Lawyers’ fees must reflect economy, says president of High Court

Lawyers cannot make “comfortable assumptions” about legal fees remaining at the levels payable before the recession, the president of the High Court has warned.

Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns said fees should realistically reflect the effect of the “financial and economic catastrophe” on many citizens.

He was endorsing a Taxing Master’s decision to almost halve the €485,000 solicitor’s instruction fee, based on €375 an hour, sought by solicitors Augustus Cullen Law in a medical negligence case. The defence had offered a €250,000 instruction fee and the Taxing Master had allowed €276,000.

A senior counsel in the case, Denis McCullough SC, had sought a €125,000 brief fee, plus daily refreshers of €3,500, on the basis the case was complex involving an unusual medical condition (rhesus incompatibility disease) and it took him 100 hours to read the brief.

‘Appropriate’ fee

The Taxing Master disagreed it was that complex and Mr Justice Kearns noted Mr McCullough had accepted an “appropriate” brief fee of €65,000.

The Wicklow-based firm argued the Taxing Master paid insufficient regard to cases where larger instruction fees were obtained since the economic downturn, including fees from €380,000 to €455,000 in 2011.

Mr Justice Kearns said “comfortable assumptions” that legal fees should continue as before “without the slightest regard for privations experienced by citizens”, including other professionals, did not serve “the interests of justice”. Rates that might be payable in times of economic stability were “totally unsuited for circumstances where a major financial and economic catastrophe has affected the national finances”.

He believed the Bar Council and Law Society were “acutely aware” the best interests of the profession were served by sharing with other professionals in “some realistic and proportionate readjustment”.