Ten to pay Lisa Wilkinson $1.1 million in Lehrmann legal costs

The protracted dispute between Australia's Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson has come to an end. Network Ten has agreed to pay AU$1.15 million to cover Wilkinson's costs incurred in defending the Bruce Lehrmann defamation case.

The Federal Court approved the amount on Monday afternoon. This followed months of wrangling between the two parties over how much Network Ten should pay Wilkinson for engaging independent legal representation. The finally agreed amount is significantly less than the AU$1.8 million Wilkinson initially claimed she was forced to spend to successfully defend the case.

In 2023, Justice Michael Lee presided over the intense defamation trial brought by Lehrmann. The case stemmed from a February 2021 report on "The Project," in which Brittany Higgins claimed that Lehrmann sexually assaulted her in Parliament House nearly two years prior. In April of this year, the judge dismissed the case, ruling that Lehrmann had not been defamed and that, on the balance of probabilities, Higgins' account of Lehrmann raping her in the office of her then-boss, Linda Reynolds, was substantially true.

In June, Justice Lee ordered Lehrmann to pay Network Ten AU$2 million in legal costs. The issue of how much Wilkinson was entitled to remained outstanding. Network Ten had previously told the court that it had spent AU$3.7 million defending Lehrmann's lawsuit. While an external arbitrator was appointed to determine how much of Wilkinson's legal fees were reasonable, Network Ten ultimately settled on the AU$1.15 million figure at a contested hearing, before the arbitrator's report was finalized.

Network Ten has already paid Wilkinson AU$558,000 and will need to pay the remaining AU$1.15 million by March 19. It remains unclear how much of these costs Lehrmann, who is facing potential bankruptcy, will be required to bear. Network Ten and Wilkinson are scheduled to appear before Justice Lee again on March 11 to discuss who will pay the costs incurred by engaging the fees arbitrator. Lehrmann has appealed to the Federal Court to overturn the judgment against him in the defamation case, but a hearing has not yet been scheduled.

The defamation lawsuit was filed after criminal charges against Lehrmann were dropped in 2022 due to juror misconduct, with no adverse findings made against him at the time. National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service: 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732). Lifeline: 13 11 14.