Facebook video of the National Press Club speech given by Brittany Higgins and Grace Tame on 9 February 2022.

The $150,000 included $7,000 to be paid to solicitors acting for ABC broadcaster Laura Tingle, who hosted the event and is the NPC president, to cover the costs incurred by Lehrmann relating to Tingle’s compliance with a subpoena to produce documents in the case.

The remaining $143,000 was paid to Lehrmann’s solicitor’s trust account as a contribution towards his legal costs.

Meanwhile a News Corp settlement, also released by the Federal Court on Wednesday, agreed to pay Lehrmann $295,000 as a contribution towards his legal costs.

“Without admission of liability, the parties have reached a commercial resolution of the claim,” the deed says.

Lehrmann had claimed the News Corp articles, which did not name him, wrongly alleged he raped Higgins.

Seven agreed in a separate document to pay Lehrmann’s rent for 12 months for a Spotlight interview from mid-2023 to mid-2024.

An invoice uploaded online on Tuesday shows fortnightly rent of $4,000 for a period in June. While the invoice appears to be for a single rental period of a fortnight, if Lehrmann’s rent remained at $4,000 for the 12 months, he will receive a total benefit worth $104,000.

Lehrmann has denied allegations that he raped Brittany Higgins at Parliament House in Canberra. His criminal trial was abandoned due to juror misconduct. A second trial did not proceed.

Source: The Guardian, The Age