Bruce Lehrmann is expected to face a multi-million dollar legal bill when a court rules on who will pay for his failed defamation case against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson.
Lehrmann suffered enormous legal damages in April after Federal Court Judge Michael Lee found that, on a balance of probabilities, he had raped Brittany Higgins at Parliament House in March 2019.
He had sued for defamation over a February 2021 episode of The Project, in which Ms Higgins first made her rape allegations in an interview with Wilkinson.
As the loser of the lawsuit, Lehrmann is expected to pay at least some of the costs of the lawsuit.
Earlier this week, the court ruled Lehrmann has no secret financier who bankrolled the case.
Wilkinson’s attorney Zoe Graus said in court Wednesday that Lehrman had been ordered to produce documentation, including bank statements, trust accounts or third-party agreements with benefactors.
His lawyer Paul Svilans told the court that his client had done so nothing to produce because there were no agreements.
The only agreement Lehrmann had was with defamation law firm Mark O’Brien Legal, which handled the case for him on a no-win, no-fee basis.
Judge Lee said: ‘The two main points are: yes, many costs were incurred, but they are not recoverable because Mr Lehrmann … lost.’
