Bruce Lehrmann agrees to pay thousands to Peter FitzSimons

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Bruce Lehrmann has agreed to wage Peter FitzSimons $4616 to screen the writer and columnist’s costs of producing documents during the erstwhile national Liberal staffer’s failed defamation lawsuit against Network Ten and FitzSimons’ wife, Lisa Wilkinson.

Federal Court orders were made by consent of the parties and released publically connected Friday, amid a broader combat betwixt Ten, Wilkinson and Lehrmann implicit who volition ft the multimillion-dollar measure for the media parties’ lawyers. FitzSimons besides recovered his costs of applying to the tribunal for an order.

Lisa Wilkinson, Bruce Lehrmann and Peter FitzSimons.

Before the defamation trial, Lehrmann issued subpoenas to FitzSimons and Penguin Random House to nutrient documents relating to Brittany Higgins’ $325,000 publication woody with the publisher. FitzSimons helped negociate the deal. He produced documents to the tribunal connected July 7 past year.

Penguin Random House produced a publishing statement with Higgins dated March 25, 2021, which contemplated a transportation day of January 1, 2022.

FitzSimons is simply a columnist astatine The Sydney Morning Herald. He had abstracted ineligible practice to Wilkinson, a Ten worker and erstwhile co-host of the network’s flagship existent affairs programme The Project.

Ten is yet seeking an bid that Lehrmann wage its ineligible costs of the defamation lawsuit connected an indemnity basis, which covers a higher proportionality of a costs measure than the modular order, connected the ground that helium brought the lawsuit “on a deliberately wicked and calculated basis”.

However, it is apt the web volition beryllium near connected the hook for the media parties’ costs successful airy of Lehrmann’s deficiency of funds. The unemployed instrumentality pupil has not worked since June 2021.

In a historical judgement past week, Federal Court Justice Michael Lee recovered Ten and Wilkinson had proved to the civilian modular – connected the equilibrium of probabilities – that Lehrmann raped Higgins successful Parliament House successful March 2019.

Accordingly, helium dismissed Lehrmann’s defamation lawsuit against Ten and Wilkinson implicit an interrogation Higgins, aired connected The Project successful February 2021, which helium alleged defamed him by suggesting helium was blameworthy of rape.

The parties instrumentality to tribunal connected May 1 for a proceeding connected costs.

Wilkinson had a triumph successful February erstwhile Lee ruled it was tenable for her to little a abstracted squad of lawyers, headed by Sydney defamation silk Sue Chrysanthou, SC, alternatively of being represented by Ten’s squad successful the defamation case.

The ruling opened the doorway to Ten reimbursing Wilkinson for her ineligible bills nether an indemnity which covers costs “properly incurred and tenable successful amount”.

However, the precise magnitude Ten volition person to wage is not yet clear.

In submissions filed successful the Federal Court this week, Ten’s barristers said that if Lehrmann “is incapable to fulfill an bid for costs made against him, and Ms Wilkinson is incapable to retrieve her costs from Mr Lehrmann, Network Ten volition person immoderate residual liability to reimburse Ms Wilkinson for portion of her costs incurred successful defending the proceeding”.

Ten has argued it should not person to reimburse Wilkinson for each of her ineligible costs due to the fact that the bulk of the ineligible issues successful the lawsuit were communal betwixt Ten and the seasoned presenter.

However, Wilkinson’s ineligible squad has alleged Ten is “impermissibly seek[ing] to reagitate” issues that had already been resolved during their earlier combat connected costs.