The judge presiding over Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation fight with Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson has asked the parties a series of questions via email, including about Brittany Higgins’ $2.4 million settlement with the Commonwealth, as he prepares to deliver his decision in the high-stakes case.
The email raised a question about whether Ten contended “there would be a failure to comply with the dictates of procedural fairness in the event that the Court found it necessary to deal with the submissions made by Mr Lehrmann” about Higgins’ deed of settlement with the Commonwealth.Lehrmann’s lawyers have submitted that Higgins made representations in the deed about the night she alleges Lehrmann sexually assaulted her in Parliament House that are inconsistent with her evidence in court.
“The allegations concerning the alleged sexual assault, as recorded in the Deed, are entirely consistent with all other accounts that Ms Higgins has given of the event,” Ten’s submissions said. Ultimately, however, Ten has submitted that “the Court ought to reject Mr Lehrmann’s submission that the relevant representations demonstrate a ‘preparedness to tell lies, including elaborate lies, on the most solemn of occasions’.”