Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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159. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality when the provisions implementing sections149 to161, inclusive, of the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015 will be brought into effect; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25763/16]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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161. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality when sections 149 to 161, inclusive, of the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015 will commence; if there are impediments to their taking effect; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25778/16]

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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163. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality when sections 149 to 161, inclusive, of the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015 will be implemented; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25896/16]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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174. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality when the Legal Services Regulation Act, SI 65 of 2015, which was signed into law in December 2015, will be given a commencement order regarding sections 149 to 161, inclusive, dealing with the regulation of legal costs. [26030/16]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 159, 161, 163 and 174 together.

The Legal Services Regulation Act 2015 makes extensive provision in Part 10 for a new and enhanced legal costs regime that will bring greater transparency to how legal costs are charged along with a better balance between the interests of legal practitioners and those of their clients in this area. Part 10 of the Act is divided into five Chapters of which Chapter 3, consisting of sections 149 to 153, deals with the duties of legal practitioners in relation to legal costs. The remaining Chapters of this Part deal with other aspects of the new legal costs regime including the new Office of the Legal Costs Adjudicators that will take over the work currently carried out by the Office of the Taxing-Master along with the way in which the new legal costs adjudication process will operate. There is no impediment to their taking effect other than that of ensuring, through detailed planning and sequencing, that the relevant legal and administrative arrangements are properly in place within the Courts system and under the new legislative measures. The Deputies will appreciate that a significant transformation of the existing taxation of costs system is provided for in Part 10 of the Act and that this cannot be done overnight and must be managed carefully - including in terms of having the relevant personnel and expertise in place and given the fundamental legal procedures involved.

All legal practitioners will be obliged, under the transparency provisions of Chapter 3, to provide more detailed information about legal costs from the outset of their dealings with clients. This will be in the form of a Notice, written in clear language, which must be provided when a legal practitioner takes instructions. Among other things, the Notice must disclose the costs that are involved, or, where this is not known, the basis upon which such costs are to be calculated. A cooling-off period is to be allowed for the consideration of costs by the client. When there are any significant developments in a case which give rise to further costs, the client must be duly updated and given the option of whether or not to proceed with proceedings. In addition, this Chapter of the Act provides that it will not be permissible for legal practitioners to set fees as a specified percentage or proportion of damages payable to a client from contentious business, and, that it will no longer be permissible for barristers to charge junior counsel fees as a specified percentage or proportion of Senior Counsel fees.

These provisions complement the accompanying provisions of Part 10 of the Legal Services Regulation Act which provide in Chapter 2 for the changeover to the new Office of the Legal Costs Adjudicators. Under the enhanced adjudication process that is set out in Chapter 4 of Part 10, aggrieved clients will be able to apply for the adjudication of disputed legal costs under a reformed and modernised framework which will be under the stewardship of a Chief Legal Costs Adjudicator. This is underpinned by a set of Legal Costs Principles which are set out, for the first time, in Schedule 1 of the 2015 Act. Moreover, the new Office will maintain a publicly accessible Register of Determinations which will disclose the outcomes and reasons for decisions made by the Legal Costs Adjudicators. The new Office will also prepare strategic and business plans and annual reports of its activities. Subject to consultations, the Chief Legal Costs Adjudicator may also from time to time prepare, for the guidance of Legal Costs Adjudicators, legal practitioners and the public, guidelines indicating the manner in which the functions of the Chief and other Legal Costs Adjudicators are to be performed.

As I have just set out, the five Chapters of Part 10 of the 2015 Act are very much interlinked and their successful commencement will be key to the phased roll-out of that Act which is already underway. As with other Parts of the Act which will be commenced on a phased basis over the coming period, I am, along with officials at my Department and the Courts Service, giving detailed consideration to the commencement of Part 10. This includes the possible prioritisation for commencement of sections 149 to 161 contained in Chapter 3 as may be practicable from both a structural reform and a legal perspective.

It remains my intention to appoint 1st October 2016 as establishment day for the new Legal Services Regulatory Authority which is also expected to have its inaugural meeting early that month.