This is the final Judgment I won in my lawsuit. The case never made it to a final hearing, as Nine surrendered once all of its defenses were thrown out for lack of evidence. I didn’t want to accept their surrender, as I wanted a final judgment to be issued by the judge. But Nine offered to pay me 550K Australian dollars, which was about 100K more than the legal maximum I could have won under Australian law. They also agreed to pay my legal costs on an indemnity basis. Normally, costs are only recovered on an ordinary basis. Indemnity costs are awarded only under extreme circumstances, where the conduct of the losing party is found to be egregious.
Had I refused to accept, I was told I would be liable for Nine’s and my own legal costs going forward. My lawyers also told me it was a complete win, providing total vindication. Unfortunately, they were wrong. What little media coverage my total victory received described my win as a “settlement,” implying that I didn’t actually win the case, but that it was settled instead. In many cases, parties agree to settle otherwise winnable cases simply out of convenience to save on legal costs. But this was not the case with my lawsuit. Nine had already lost. The only thing left for the court to consider was how much money Nine needed to pay me. Nine didn’t settle the case; they only settled on the amount they needed to pay.