Lawyers in the defamation suit brought by former liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann against Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson are making their final submissions. Mr Lehrmann is suing over an interview with Brittany Higgins when she first alleged she'd been raped at parliament house. He launched the case after his trial was abandoned with no findings against him.
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00:00 Well, today the court's been hearing from Matthew Collins, who's representing Network
00:07 10, and he's talked about a number of issues that he has to prove to defend his case, including
00:15 identification.
00:16 And he told the court that there was no substantial evidence that Bruce Lerman had been identified
00:23 by the program, which is a fairly sort of fundamental claim that has to be proved if
00:29 Bruce Lerman's defamation action is to succeed.
00:32 He's also outlined a series of what he says are lies that Bruce Lerman told, some of these
00:38 things Bruce Lerman did admit to and offered explanations for during his evidence in this
00:44 trial.
00:46 And Matthew Collins put up a series of slides where he had what he alleged was the lie,
00:52 the source for refuting that lie, and what Bruce Lerman had said about it.
01:00 So we've had sort of some visual aids this morning as well.
01:04 And Mr. Collins has said one crucial thing is that Bruce Lerman has offered no actual
01:12 explanation or satisfactory explanation for what happened in the 40 minutes he and Brittany
01:18 Higgins were in the office of Senator Linda Reynolds on the night of the alleged attack.
01:24 Bruce Lerman says he wants a substantial compensation because he was identified by this interview
01:31 on the project and that it meant he was defamed.
01:37 But today, Matthew Collins suggested to the court that based on the evidence that it's
01:42 heard so far, he should receive nothing, even if it is found that he was defamed.
01:48 So the other thing, of course, is the legal fees.
01:52 And some people involved in this are up for substantial bills by the end of it, some of
01:57 which may never be recouped.
01:59 The judge has a very big job in front of him.
02:02 And he's been going through today, asking questions, detailed questions at critical
02:08 moments, which I guess he'll do with each of the lawyers.
02:11 He has to hear from four in total.
02:14 So I think it'll be some time before we see a result.
02:17 [BLANK_AUDIO]