Lisa Wilkinson sues Network 10 over legal bills for Bruce Lehrmann defamation suit

Lisa Wilkinson is suing her employer Network 10 over a dispute about payment of more than $700,000 in legal costs in the Bruce Lehrmann defamation case.

The high-profile television presenter and former The Project star, chose to use a separate legal team to Network 10 to defend the defamation case brought by Lehrmann, who is suing both over their interview with Brittany Higgins in 2021.

Network 10 traditionally uses Thomson Geer, but Wilkinson chose to engage Gillis Delaney Lawyers and prominent defamation barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC.

The costs associated with what is expected to be a four-week trial will be significant, and Wilkinson had expected to be covered by her employer.

But a dispute over the payment of her legal bills, which she says now total more than $700,000, has now prompted Wilkinson to sue Network 10 in the NSW supreme court.

The proceedings allege that Network 10 had previously accepted that it needed to indemnify Wilkinson, even if she used another law firm.

Court documents seen by the Guardian show Network 10 accepted it was “liable to indemnify the plaintiff” on two separate occasions, in both March and June 2023.

The documents allege it has since reneged and is now not paying the costs.

Wilkinson, according to the documents, has not received any payments “in respect of her legal costs and other expenses incurred”.

The network, the court document said, initially tried to argue that it did not have to pay Wilkinson legal costs until after the proceedings concluded, which could take many months.

“The defendant initially sought to decline to pay the plaintiff any amount on the basis of a contention advanced in correspondence that it did not have to pay any amount until after the proceeding had concluded, on the basis that it was first necessary to ascertain the position in relation to possible orders for costs in favour of the plaintiff against the applicant in the proceeding,” the documents allege.

“When the vices in that approach were explained to the defendant in correspondence, the defendant then contended that the narrations that had been provided to it in respect of the legal costs the plaintiff incurred were in some respects not sufficiently detailed, or included work that was unreasonable.”

The documents say Wilkinson initially invoiced Network Ten for $375,000 in May, before reducing the requested amount to $353,538. She invoiced the organisation for a further $370,017 in September.

“The defendant has still not paid the plaintiff any amount in respect of any item of work or any dollar or cost and expense described in the invoices and narrations provided to the defendant,” the documents allege.

Network Ten said in a statement that Wilkinson’s lawyers had issued invoices “for a very substantial amount of money”.

“The lawyers engaged by Lisa Wilkinson have issued invoices for a very substantial amount of money, in excess of $700,000, and in good governance these need to be justified through due process,” the spokesperson said.

“In the meantime, Network 10’s focus is on defending the defamation claim brought by Bruce Lehrmann.”

The defamation trial is expected to begin next month and will take an estimated four weeks, including oral evidence from both Lehrmann and Higgins.

Lehrmann has denied raping Higgins in parliament house and pleaded not guilty at a trial in the ACT supreme court. That trial was abandoned due to juror misconduct and a retrial was abandoned due to concerns about Higgins’s mental health.