Small claims court - costs?

Jaysci20

Hi all,

I have a dispute that I am trying to resolve with a medium sized business informally.

I have also been looking at the small claims court process. If a case brought to the small claims court ends up before a judge in a district court, can the person who brings the case be held liable for costs the other side incurs?

I'm not asking for legal advice. I am trying to understand the risks generally involved for any person if they end up using the small claims court process.

Thanks.

fawltyBas

http://www.courts.ie/Courts.ie/Library3.nsf/PageCurrent/A9C6E93D70127EF38025810D0034EAD6?opendocument&l=en

All information is in the above link. Small claims is a very simple system. As far as I know there can be no claims for costs in the small claims, it only costs €25 to make a claim, this is all you can lose. The District court is a different kettle of fish.

Jaysci20

fawltyBas wrote: »

All information is in the above link. Small claims is a very simple system. As far as I know there can be no claims for costs in the small claims, it only costs €25 to make a claim, this is all you can lose. The District court is a different kettle of fish.

Thank you for the link.

This one line from it "Where possible, the registrar will negotiate a settlement without the need for a court hearing. If the matter cannot be settled the registrar will bring your claim before the District Court."

I am just wondering, by initiating the small claims court process, are you taking the risk that the registrar will bring the claim before the District Court? If that happens, could you then be held liable for costs?

Edit after last post:

I found this on a consumer website.

"Once these attempts have been exhausted, the Registrar will suggest setting a court date. If you emphatically do not want to attend court, the Office might send one further letter to the Respondent on your behalf, but at this stage if you do not agree to go to court, the Registrar will most likely ask you to consider withdrawing your claim" . Seems like a fair system overall and one I hope I dont have to resort to using.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.