Bruce Lehrmann’s staggering seven-figure bill is revealed after crushing court loss: How much homeless, jobless rapist has to cough up – and his only silver

Bruce Lehrmann’s legal costs could top $2 million after losing his big defamation lawsuit against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson.

In federal court on Monday, Judge Michael Lee found on the civil standard that Lehrmann raped a highly intoxicated Brittany Higgins inside Parliament House in the early hours of March 23, 2019.

It was a crippling blow to the former Liberal staffer turned law student, who has not held a job since early 2021, when Ms Higgins first went public with her allegations in an interview with Mr Wilkinson on The Project.

Lehrmann was not named in that broadcast, but launched defamation actions in an attempt to clear his name – an effort that backfired spectacularly when Justice Lees branded him a sex offender, an unreliable witness and a liar in his three-hour sentence.

The defeat means he now has to worry about covering the costs of Network Ten and Wilkinson’s lawyers.

His only saving grace might be that he doesn’t have to worry about paying his own lawyers because they worked on a no-win, no-fee basis.

Brittany Higgins is pictured with her fiancé, David Sharaz. On Monday, a judge found her rape allegations against Bruce Lehrmann to be true

The exact amount owed by Ten and Wilkinson will be determined at a later date, with Justice Lee marking April 22 as the due date for submitting costs.

But it will probably be a seven-figure sum.

Alone Wilkinson’s lawyer Sue Chrysanthou SC charges $8000 a day and her total bill was worth more than $700,000 in October – two months before the actual month-long defamation hearing.

Since then, Chrysanthou attended court almost every day of the month-long hearing in December. Her cost is probably now worth more than $1 million.

There are also the costs of lawyers on both sides, and the fees of Network Ten’s lawyer Matthew Collins KC.

The cost of the entire case is worth an estimated $10 million.

Outside court on Monday, Ten’s lawyer Justin Quill said he is confident the network will be able to recoup some of the costs.

And speaking on Sunrise on Tuesday morning, Mr Quill explained that the judge had asked for submissions from both sides on their costs before deciding who should pay what.

Lisa Wilkinson and her barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC walked away from the defamation case on Monday, arm in arm

“This order … I would be reasonably certain will be in Ten’s favor and perhaps on an indemnity basis, meaning that Ten would be entitled to recover all its costs,” he said.

‘Whether they are able to recoup those costs is another matter and will largely depend on Bruce Lehrmann’s funds.’

Lehrmann won two out-of-court settlements from ABC and News Corp last year, worth a combined $445,000, after he filed a defamation suit against them on the same grounds he sued Ten and Wilkinson.

But he is currently unemployed and understood to be couch-surfing with no fixed address.

If he can’t find a way to pay his bills, he may have to declare bankruptcy.

During his sentencing on Monday, Judge Lee said: ‘To note that Mr Lehrmann was a poor witness is an understatement.’

“His attachment to the truth was tenuous, informed not by faithfulness to his affirmation but by shaping his responses in what he perceived to be his forensic interests.”

Bruce Lehrmann is pictured outside court on Monday after losing his libel case

Justice Lee found that Lehrmann brought Ms Higgins back to a ‘secluded place’, such as the ministerial suite, after a night out with colleagues with the intention of having sex with her.

“Mr Lehrmann was intent on having sex with a woman he found sexually attractive, had mutually passionately kissed and touched, had encouraged drinking and was known to have reduced inhibitions because she was very drunk,” he said.

“I am satisfied that it is more likely than not that Mr Lehrmann’s state of mind was such that he was so intent on gratification as to be indifferent to Ms Higgins’s consent.”

Lehrmann was prosecuted for sexual assault in the ACT Supreme Court in October 2022, but the case was overturned due to misconduct by a juror.

The former ACT Director of Public Prosecutions then dropped the charge against him, citing concerns for Ms Higgins’ mental health.

He had pleaded not guilty.