The federal court has ruled Bruce Lehrmann will be allowed to continue his appeal against the dismissal of his defamation suit against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson.
On Wednesday Justice Wendy Abraham paused a costs order of $2m made by Justice Michael Lee against Lehrmann after the trial “until the appeal in the proceeding”.
She also denied Ten’s application for a $200,000 security of costs order ahead of the upcoming appeal.
“I order the interlocutory application of the respondent [Ten] stated 21 June, 2024 be dismissed,” she said.
Her reasons will follow after they have been published.
Lehrmann is appealing his defamation loss against Ten and Wilkinson but was unemployed and unable to pay his legal costs, his lawyer had told the court.
He launched an appeal after a defamation trial judge ruled in favour of Network Ten, finding on the balance of probabilities that Lehrmann raped Brittany Higgins at Parliament House.
Lehrmann had argued there was a genuine public interest in allowing an appeal and a risk that if the security of costs is granted it may abort the appeal.
In April, Lee found Lehrmann was not defamed by Wilkinson and Ten when The Project broadcast an interview with Brittany Higgins on 15 February 2021 in which she alleged she was raped by a staffer.
Lee found on the balance of probabilities Lehrmann raped Higgins on a minister’s couch in Parliament House in 2019.
Lehrmann has always denied the rape allegation and pleaded not guilty at his criminal trial in the Australian Capital Territory supreme court which was aborted. Prosecutors did not seek a retrial due to concerns about Higgins’s mental health.
