“No real winners”: Lehrmann ordered to pay Network’s 10’s costs

Bruce Lehrmann has today been ordered to pay Network 10’s costs following his failed defamation case.

THe Federal Court has ordered the costs be paid “on an indemnity basis” for most of the case, except for the cost of 10’s failed qualified privilege defence.

An order for indemnity costs involves an extra payment on top of the reasonable costs of running a case.

The court has not heard what the total costs come to, and Justice Lee has ordered that issue be handed to a referee to assess.

Justice Michael Lee said he would be spared the higher indemnity costs.

Indemnity costs are levied at a higher rate after a losing party has refused settlement.

Last month, the court found Mr Lehrmann did, on the balance of probabilities, rape Brittany Higgins at Parliament House in 2019, though there remain no criminal findings against him after his aborted trial in the ACT Supreme Court.

Justic Lee accepted 10’s submissions that Mr Lehrmann brought the defamation case on a “knowingly false premise”.

The judge also said at the beginning of his judgment that there were “no real winners in this litigation”.

“With the predictability of an atomic clock, partisans have focused solely on those parts of the judgment that happen to align with preconceived notions,” Lee said.

“The reality of mixed findings has been somewhat obscured in the public statements of the respondents [10 and Wilkinson] and their submissions as to costs, which advance an assertion that they won the litigation and that costs should axiomatically follow the event.”

The court heard Lehrmann has been unemployed since June 2021 and is a law student, and there is a possibility he will be tipped into bankruptcy. It means the costs order is likely to be academic because Lehrmann does not have the financial means to meet it.

The Federal Court heard on Wednesday that Lehrmann had a no-win, no-fee arrangement with his own lawyers, under which he was not obliged to pay their costs unless he won the case.

The combined legal costs of the case, including Lehrmann’s lawyers’ bills, are estimated to top $10 million, with reports 10’s costs top $6m.

Given the unlikelihood of Wilkinson recovering any costs from Lehrmann, 10 will pay at least some of Wilkinson’s legal bills under an indemnity covering costs “properly incurred and reasonable in amount”.

At a costs hearing after his judgment, Lee said he had “made it perfectly plain” that 10 and Wilkinson fell “well short of a standard of reasonableness” because of the “credulous way” they reported Higgins’ allegation.

Lehrmann has until May 31 to file any notice of appeal against Lee’s decision on April 15 to dismiss his lawsuit.

Source: ABC, The Age