It has been revealed journalist Lisa Wilkinson was billed $8,000 for every full day in court by high defamation lawyer Sue Chrysanthou during Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case.
Earlier this week the court heard Ms Wilkinson was seeking $1.8 million from Network Ten, which it beforehand discovered was obliged to pay her affordable authorized prices.
Documents launched by the Federal Court give an in depth account of the payments despatched to Ms Wilkinson by her attorneys as they ready and ran her defence.
Mr Lehrmann misplaced his defamation motion in opposition to Network Ten and Ms Wilkinson, which was introduced over an interview with Brittany Higgins when she first alleged she’d been raped.
Justice Michael Lee found that on the balance of probabilities Mr Lehrmann did rape Ms Higgins at Parliament House in 2019, and that Network Ten had proved its truth defence.
Mr Lehrmann launched the case after his 2022 prison trial for the alleged rape was deserted with no findings in opposition to him, and he maintains his innocence.
The new documents additionally present different attorneys in the case — largely from Gillis Delaney Lawyers — charged Ms Wilkinson giant quantities, working into the tons of of hundreds of {dollars}.
The objects check with days in court, to conferences, advising Ms Wilkinson and stationery.
Network Ten’s attorneys say they do not dispute that they have to pay Ms Wilkinson’s legal fees, however don’t need to pay for issues which were doubled up.
The case will return to court subsequent month as a part of the work to find out what prices must be awarded.
But whereas Network Ten is obliged to pay Ms Wilkinson, it’s unlikely to have the ability to get better prices from Mr Lehrmann.
The deadline for Mr Lehrmann to lodge an attraction runs out tomorrow.
Normally solely 4 weeks is allowed for an attraction to be lodged, however Mr Lehrmann’s attorneys had been granted an extension to 6 weeks.
It can also be anticipated Mr Lehrmann should present safety for prices forward of any attraction.
All that’s recognized up to now is that he engaged senior attorneys to look into the potential of an attraction.