By Duncan Murray in Sydney

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.

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.

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.

A case management hearing is expected on Wednesday to begin setting a timetable for when the closely watched courtroom rematch will play out.

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.

“The finding against him is extremely serious,” the judge said at the time.

“The impact on him if he is denied that right (of appeal) is self-evident.”

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.

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.

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.

Ms Burrows said Lehrmann was living on Centrelink benefits in part because the broadcaster contributed to his image as a rapist.

“They are one of the contributors as to why he’s pretty much unemployable,” she said.

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.

It came after a criminal case facing Lehrmann was abandoned in 2022 with no findings made against him.

“Having escaped the lions’ den, Mr Lehrmann made the mistake of going back for his hat,” Justice Lee said in his decision.