Book a good briefing for intending litigants

James Flynn and Tony Halpin have been friends for years. They played soccer together. Mr Flynn is a former solicitor, now Taxing Master, and Mr Halpin worked with the ESB's accounts department before becoming a barrister.

One day they were talking about how little people seemed to understand about legal costs, their principles and the mechanics of how they are arrived at. "Most people think I have something to do with tax," said Mr Flynn.

They thought they would write an introduction to the subject during the summer holidays. "We wanted people to understand the principles, and to write it in a simple and understandable format," according to Mr Halpin. "We did not set out to impress legal academics.

"But when we started we realised we could not do it that way. It took three years."

But many academics might envy their productivity. Their book, Taxing of Costs, published by Blackhall, is more than 700 pages long. It starts with the history of the Taxing Masters Office and ends with a chapter on Value Added Tax as it applies to legal costs. It includes extensive references to case law in both this and other common-law jurisdictions, and to works of legal reference.

So far from being an "introduction", this book joins the ranks of legal textbooks, those weighty tomes which are so essential to practising barristers and solicitors that they are tax-deductible. This is just as well, as this book costs £175 (€222) - and this is less than some law books.

However, they are keen to stress that it is intended for the use of non-lawyers as well. If anyone is contemplating taking legal action, this would be a small investment indeed compared with the cost of the action, and could save the intending litigant a lot of money by warning him or her of what to expect.