Solicitors fees - fully defended/ not defended

taim

Just wondering what the difference is between 'not defended' and 'fully defended' in a district court case re solicitors fees (something about scale re fees) and if it applies both to defendant's solicitor as well as plaintiff's solicitor?

Thanks for help on this curiosity

Victor

If, say, you've been accused of drink driving and are before the district court (I assume the DC accepts jurisdiction).

Not defended - you plead guilty at the first hearing, after a 10 minute conversation with your solicitor and the only real specialist work by them is being present in court and possibly pleading for mitigation / leniency. Total, one hour spent on case.

Full defended - you don't plead guilty and fight the charge tooth and nail. There are several hearings and then it is tried, with every last bit of evidence examined, possibly bringing in a specialist solicitor and/or counsel. Dozens of hours are spent on the case.

You can appreciate that a higher fee has to be charged for the second.

bath handle

Defended not defended refer to civil cases not criminal. If you look at courts.ie under rules and fees in the district court there is a scale of fees applied to various categories of case in the district court. In some civil cases nobody turns up to defend. In that situation the amount of costs to be added on the the judgement against them will be on a lower scale than if they turned up and argued the case.