Live updates: Federal Court costs hearing in Bruce Lehrmann’s failed defamation case against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson

In submissions, Bruce Lehrmann’s lawyers made comparison between Mr Lehrmann’s case and that or Ben Roberts Smithwho solved his own high-profile defamation case last year.

In the latter case, Nine Entertainment pushed to recover indemnity costs in part by arguing that the case was “all directed towards concealing the truth”.

It was prompted by a series of stories published in The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Times in 2018, which Mr Roberts-Smith said included false allegations of war crimes, bullying and domestic violence.

Justice Besanko was satisfied four of the six unlawful killings alleged in Nine’s defense case were substantially trueto the civil standard of proof.

And Justice Besanko agreed with Nineby finding the army veteran brought the case, despite knowing “the most serious imputations were substantially true”and ordered he pay the respondents costs on an indemnity basis.

Mr. Lehrmann’s lawyer David Helvadjian has accepted the court could make a similar finding about Mr Lehrmann.

But he has also argued the threshold for such an order is high, and in previous cases, even people who fabricated evidence haven’t been subjected to it.