New court rule expected to cut legal costs

A NEW COURT rule aimed at discouraging the bringing of unnecessary court applications should result in reduced legal costs, the master of the High Court has said.

Edmund Honohan, who deals with issues concerning the preparation of legal cases including cost issues, made the remarks when dealing with cost matters in a case yesterday.

The case before the master related to an application for summary judgment for €65,000 over a debt run up on a credit card.

The solicitor in that case had sought total legal fees of €9,400, including a €3,000 fee for a barrister.

Remarking there was little work involved in the case, Mr Honohan said he would disallow fees for a barrister and would reduce the solicitor's fee to €2,750.

He said a new rule of court introduced last February should reduce costs and clear the way for effective costs orders especially when avoidable costs have been incurred through delay, costs have been wasted through lawyer's errors or when an application is wholly misconceived.

The new rule requires High Court judges to rule on liability for the costs of all preliminary court applications in civil litigation at the time those applications occur.

The court can also require the sides in litigation to produce itemised costs estimates so that costs can be measured without the need for an application to the court taxing master.

Mr Honohan noted that, until now, the courts had usually left all costs issues to the judge eventually hearing the case and the ultimate bill would eventually be drawn up by the taxing master.

He said that was a long drawn- out and sometimes expensive process which few clients were willing to prosecute.

He noted a recent High Court decision had shown that the High Court would uphold costs rulings of the court taxing master when extra costs had been incurred through "over-caution" on the part of lawyers.

In that High Court decision, the court ruled that personal service of an application was not required under the court rules and disallowed the costs of that application.

© 2008 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times