Bombshell for Lisa Wilkinson as Network Ten delivers devastating blow over her massive $1.8million legal bill for Bruce Lehrmann defamation trial

Network Ten will only pay Lisa Wilkinson about $558,000 of her $1.8million legal bill, a court has heard.

The agreement was revealed during a case management hearing in the Federal Court on Thursday relating to costs in Bruce Lehrmann's defamation case against the network and Wilkinson.

Wilkinson hired her own legal team to defend her in the defamation action, rather than using Ten's lawyers, and then won a bid to have her employer cover those fees.

Her firm of choice was Gillis Delaney Lawyers, where the supervising partner charges $750 per hour, and top defamation barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC, who charges $8,000 per day.

She originally hit Ten with a $1.8million bill, but the court heard on Thursday that Wilkinson had accepted an offer by the network to pay a fraction of that cost. 

The court also heard Ten racked up its own $3.6million bill running the defamation case with barrister Matthew Collins KC, who charges $11,000 per day.

However, the network has only asked Lehrmann to pay $2million.

Costs will be determined by an independent referee, who will then hand their findings to the judge.

The network originally offered to pay $607,850 to Wilkinson, but following a review that amount was found to be 'over generous'. 

Ten's barrister Zoe Graus told Justice Lee that if an external referee determined Wilkinson's costs were less than the agreed $558,548, she would have to pay the network back.

'Your Honour will see that the order below is that should the referee determine the amount is less, that Ms Wilkinson would repay it to us,' Ms Graus said.

'We're not willing to commit to a judgment sum of that amount today.'

Lehrmann's lawyer, Paul Svilans, said his client 'neither consents nor opposes' the order.

Justice Lee said it was broadly accepted that Lehrmann was a 'man of modest means' and was unlikely to have the funds to pay the bill.

Lehrmann suffered a massive legal loss against Ten and Wilkinson in April when Justice Lee found, on a balance of probabilities, that he raped Brittany Higgins in Parliament House in March 2019.

He had sued for defamation over a February 2021 episode of The Project, during which Ms Higgins aired her rape claims for the first time in an interview with Wilkinson.

The former Liberal staffer, who had denied the assault claims, wasn't named in the broadcast but claimed friends and colleagues were able to identify him as Ms Higgins' rapist.

As the loser of the trial, Lehrmann is expected to cough up 90 per cent of Ten and Wilkinson's costs for the successful truth defence, and 70 per cent of the costs associated with running the failed qualified privilege defence.

The former staffer is an unemployed law student who has not had a job since 2021, and could be forced to file for bankruptcy.

If Lehrmann goes bankrupt and the bills are unpaid, Network Ten will have to cover its own costs, and Wilkinson's reasonable costs.