From Qantas to the lion’s den: the trials of Justice Michael Lee
Justice Michael Lee joins Joe Aston on Rampart Talks.
Federal Court Justice Michael Lee's assertion that Bruce Lehrmann "went back for his hat" by pursuing defamation action against Network 10 was a line borrowed from his father.
"It's quite a common expression in my household," Lee told Joe Aston on the Rampart Talks podcast.
Lee says he didn't labour over this line or other turns of phrase in his legal judgments.
"But no, I don't sit there and think, 'Oh, what would be, you know, a memorable phrase to put in here?' If I did that, that would be, I think, inappropriate."
In 2024, Bruce Lehrmann lost his defamation case against Network 10 and journalist Lisa Wilkinson. Justice Lee ruled that while Lehrmann was defamed by the broadcast, it was successfully able to defend its reporting because, on the balance of probabilities, Lehrmann had raped Brittany Higgins in her office at Parliament House.
Lee says he treated the high-profile trial like any other case.
