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High Court of Australia rules on Rebel Wilson appeal
Rebel Wilson has failed in her bid to appeal to the High Court of Australia, in her highly publicised defamation battle against Bauer Media.
Grace Ormsby
Ms Wilson was appealing a Victorian Court of Appeal decision from June this year, which reduced her $4.5 million award of damages by nearly $4 million to just $600,000.
Less than a month after the Victorian Court of Appeal decision, Ms Wilson’s lawyers sought special leave to appeal against the decision, and argued the court had made several errors.
The ABC reports that these errors included alleged failures to consider that Wilson received dramatically fewer leading role offers after the articles were published by magazines including Woman’s Day, Women’s Weekly, OK Magazine and New Weekly.
“This has been a long fight and a long journey in the courts, but the great thing about today is that it brings it to a definitive end,” Ms Wilson told reporters outside of the High Court.
“The whole reason for bringing this case is that I wanted to stand up to a bully, which is Bauer Media.”
Calling the appeal attempt to the High Court “an amazing experience”, Ms Wilson was proud of herself, “for seeing it out right to the bitter end.”
“At the end of the day the jury restored my reputation, I’ve moved on personally and professionally,” she explained.
“Today was just about a small point of special damages and for me it was never about the money, it was about standing up to a bully and I’ve done that.”
It comes just over a week after the former NSW Opposition Leader Luke Foley proclaimed his intention to commence defamation proceedings against an ABC reporter.
It also follows the significant verdict and high-value payout awarded against Alan Jones in September.
Lawyers Weekly has previously written about the need for BigLaw to support free speech, as well as the fight against fake news needing new defamation laws.
