Legal Costs

Mason Hayes & Curran partners Gerard Kelly and Gearoid Carey explore recent case law on the allocation of costs in civil litigation. The Court of Appeal recently, in Word Perfect Translation Services Ltd v Minster for Public Expenditure and Reform [2023] IECA 189, addressed a costs order made in

The District Court scale of costs has been updated for the first time since 2014, with increases of at least five per cent across the board. The District Court (Costs) Rules 2023 set out a new schedule of costs for solicitors in various categories of civil proceedings, as well as briefing fees for c

The Court of Appeal has determined that the a party which is “entirely successful” in proceedings was not required to show that it had conducted litigation in the most cost-effective manner before being entitled to its full costs. The High Court had determined that the Minister for Publi

The High Court has ruled that successful plaintiffs in a circuit appeal were entitled to the full legal costs of the hearing and rejected taking an “overly meticulous approach” to legal costs. The defendants had argued that the plaintiffs were not entitled to their legal costs because th

The High Court has dismissed an appeal against a decision by the Legal Services Regulatory Authority (LSRA) regarding a €232,000 legal bill charged by a solicitor in family law proceedings. The appellant had claimed that the fees were excessive and that she had expected the fees to be approxima

The High Court has ruled that Donegal County Council must pay the legal costs of a councillor after discontinuing injunction proceedings against him. The Council had obtained an interlocutory injunction restraining Mr Frank McBrearty from attending Council meetings in February 2022 due to his conduc

Around €1.1 million in unpaid barristers' fees has been recovered through The Bar of Ireland's in-house fee recovery service since its launch less than three years ago. Over 175 members of the Law Library are now "actively using" the Bar's practice support and fee recovery service for assistanc

The Court of Appeal has overturned a decision by the High Court which measured a solicitor’s costs at €53,000. The solicitor had sued the defendants for fees for acting in litigation contesting a family member’s will. Delivering judgment in the case, Mr Justice Senan Allen held that

The Court of Appeal has held that it would not make a wasted costs order against counsel and solicitor who pursued an appeal on behalf of a ward of court without proper instructions. The ward had not been informed that his appeal was treated as a “test case” by the lawyers and died befor

Emma Murphy of RDJ LLP discusses a recent High Court on Circuit case in which the firm acted and successfully appealed against Order 53, Rule 2(2) of the District Court Rules. The recent decision from Justice Miriam O’Regan in Teresa Field v Cork City Council, an appeal from the Circuit C

A legal services contract which sets out no cost details except for an hourly rate does not meet EU rules on drafting contracts in "plain, intelligible language", the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has ruled. In a ruling handed down yesterday, the CJEU said a contract must allow the c

A major new report jointly commissioned by the Law Society of Ireland and The Bar of Ireland has recommended a system of non-binding guidelines for legal practitioners as the best means of controlling costs while ensuring fair and equal access to justice. The independent report was produced by EY an

The State has been ordered to pay 50 per cent of costs in a High Court case it won outright because it did not seek to have an eligibility point dealt with as a preliminary issue. In a judgment published last week, Mr Justice Michael Twomey criticised the State for allowing the case to go on trial o

Proposed measures to reduce the cost of civil litigation in Ireland could backfire and result in "severe restrictions on access to justice for ordinary citizens", the Bar Council and the Law Society have warned. In a joint submission to economic consultants Indecon, the professional bodies said the

William Fry partner Richard Breen examines a recent High Court judgment which departed from the normal measure of costs. In a recent ex tempore judgment in a landlord and tenant dispute (Dipcot Holdings Ltd v Euro General Unreported, ex tempore, High Court, O’Hanlon J., 28 June 2021) the High