Ten agrees to pay Lisa Wilkinson $1.15 million to cover Lehrmann costs

Lehrmann last year lost his multimillion-dollar defamation suit against the Ten and Wilkinson over an interview with his former colleague Brittany Higgins aired on The Project in February 2021.

Federal Court Justice Michael Lee dismissed the defamation case because he found on the balance of probabilities that Lehrmann had raped Higgins in Parliament House in 2019. Lee subsequently ordered Lehrmann to pay $2 million to Ten to cover some of the costs of its successful defence.

Lehrmann has filed an appeal against Lee’s decision. Justice Wendy Abraham granted an order known as a stay in October to halt enforcement of the costs order until the defamation appeal is determined.

Wilkinson’s legal bill for defending Lehrmann’s appeal has been estimated at more than $200,000, on top of the existing costs exceeding $1 million.

But Network Ten has signalled that it may not be willing to pick up that tab in full, and her lawyers have told the Federal Court she will “likely be liable for significant costs” irrespective of an indemnity from the broadcaster.

Ten has previously told the court it expects to spend $272,500 defending the appeal, including $120,000 on its barristers.

Wilkinson was expected to incur a further $203,500, an affidavit filed last year by Ten’s solicitor Marlia Saunders said. This included $78,500 for Wilkinson’s barristers.

Saunders said in the affidavit that Ten “does not concede that the costs … would be properly incurred by [Wilkinson] or reasonable for the purposes of the indemnity”. This does not mean Ten would not cover any costs, but there may be a dispute about some of them.