CONTENT WARNING: This article discusses rape.
Former Liberal staffer, nightmare tenant, law student, liar, and probable rapist Bruce Lehrmann is in the bad books of another judge, after his lawyer requested an extension to file an appeal to his infamously self-destructive defamation case and copped an absolute pasting.
The scoldings against Bruce Lehrmann simply won’t stop, after the Federal Court’s Justice Wendy Abraham spoke plainly following the 29-year-old’s request for an extension on the paperwork for his appeal of his defamation loss earlier this year.
Lehrmann is appealing the ruling in his defamation case against Lisa Wilkinson and Network 10, after a justice found earlier this year that, on the balance of probabilities, he did in fact rape Brittany Higgins in 2019.
However, he missed the deadline to file the appeal amendments, with his lawyer Zali Burrows arguing this was due to his struggles to pay a barrister $117,000 to finalise appeal, which was due to be filed last Thursday.
“There were a lot of monies paid in respect of hearing allocation fees, filing fees, to which my client didn’t have to pay at the time, because he was on Centrelink,” said Burrows.
To which Justice Abraham asked bluntly: “What’s this got to do with me?”
“This is an appeal … Why isn’t Justice Lee dealing (with it)? This is an order he made … Not an appeal from the order,” Abraham said, per The Australian.
Burrows explained that the money Lehrmann received in settlements from News Life Media and the ABC had not been reimbursed by the lawyers from his high-stakes defamation case (who are glad it’s over!), and therefore could not be afforded to the barrister to complete the appeal.
In addition to owing various lawyers huge legal costs, Lehrmann received a court order from Network 10 that he pay a $200,000 security deposit, to help the network secure legal costs should he be unsuccessful in the appeal. This has also not been paid.
And so, the reason why Abraham had been dragged into the matter was so she could make the reimbursement of $117,000 into Lehrmann’s trust account a priority.
“You want this court — as in me — to deal with a matter that you haven’t yet filed before the registrar so that — one assumes — you succeed in that matter so that you can brief somebody … and we’re not going to get the amended grounds until after that,” Abraham asked.
Ultimately, the judge gave Lehrmann’s legal team until the end of next week to file the amended notice of appeal, but she didn’t do so without some stern words on the importance of keeping a schedule
“One assumes this has been an issue for some time,” Justice Abraham said.
“You don’t wait until it’s breached and then come to the court.”
Bruce Lehrmann has quite a trail of receipts following him at the moment that will make paying for all these trials a predicament.
In addition to the court ordering he pay $2 million in legal costs for the failed defamation case against Network 10 and Wilkinson, he is also being hounded by his former landlord for $13,000 to pay for the “extensive damage” he did to the property.
Lehrmann maintains his innocence. A criminal trial in 2022 was aborted due to juror misconduct, and a retrial was not held due to concerns for Higgins’ mental health.
Help is available.
- If you require immediate assistance, please call 000.
- If you’d like to speak to someone about sexual violence, please call the 1800 Respect hotline on 1800 737 732 or chat online.
- Under 25? You can reach Kids Helpline at 1800 55 1800 or chat online.
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