Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson have been urged to resolve a dispute about who pays what regarding the costs of successfully defending Bruce Lehrmann's defamation case.
Justice Michael Lee ordered settlement talks in early 2025 after telling the parties on Monday afternoon that he had hoped to resolve the spat before Christmas.
"You engaged me last advent, I really want this advent to bring it to an end," he said in a Federal Court hearing.
Justice Lee oversaw the lengthy defamation trial in late 2023, wrapping it up days before Christmas Eve.
In April, he dismissed the lawsuit and found Ten and Wilkinson did not defame Lehrmann through reports he sexually assaulted Brittany Higgins in Parliament House.
The judge ruled that a February 2021 broadcast on The Project where Ms Higgins voiced the allegations was, on the balance of probabilities, substantially true.
Justice Lee ordered the cash-strapped 29-year-old, who has since appealed the decision, to pay $2 million in legal costs to Ten.
His full bill to Wilkinson is still being hashed out as is the amount that Ten will have to pay as her employer.
On Monday, Justice Lee heard a report had been completed by a referee hired to determine which of Wilkinson's costs were reasonable and should be covered by Ten.
However, the journalist's barrister Michael Elliott SC said her team of solicitors had been unable to put a dollar figure on the referee's findings.
"We just can't work it out,” he told the court.
Ten's barrister Zoe Graus said her client would apply to either reject the report entirely or only use part of it in determining the final bill.
Justice Lee abandoned his plans to end the matter before Santa Claus arrives, instead scheduling a hearing for February 4.
He ordered that the parties enter settlement talks before that date to try to resolve the matter.
The defamation suit came after a criminal case facing Lehrmann was abandoned in 2022 due to juror misconduct with no findings made against him.
No date for the appeal hearing has been set.
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