Court documents have revealed more details about journalist Lisa Wilkinson's multi-million dollar legal bill following the Bruce Lehrmann defamation trial.
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Ms Wilkinson hired barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC and Sydney solicitors separate from Network Ten to successfully defend the defamation suit brought against them.
Documents uploaded to the Federal Court website on Thursday confirm Ms Chrysanthou commanded $8000 a day for appearing in court.
But the journalist and network are still at odds over just how much the latter is set to fork out with debate about the reasonableness of legal fees.
The Federal Court previously heard Ms Wilkinson was seeking more than $1.8 million, with the debate set to go before a referee.
The court documents outlined several legal invoices regarding Ms Wilkinson since the start of 2023.
They showed Ms Chrysanthou charged a $4000 minimum appearance fee if the matter concluded before 1pm.
Despite being present in court almost every day of the month-long trial last year, Ms Chrysanthou was sidelined for long stretches of the proceedings as Ten took the lead on most cross-examination.
The barrister also charged $800 per hour for "preparation, conferences, other attendances, advices, and travelling time".
One of the largest individual costs in the documents appeared to be a counsel fee of $100,388.75 for barrister Barry Dean on February 29, 2024.
A $97,988.00 counsel fee was charged for Ms Chrysanthou on May 30, 2023.
An hour with a partner or special counsel at Gillis Delaney Lawyers, the law firm hired by Ms Wilkinson, also set the journalist back $750 or $650, respectively.
While most details about billed time and items were redacted in the court documents, one tax invoice showed charges for a subscription to The Australian newspaper and multiple editions of The Sydney Morning Herald.
Last month, Justice Lee found, on the civil balance of probabilities, Mr Lehrmann raped Brittany Higgins inside a Parliament House Ministerial office in 2019.
Since the historic judgment, the Federal Court judge has ordered Mr Lehrmann pay the large majority of Ten's and Ms Wilkinson's legal costs from the proceedings.
However, it remains unclear if Mr Lehrmann will have the financial capability to abide by such an order and Ms Wilkinson's costs could likely still fall on Ten to pay.
Mr Lehrmann, who has always denied raping his former colleague and against whom no criminal findings have been made, has indicated an intention to appeal Justice Lee's judgment.
He must launch that action by Friday.
Tim Piccione
Tim is a journalist with the Canberra Times covering the ACT courts. He came to the nation's capital via the Daily Advertiser in Wagga. Contact: tim.piccione@canberratimes.com.au.
Tim is a journalist with the Canberra Times covering the ACT courts. He came to the nation's capital via the Daily Advertiser in Wagga. Contact: tim.piccione@canberratimes.com.au.
