How Bruce Lehrmann gave up a chance to settle with Channel Ten – now TV station wants him to pay up big time for ‘deliberately wicked’ act

Network Ten offered to settle defamation action with Bruce Lehrmann before the matter went to trial, but he refused, court documents show.  

Now the TV station is demanding Lehrmann pay up all costs involved in the high defamation case since August 2023.

Meanwhile, Ten has described Lehrmann’s decision to bring the lawsuit to court as being made on a ‘deliberately wicked and calculated basis’. 

Submissions released by the Federal Court on Tuesday show the network presented Lehrmann with a settlement offer in August 2023.

Ten had wanted the proceedings dismissed with no admission of liability, and without the network having to cover his legal costs.

Lehrmann was given until September 15 to consider the offer, but he rejected it within two hours.

According to Lehrmann’s submission, he rejected the offer because it did not give him an ‘opportunity for vindication’ and there was no suggestion of an apology.

The matter went to trial before Justice Michael Lee in December.

Last Monday, Justice Lee found on a balance of probabilities that Lehrmann had raped Brittany Higgins in Parliament House in 2019. 

Ten’s submission did not specify the amount of money offered to Lehrmann to settle the matter, but the network is now requesting all costs from August last year.

The network’s submission read: ‘Mr Lehrmann brought this proceeding on a deliberately wicked and calculated basis.’

‘He put Network Ten to the cost of defending this proceeding, which can be, with the benefit of hindsight, described as a clear abuse of process aimed at concealing the truth that Mr Lehrmann raped Ms Higgins.’

Lehrmann sued Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson over an episode of The Project in February 2021, during which Ms Higgins went public with her rape claims for the first time.

He was not named in the broadcast but said friends and colleagues were able to identify him as her alleged rapist. 

During the judgement last week, Justice Lee found Lehrmann was identifiable from the broadcast.

However, he was not defamed because Ms Higgins rape claims were found to be true on the balance of probabilities.

The findings were damning and Lehrmann, who had long-maintained he was not a rapist, was left without permanent accommodation or employment. 

In his submission, Lehrmann said allegation of rape was serious enough to warrant the need for vindication and an apology – neither of which was part of Ten’s settlement offer.

He has also requested compensation, stating the network’s qualified privilege defence was ‘bound to fail’.

Network Ten lost the privilege defence, which meant the judge found it did not research Ms Higgins’ allegations properly before putting them to air.

Lehrmann said in his submission: ‘It was their case that they had acted reasonably in publishing The Project broadcast.’

‘In short, none of the qualified privilege defences were successful.’

‘Given this court’s findings as to the failure of those defences and the fundamental missteps taken by the respondents in publishing The Project broadcast it is open to this court to conclude that the applicant should be compensated for the time and expense in having to establish that the qualified privilege defences were bound to fail.’

Lehrmann did settle two defamation matters out of court with news.com.au and the ABC over the publication of similar allegations, for a total of $445,000.

Justice Lee will consider the costs submissions in a hearing on May 1.

The court will also have to determine how much Ten should contribute towards Wilkinson’s legal fees, which are now said to be worth about $1million.