Defamation

A nose job patient who allegedly defamed his surgeon has been slugged with $50,000 in security for his appeal, on top of a $50,000 damages bill that a judge said the surgeon is unlikely to see.

Newly released emails show a prominent silk describing Brittany Higgins’ refusal to assist Lisa Wilkinson’s barrister Sue Chrysanthou as “at the least unwise”, amid a dispute over the TV presenter’s decision to hire her own legal team in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case. 

The owner of womens’ networking group ‘Business Chicks’ has sued Fairfax over allegedly defamatory articles which she claims painted her as a hypocrite who unfairly fired a pregnant employee and fostered a toxic workplace culture. 

A judge has found that Lisa Wilkinson acted reasonably in ditching Network Ten’s legal team in a defamation case brought by Bruce Lehrmann, noting the “distrust” between the presenter and her former employer as well as other matters, including a retainer Ten’s solicitors had with The Australian newspaper. 

The Project presenter Lisa Wilkinson has told a court that she begged Network Ten to admit its role in a controversial Logies speech for which she faced criticism in the media, as she pushes to have the network cover her costs in defamation proceedings brought by Bruce Lehrmann.

A senior lawyer at Network Ten has told the court she was not embarrassed by legal advice given to Lisa Wilkinson in relation to her controversial Logies speech and denied she was “utterly ill-equipped” to play a role in Wilkinson’s defence, amid a stoush between the network and the presenter over her legal bill in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case. 

The judge who found that disgraced soldier Ben Roberts-Smith committed war crimes in Afghanistan did not show “full consideration of the presumption of innocence” in his defamation case, an appeals court has heard. 

Former Victorian Liberal MP Moira Deeming has lost a bid to split her defamation case against state party leader John Pesutto, after a judge expressed his reluctance to have the court sort through her claim that publications by Pesutto carried 67 different defamatory imputations against her, including that she is a neo-Nazi. 

A Network Ten executive received an angry phone call from former prime minister Scott Morrison’s chief media advisor after claims about the Liberal Party’s handling of Brittany Higgins’ alleged sexual assault were aired on The Project, new court documents reveal.

Lawyers for accused rapist Bruce Lehrmann have conceded his evidence on several issues was “lacking credibility”, but say the court should not find him a “compulsive liar” as argued by Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson in defending his defamation case.