A Federal Court judge has ordered Bruce Lehrmann to pay costs of a higher order than typically seen in defamation cases, but also declared there were “no real winners” in the multi-million-dollar legal battle.
Justice Michael Lee found last month that, on the balance of probabilities, Mr Lehrmann raped Brittany Higgins in Parliament House in 2019, meaning Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson ultimately won on a substantial truth defence.
Mr Lehrmann has always maintained his innocence.
However, Ten failed in its qualified privilege defence, and the former Liberal staffer was only ordered to pay the usual party/party costs for that part of the trial.
For the majority of the case, Ten was awarded indemnity costs which cover up to 95 per cent of…
