Costs in Rocca trial may reach £200,000

MS MICHELLE ROCCA is believed to have turned down significantly more money than she was eventually awarded as a result of her six day High Court action.

And despite speculation that her former partner, Mr Cathal Ryan, had made a lodgement to the High Court to limit his costs, according to a reliable source no lodgment was made at any time during the proceedings.

Sources confirmed yesterday that the legal teams for Ms Rocca and Mr Ryan were negotiating on a number of out of court settlement offers on the first two days of the trial. It is believed these offers far exceeded the final award of £7,500. Ms Rocca's solicitor was not available for comment on reports she was offered between £50,000 and £70,000.

On Thursday evening a jury found Mr Ryan had assaulted Ms Rocca and had used excessive force. The jury said Mr Ryan had been acting in defence of his girlfriend of the time and awarded Ms Rocca a quarter of the maximum damages she could have received in a lower court.

Both sides will argue their case at a High Court sitting next week on the issue of costs, which could amount to £200,000. Normally the losing side is ordered to pay both sides legal costs, but this is complicated by the low level of damages.

The fact that Mr Ryan did not make a lodgement to court will surprise most legal experts, who believed this would have been done as a matter of course. If he had lodged more than £7,500 in court Mr Ryan would have only had to cover his costs up to the date of the lodgement.

Both sides employed two senior counsel, whose fees would generally be around £2,500 each a day.

Mr Justice Moriarty will rule on costs and at what scale at a hearing next Friday. Mr Ryan's legal team is expected to argue that he should only pay Ms Rocca's costs at Circuit Court level, because the damages were less than the Circuit Court maximum.

This could mean she would be left to pay a large part of her costs of up to £100,000.

Mr Ryan remarked after the verdict that there had been "no winners" as a result of the trial. Ms Rocca said she was grateful to the jury for its verdict that she had been assaulted and excessive force had been used.