Bruce Lehrmann should be awarded upwards of $1m if he manages to overturn his devastating defamation suit loss to Channel Ten on appeal, his lawyer says.
Federal Court Justice Michael Lee earlier this year found in favour of the broadcaster and journalist Lisa Wilkinson in their high-profile, multi-million dollar legal showdown with the former political staffer.
Justice Lee found that Lehrmann, on the balance of probabilities, had raped ex-colleague Brittany Higgins inside Parliament House in March 2019.
In his judgment, Justice Lee said that in the event Lehrmann had been successful in the high-stakes lawsuit, he would have only been awarded a nominal sum of $20,000.
Lehrmann’s solicitor Zali Burrows, in documents released by the court on Thursday as part of a proposed appeal, described that estimation as inadequate and said he should be awarded a six to seven figure sum.
“$20,000 for a false charge of rape is manifestly inadequate and (Lehrmann) should be awarded either a seven-figure sum or at least hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Burrows said.
Lehrmann has moved to overturn Justice Lee’s judgment on appeal – however Network 10 has asked the court to order that he deposit a $200,000 security.
That application for a surety – to cover Ten’s legal costs in the event Lehrmann loses his appeal – is being opposed by Ms Burrows.
Ten’s barrister Dr Matt Collins attacked two of Lehrmann’s grounds of appeal as “faintly arguable” and the other two as “hopeless”.
According to the court documents, Lehrmann has been on Centrelink benefits since January 1, 2022.
Ms Burrows told a court this week Lehrman was unable to pay a $200,000 security and his “only shot” at making money “is by going on OnlyFans or something silly like that.”
The matter was heard in the Federal Court earlier this week, with Justice Wendy Abraham to deliver her judgment at a later date.
Lehrmann is also seeking an order for a stay on the $2m costs order, made against the ex-Liberal staffer after he was ordered to pay Ten’s legal costs for the trial.
In submissions on Ten’s application for costs, Ms Burrows claimed that there was a “power imbalance” between Ten and Lehrmann and described it as a “bullying hard-hitting tactic” to “smack down” his appeal.
She also argued that Ten would earn more than $200,000 in advertising revenue by reporting on the appeal.
“The first Respondent is a powerful media company and arguably the sum of $200,000 they seek in a security of costs order is subjectively not a considerable sum to lose in the event they are successful in the appeal, noting that they are likely to make far more in advertising revenue in reporting the appeal proceedings on one of their programs or websites,” she said.
She said the trial was a “defacto rape trial” and he was entitled to “clear his name”.
“Mr Lehrmann should be entitled to clear his name and pursue his appeal without the bullying tactics of a security of costs against him to shut down his right to clear his name of being found to be a rapist, which is arguably one of the worst and the most damning of findings to be made against anyone,” Ms Burrows wrote.
In its own submissions to the court, Network Ten contended Mr Lehrmann’s difficulty finding employment may be better attributed to his high-profile aborted criminal trial, followed by his high-profile defamation suit.
”To the extent that Mr Lehrmann and the allegations against him have continued to receive extensive media
coverage since the abandonment of his criminal proceedings, thereby protracting his unemployability, it is attributable to his decision to “go back for his hat” by commencing the defamation proceedings below, with all the coverage that ensued and the disastrous impact on his reputation that followed the outcome,” the submission said.
“Mr Lehrmann’s employability is likely also impacted by the fact that, in or around October 2023, Mr Lehrmann was identified as having been charged with two counts of alleged rape in Toowoomba in October 2021. In around July 2024, Mr Lehrmann was committed to stand trial in respect of those rape charges.”
Lehrmann faced trial in the ACT Supreme Court in 2022 after pleading not guilty to one count of sexual intercourse without consent.
The trial was abandoned due to juror misconduct and the Director of Public Prosecutions dropped the charges and plans for a retrial due to concerns about Ms Higgins’ welfare.
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