"The federal court registrar Alison Legge handed down the decision during a short hearing on Friday"... "Pesutto’s lawyers had argued the costs should be closer to $1.8m and sought to have donations to Deeming considered.
But Legge said the money “gifted or lent to Ms Deeming” was “not relevant” to her decision, which depended on whether the claimed legal costs matched what the MP owed to her lawyers, and whether those costs were fair and reasonable.
She said the costs reflected the scale of the defamation proceeding, which involved senior and junior counsel, 19 hearing days, 40 affidavits, 800 exhibits and 1,000 pages of closing submissions.
“It is uncontroversial that the purpose of a costs order is not to punish the unsuccessful party. The purpose, no more and no less, is to compensate the successful party,” Legge said.
In her written reasons, Legge said donations made to Deeming were described as “gifts” and she was entitled to “spend (or save) the funds … as she thinks fit”.
“Whether the ‘gifts’ … were expended in direct payment of her legal fees or on the costs of childcare while she attended court, or saved for a rainy day, it was up to Ms Deeming how she chose to manage her finances,” Legge said."