Judge's withering four-word summary of rapist Bruce Lehrmann as the eye-watering bill for his 'omnishambles' defamation trial is laid bare - and the biggest winner is revealed
Federal Court judge referred to Lehrmann's $2m bill Network Ten's barrister's daily fee has been revealed
A judge has labelled Bruce Lehrmann as a 'man of modest means' after the former staffer was hit with a $2million legal bill in the wake of his failed defamation trial.
Justice Michael Lee made the remark during a case management hearing in the Federal Court on Thursday, following costs submissions by the lawyer for Network Ten, Zoe Graus.
The court heard Network Ten racked up a whopping $3.6million bill from the time the defamation action was launched in February last year, spanning beyond Justice Lee's judgement in April.
Lehrmann will be expected to pay 90 per cent of the costs for the network's successful truth defence and 70 per cent of the failed qualified privilege defence which - along with a slight discount - took the overall bill down to $2million.
The final amounts will be determined by a court-appointed referee, but there is doubt as to whether Lehrmann can foot the bill because he is a second-year law student who hasn't had a job since 2021.
However, the real winner of the trial appears to be the barrister for Network Ten, Matthew Collins KC, who was owed $768,750 alone for his involvement in the case.
Bruce Lehrmann (pictured) has been hit with a $2million legal bill over the defamation case
Pictured: Matthew Collins KC, Zoe Graus and Tim Senior outside the Federal Court in May
The invoice details were revealed in an affidavit by Thomson Geer lawyer Marlia Saunders, who acted for Ten, which was tendered during the hearing on Thursday.
In the affidavit, Ms Saunders outlined the hourly rates of individual solicitors and barristers who defended the network.
Dr Collins was the highest-paid silk with a daily rate of $11,000, his junior counsel Tim Senior charged $4000 per day and was owed $407,900 by the end of the trial, while Ms Graus's daily rate was $2,200 and was owed $19,778.
The rates of individual solicitors for Thomson Geer were also outlined in the affidavit.
Ms Saunders charges $730 per hour and was owed about $738,000 for more than 1000 hours of work by the time the trial was over, while senior associate Connor O'Beirne's hourly rate was $530 and was owed about $379,000.
Another associate charged $435 per hour, a graduate charges $275 per hour, and a senior paralegal charged $310 per hour.
Monthly invoices outlined in the affidavit also revealed Network Ten was hit with enormous monthly invoices from Thomson Geer, between February 2023 and May 2024.
Most of the 25 invoices were asking for hundreds of thousands of dollars for a single month's work.
The invoice details were outlined in the affidavit of Marlia Saunders (pictured)
Lisa Wilkinson is pictured speaking to media after her defamation win in April
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In March 2023, the network received an invoice for $283,959. It was also billed $46,188 and $81,424 for April and May respectively.
The largest single invoice was for $353,319 in December, which was the month of the defamation hearing.
According to the affidavit, the bulk of the overall costs were associated with the preparation for the trial and and attendance at it, including preparing closing written submissions.
Lisa Wilkinson has also charged the network $1.8million accrued when she hired her own legal team to defend her in the defamation action, rather than using Ten's lawyers.
Her firm of choice was Gillis Delaney Lawyers, where the supervising partner charges $750 per hour and top defamation barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC charges $8,000 per day.
Justice Lee said Dr Collins' daily rate may seem excessive to those who were unfamiliar with the costs associated with a defamation trial, but believed his fees were in line with others in Melbourne.
Ms Chrysanthou's bills were also mentioned, but it was suggested her fees were in line with market value in Sydney.
If Lehrmann goes bankrupt and the bills are unpaid, Network Ten will have to cover its own costs, and Wilkinson's costs.