Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 18 December 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality

Access to Justice and Legal Costs: Discussion (Resumed)

Dr. Brian Doherty:

Under the notice, the legal practitioner initially consulted - as the Deputy has rightly said the other party at that point is not aware of this - has to provide the consumer with:

information as to the circumstances in which the client would be likely to be required to pay the costs of one or more other parties to the litigation, and information as to the circumstances in which it would be likely that the costs of the legal practitioner would not be fully recovered from other parties to the litigation.

There cannot just be a promise that clients will not have to pay the cost. The risks to the legal consumer have to be set out. On the side of the legal costs adjudicator, in the context of a third-party application, there must be consideration of whether costs are reasonable and were reasonably incurred. The legal costs adjudicator can, therefore, dig into the costs, and that is its role.

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