Former Labor leader and right-wing internet commentator Mark Latham has hired a new lawyer in the defamation suit he is defending against ABC employee Osman Faruqi, two weeks after his entire defence was thrown out in a scathing court ruling.
Faruqi, a former Greens candidate, is suing Latham in the Australian Federal Court over an August 2017 video published on the "Mark Latham's Outsiders" website, in which Latham named Faruqi as he made comments about Islamic terrorism and "anti-white racism".
Faruqi claims Latham defamed him by suggesting he assists terrorist fanatics who want to kill Australians, that he condones murders committed by Islamic terrorists and that he encourages and facilitates terrorism.
Last month, Latham's 76-page defence to the lawsuit was thrown out completely by Justice Michael Wigney, who said it would be easier for Latham to "start from scratch" and ordered him to file a new defence by September 28.
Unlike most lengthy interlocutory judgements, the defence strikeout was shared widely on social media.
Charles Londy, of small Brisbane-based firm Londy Lawyers, had filed the defence, which Wigney labelled an "extraordinary document".
Latham notified the court on Thursday that he is now represented by Tean Kerr of Lander & Rogers, a larger practice with offices in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne.
It is unclear what prompted the change in legal representation. Latham told BuzzFeed News he did not want to comment, and Londy Lawyers and Lander & Rogers did not return calls.
The defence had included extracts from articles Faruqi had posted in his stint as the politics editor of Junkee, allegations about his association with former Greens senator Lee Rhiannon, and 164 of Faruqi's tweets.
It also mentioned the Lindt Cafe siege in Sydney, bombings in Paris and Brussels, and historical instances of Christian martyrdom.
In one section of the judgement Wigney analysed a number of the tweets, disagreeing that they indicated anti-white vilification.
"For example, on 20 July 2016, Mr Faruqi tweeted 'Labradors are to dogs what straight white dudes are to politics. Boring, too common, entitled'," Wigney wrote.
"This tweet may well have been offensive to owners of Labradors, or perhaps even Labradors themselves. Some readers may well have considered that it was a fairly crude and simplistic way for Mr Faruqi to make his point. Others may have been simply amused. Either way, it hardly constitutes vilification."
The case is due back in court after October 5.