There are “significant credit issues” with both Bruce Lehrmann and Brittany Higgins in the defamation case the former Liberal staffer brought against Network Ten and its presenter Lisa Wilkinson, Justice Michael Lee has told the federal court.
“There are a number of significant differences they’ve given in court, a number of in-court representations and out-of-court representations,” Justice Lee said of the two principal witnesses.
The federal court judge is in the final stages of writing his judgment in the Lehrmann defamation case and will deliver his findings in March or April, he revealed on Wednesday.
Lehrmann is suing Ten and Wilkinson for defamation over an interview with Higgins on The Project in which she alleged she was raped in Parliament House.
Lehrmann maintains his innocence and at his criminal trial pleaded not guilty to one charge of sexual intercourse without consent, denying that any sexual activity had occurred.
After his criminal trial was aborted in December 2022 prosecutors dropped charges against Lehrmann for the alleged rape of Higgins, saying a retrial would pose an “unacceptable risk” to her health.
Justice Lee made the remarks about the matter of “credit” during a two-day hearing of a cross-claim for legal fees made by Wilkinson against her employer Network Ten.
Justice Lee said he would deliver his judgment in the cross-claim on whether Ten has to pay Wilkinson’s legal fees of more than $700,000 by the end of Wednesday, so that he can return to the “main game” of the defamation judgment.
He asked the legal teams to think carefully about the issue of credit in their final submissions.
“You have to be careful … when you’re making credit findings, working out, if there are general credit problems with witnesses, what parts of their evidence you can believe,” Lee said. “Hence, credit is particularly important in this case.”
“So I just want to give everyone a chance to deal with anything they want to say concerning the issue of credit.”
Justice Lee raised the example of credit in relation to Higgins’ evidence in her personal injury claim for compensation from the commonwealth.
Higgins received $2.3m in compensation, but after legal fees and taxes were taken out she got $1.9m, she told the court in December.
Higgins gave “a whole series of representations” under oath about liability “which are in contrast to the evidence that she’s given in some respects”, he said.
“In relation to the principal issue, it is clear that there are significant credit issues in relation to the two principal witnesses … certainly Mr Lehrmann and Ms Higgins,” he said.
Sue Chrysanthou SC, representing Wilkinson, told the court her client has been a journalist for 40 years but has never been a news reporter or a court reporter, and has never been sued for defamation.
The court has heard Wilkinson relied on Ten for legal advice on whether or not to give an acceptance speech at the 2022 Logies, in which she referenced Higgins’ allegations.
Wilkinson earlier told the court she felt “alone” and unsupported by Network Ten as her reputation was being “trashed in the media” after the speech because it led to the delay of Lehrmann’s criminal trial.
“It’s hard to imagine any occasion where my client would have had to consider making a comment on judicial proceedings,” Chrysanthou said. “And I think the evidence was she’d never been sued for defamation before, so had very little information or knowledge about that.”
