The cost of former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann’s failed defamation case has been set at $2 million after the Federal Court agreed to Network Ten’s nominated lump sum.
During a hearing in the Federal Court in Sydney today Ten’s lawyers said the actual costs were around $3.6 million, but it had heavily discounted the amount.
Mr Lehrmann took the network to court claiming he’d been defamed in an interview with Brittany Higgins on The Project where she first alleged she’d been raped at Parliament House, although he wasn’t named.
Mr Lehrmann’s 2022 trial over the alleged rape collapsed leaving no findings against him, and he maintains his innocence.
Mr Lehrmann lost the defamation case when Ten’s defence of truth was found to have been made out, when Justice Michael Lee found that on the balance of probabilities he had raped Ms Higgins.
He has now lodged an appeal in the Federal Court against that ruling.
