UNTIL this week, when he left the tax payer over £6 million the poorer, the Taxing Master, Mr James Flynn, was a very obscure official of the courts.
The Taxing Master is attached to the High Court, from which he gets his powers. Where costs have been awarded to one or other party by the High or Supreme Court, but there is no agreement between parties about legal costs, his job is to examine the nature of the work done by the solicitor, counsel and expert witnesses, and assess the costs involved.
However, he does not do this alone. Legal costs accountants for both sides will give extensive details of the work done and, based either on the usual scale of fees for such work, or a knowledge of "what the market will bear", suggest figures.
The Taxing Master can accept or reduce them. According to the 1995 Courts and Courts Officers Act, he can allow the costs outlined in the bill "in whole or in part" if he considers them to be "fair and reasonable in the circumstances of the case".
The office of Taxing Master was, until the recent Act which allowed solicitors to be appointed as Circuit Court judges, the only quasi judicial function above the rank of district justice open to solicitors. To be appointed he must have a minimum of 10 years practice. He has the power to administer oaths, to examine witnesses and to order the production of documents.
However, he (and it always has been a he) does not award the costs. That is done by the court which hears the case and, in the case of the beef tribunal, was already done by the tribunal itself in the person of Mr Justice Liam Hamilton.
Nor, in the case of the beef tribunal, did he set the costs. Those were set for lawyers for the tribunal itself and for the State by the then Attorney General, Mr John Murray, when the tribunal was set up. They were £1,890 a day for senior counsel and £1,260 a day for junior counsel per sitting day, and £1,000 a day for non sitting days. It is hardly surprising that the fees for Mr Goodman's legal team more than matched these.
The rates paid to Mr Goodman's counsel were negotiated by his solicitor. These were a briefing fee (to take and prepare the case) of £175,000 for Mr Gleeson and £3,000 a day per sitting day initially, with £2,000 a day for junior counsel. These declined as the tribunal went on. It was argued before the Taxing Master that these fees were "fair and reasonable in all the circumstances of the case", an argument he accepted.
When fees are taxed, stamp duty of 5 per cent is charged by the Government. This is levied on top of the VAT which must be charged by solicitors and barristers. So when the parties involved are both private companies or individuals the Government gets a considerable take from the taxing.
Normally, there are two Taxing Masters, but at the moment Mr James Flynn is the only one, since the death last Easter Monday of Mr Thomas O'Connor, who has not be replaced.
Mr Flynn was appointed by the Fianna Fail/PD coalition Government on October 21st, 1992, replacing Mr Terry de Valera, the only surviving son of Eamon de Valera, who retired before the summer vacation that year.
Mr Flynn was in sole private practice as a solicitor in Dublin prior to his appointment, after a period as a partner in O'Carroll and Flynn.
Before this week's decision, the highest costs allowed by Mr Flynn had been £400,000 to the solicitor for Kenneth Best, the Cork man who won a lengthy legal battle to prove that he had been brain damaged by a whooping cough vaccine.
The pharmaceutical company, Wellcome Foundation Ltd, objected to these fees, but Mr Flynn disallowed their objections. He also allowed counsel fees to stand in their entirety.
However, Wellcome appealed to the High Court where it had solicitor's fees reduced to £70000.
The influence of the Taxing Master extends beyond the decisions he makes on specific cases. His attitude to costs will influence lawyers' expectations, as they will tend to set fees at a level they feel they would get if they went to taxation.
The office of Taxing Master also exists in Britain and Northern Ireland.