Bruce Lehrmann bragged about how he fought the law and Bruce won. In fact, the law won. Today his many lies finally caught up with him. Justice Michael Lee, handing down his decision today for the defendants Network 10 and Lisa Wilkinson in their landmark defamation case against Lehrmann, found he had raped Brittany Higgins in Parliament House. Justice Lee said that he was satisfied that Higgins was very drunk, that Lehrmann knew of her condition and that Lehrmann was recklessly indifferent to Higgins’ state of mind of whether Higgins was consenting. That finding meant that the truth defence ..read more

It’s the saga about an alleged rape that never ends. After a jury in a criminal rape trial was aborted after juror misconduct, the subsequent inquiry which revealed prosecutorial misconduct and the resignation of the ACT Director of Prosecutions, we have the sequel to the rape trial. That sequel is a civil defamation case by Bruce Lehrmann, who was the defendant in the rape trial, brought against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson for an episode on The Project about the alleged rape. Yesterday, following the closing of the evidence Justice Michael Lee opined that both Bruce Lehrmann and Brittany ..read more

Highly decorated former soldier Ben Roberts-Smith VC MG sued on 16 media stories that collectively alleged among other things that he had murdered civilians in Afghanistan and committed an act of domestic violence against a woman in the Federal Court of Australia. Last month, the Federal Court found Roberts-Smith had committed war crimes and upheld the defence of contextual truth in dismissing his claims. Unsurprisingly, given the high stakes, Ben Roberts-Smith has appealed this decision. Roberts-Smith is contesting some of the factual findings including all findings he committed murder, con ..read more

  Bruce Lehrmann, the former parliamentary political staffer who was accused of raping a colleague named Brittany Higgins at Parliament House has had all charges dropped again him. This occurred after the trial had to be postponed because Lisa Wilkinson gave a speech at The Logie Awards, and when the trial finally took place, the jury had to be discharged because of juror misconduct. Aftermath It has since been revealed that the most senior police officer on the Brittany Higgins case, ACT Police Manager of Criminal Investigations, Detective Superintendent Scott Moller believed there was ..read more

Defamation specialist Sue Chrysanthou SC has been restrained by a Federal Court judge from representing former Attorney General Christian Porter in his defamation suit against the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and its star reporter Louise Milligan. This is a blow for Porter, who had engaged Sue Chrysanthou SC after the ABC aired allegations that he had raped a member of his debating team in the 1980s. Today’s decision came after Jo Dyer, director of the Adelaide Writers Week, a witness in the case and a friend of Mr Porter’s alleged rape victim, launched urgent Federal Court acti ..read more

Former Attorney General Christian Porter has lost his appeal of a restraint against Defamation specialist Sue Chrysanthou SC representing him in his claim against the ABC. Justice Thawley had ruled that there was a potential conflict of interest and the integrity of the judicial process and the due administration of justice required Ms Chrysanthou to be restrained. Furthermore, whilst Ms Chrysanthou had given evidence she did not recall any confidential information and that she no longer had emails received in connection with the meeting, Justice Thawley held that: “However recollections are ..read more

  Actor Geoffrey Rush has won his defamation case, with Justice Wigney that finding Nationwide News did not make out its truth defence: “Geoffrey Rush has won his defamation case against a Sydney newspaper publisher and journalist over articles saying he’d been accused of inappropriate behaviour. The 67-year-old actor had sued The Daily Telegraph’s publisher and journalist Jonathon Moran over two stories and a poster published in late 2017.In Sydney’s Federal Court on Thursday, Justice Michael Wigney found Rush had been defamed.“Nationwide News and Mr Moran did not make out their truth d ..read more

The laws of defamation apply to social media as much as they apply anywhere else: A FORMER high school student has been ordered to pay $105,000 to a teacher for writing defamatory remarks about her on social media in what is believed to be Australia’s first Twitter defamation case to go to trial. Former Orange High School student Andrew Farley, 20, made “false allegations” about music teacher Christine Mickle on Twitter and Facebook in 2012, a year after he had left school. Mr Farley, who had never been taught by Ms Mickle, seemed to bear a grudge against the 58-year-old based on a ..read more

Are there time limits on when you can sue? Read about what limitation periods are, and how they work. WHAT ARE LIMITATION PERIODS? Limitation periods in the law impose time limits within which types of civil proceedings should ordinarily be commenced. In commercial litigation, statutes of limitations impose most of the limitation periods. In Queensland, the statute of limitations is the Limitation of Actions Act 1974. There are other time limits imposed under the law, but this article concerns time limits imposed under statutes of limitations, particularly the Limitation of Actions Act 1974 ..read more

  Former Attorney-General Christian Porter has agreed to discontinue his claim for damages against the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)  after the national broadcaster published a number of articles and programs about allegations he had raped a member of his debating team in the late 1980s.   The outcome comes days after after Porter lost high profile defamation silk Sue Chrysanthou SC, who was restrained from acting for Porter because she had previously advised a witness in the case.   The outcome is a win for the ABC because no damages have been paid. The silve ..read more