Network Ten has agreed to pay $1.15 million to cover its former journo Lisa Wilkinson’s costs in the long-running Bruce Lehrmann defamation court case.
“Network Ten and Ms Wilkinson have agreed that the total amount payable by Network Ten to Ms Wilkinson in respect of the indemnity for her costs incurred in the proceeding against her by Mr Lehrmann is $1,150,000.00,” read a court order released yesterday.
Ten has already paid Wilkinson $558,548 to cover some of her legal costs of the trial. Wilkinson had initially asked for $1.8 million.
The parties’ deal dispenses with the need for Federal Court Justice Michael Lee to consider whether to adopt a report by a referee examining Wilkinson’s costs.
Ten was liable for Wilkinson’s legal bills under an indemnity covering costs “properly incurred and reasonable in amount”. But Wilkinson and Ten disagreed about what it meant in practice.
Wilkinson briefed a separate legal team led by Sydney barrister Sue Chrysanthou, SC to represent her in the case from Ten’s team led by Melbourne silk Matt Collins, KC.
Chrysanthou billed Wilkinson $8000 for each full day in court, along with charging her $800 an hour for preparation, conferences, advice and travelling time. Chrysanthou will be speaking at Cairns Crocodiles this year.
The court case had started after Bruce Lehrmann said that Ten and Wilkinson had defamed him in an interview on The Project with his fellow Liberal party staffer Brittany Higgins. During the interview, Higgins revealed the allegation that she had been raped in Parliament House. However, Lehrmann was not named in the interview.
The criminal trial dealing with whether Lehrmann had raped Higgins ended due to juror misconduct. Lehrmann has always maintained his innocence.
However, he lost the defamation case when Justice Michael Lee ruled that on the balance of probabilities he had raped Higgins, although he is now appealing against that decision.
Justice Lee said in his verdict during the defamation case that “having escaped the lion’s den, Mr Lehrmann made the mistake of coming back for his hat”.
Bizarrely, Lehrmann now appears to be facing another courts case which alleges that he stole a Toyota Prado at Mountain River, in Tasmania’s Huon Valley, on November 20 last year. He has not entered a plea.
