Lisa Wilkinson is seeking more than $1.8m in indemnity costs from Network Ten after successfully defending the Bruce Lehrmann defamation claim, the federal court has heard.
The former Project presenter hired her own legal counsel, Sue Chrysanthou SC, and won an earlier claim that the network indemnify at least some of the costs.
This month Lehrmann was ordered to pay most of Ten’s legal costs from his failed defamation suit against the TV network and Wilkinson on an indemnity basis because he had brought the case on a “knowingly false premise”.
As Lehrmann lost he has to pay the costs of the two respondents. The court heard the former Liberal staffer has not worked since 2021 and lacks the means to pay, so it is possible that the network could still be saddled with the bill.
At a costs management hearing on Monday, Justice Michael Lee ordered the parties to return to court in three weeks after going through the “relatively detailed” invoices to work it out.
“I can assure you life is too short for me to worry about costs disputes but I want to make sure it goes off to the referee in a way where it’s not going to go off the rails,” Lee said.
“All I’d say to both the respondents, and Mr Lehrmann, is if the debate is going to be relatively academic at the margins concerning costs, is it consistent with the overarching purpose for more money to be spent in relation to a reference process if there is a certain core amount of costs which are not disputed?”
Ten and Wilkinson are yet to agree which parts of the presenter’s costs should be recoverable.
In February the court found it was reasonable for Wilkinson to retain separate lawyers.
“This is not a case where Ms Wilkinson acted unthinkingly in retaining separate representation,” Lee said in his judgment on the cross-claim.
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On Monday Wilkinson’s barrister claimed that Ten was dragging its heels on an agreement on costs as it went through the invoices line by line.
“There’s just an ongoing reluctance to pay us anything,” Wilkinson’s barrister Michael Elliott SC told the court.
Ten’s barrister Zoe Graus said the network accepted there were undisputed costs which “are recoverable by Ms Wilkinson”.
Lee encouraged the parties to come to an agreement over at least some of the costs to prevent a lengthy process with a court-appointed referee which would result in more legal fees.
“I don’t want people throwing good money after bad and having referees going down the path of preparing detailed reports when it’s a completely futile exercise,” Lee said.
Graus agreed it was “simply premature” to appoint a referee while they were far from agreement.
Lee said: “I really do think that if two sensible solicitors got into a room together, you should be able to go through with a yellow and blue highlighter and work out by reference to the yellow ones where there isn’t any dispute.”