Daily Telegraph loses Geoffrey Rush defamation appeal, ordered to pay full $2.9m in damages

Geoffrey Rush will be awarded $2.9m in damages, Australia’s largest defamation payout to a single person, after The Daily Telegraph lost its appeal against last year’s ruling in the defamation case.

This morning, the Federal Court dismissed every one of the masthead’s grounds of appeal, including a bid for a retrial and efforts to reduce the amount of damages.

The breakdown of that $2.87m – a far cry from the $50,000 Rush’s barrister told the court he offered to settle for – includes $850,000 in non-economic loss, including aggravated damages; $1.06m in past economic loss, including interest; $919,678 in future economic loss (meaning the stories’ impact on Rush’s income); and $43,302.10 interest on the non-economic loss.