<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <docID>332503</docID> <postdate>2024-11-06 06:29:56</postdate> <headline>Lehrmann pushes forward with appeal after court fee win</headline> <body><p><img class="size-full wp-image-331608" src="https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/20240617190869757090-original-1-resized.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="600" /></p> <caption>A hearing is expected to set out a timetable for Bruce Lehrmann's defamation loss appeal. (Jono Searle/AAP PHOTOS)</caption> <p><span class="kicker-line">By <strong>Duncan Murray</strong> in Sydney</span></p> <p><strong>Bruce Lehrmann will continue a bid to clear his name in the Federal Court after it was ruled he could do so without paying hundreds of thousands of dollars up front.</strong></p> <p>The cash-strapped former Liberal staffer is appealing a judgment handed down in April that he was not defamed in reports he sexually assaulted Brittany Higgins in Parliament House because the allegations were substantially true.</p> <p>The 29-year-old had sued Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson over a February 2021 broadcast on The Project in which Ms Higgins voiced the allegations.</p> <p>A case management hearing is expected on Wednesday to begin setting a timetable for when the closely watched courtroom rematch will play out.</p> <p>The court ruled in October that Lehrmann would not have to pay $200,000 for the appeal to move forward after Justice Wendy Abraham found it was not in the public interest to make him do so.</p> <p>"The finding against him is extremely serious," the judge said at the time.</p> <p>"The impact on him if he is denied that right (of appeal) is self-evident."</p> <p>Justice Abraham also allowed Lehrmann to stay previous court orders that he pay $2 million in legal fees to Ten for their costs of defending the defamation proceeding.</p> <p>Ten had been hoping to stymie the appeal by forcing him to pay the $200,000 as security for the event he lost his appeal and was liable to pay the broadcaster's costs.</p> <p>Lehrmann's lawyer Zali Burrows told an earlier hearing his financial state and reputation were so dire that his only chance to earn an income could be starting an OnlyFans account.</p> <p>Ms Burrows said Lehrmann was living on Centrelink benefits in part because the broadcaster contributed to his image as a rapist.</p> <p>"They are one of the contributors as to why he's pretty much unemployable," she said.</p> <p>Justice Michael Lee delivered a crushing blow to Lehrmann in his April judgment, dismissing his defamation suit and finding on the balance of probabilities he raped Ms Higgins in a Parliament House office in March 2019.</p> <p>It came after a criminal case facing Lehrmann was abandoned in 2022 with no findings made against him.</p> <p>"Having escaped the lions' den, Mr Lehrmann made the mistake of going back for his hat," Justice Lee said in his decision.</p> </body>