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civil court proceedings cost

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  • 23-05-2020 10:39am
    #1
    Mad_maxx
    Registered Users Posts: 13,505 ✭✭✭✭


    intend taking someone to the civil court soon in relation to a personal injury which occurred in 2018 , solicitor has told me that the cost will be up on 18 k assuming i dont loose and have to pay the other sides fees

    anyone think this sound expensive ?, he told me it would cost 35 k if we instead opted for high court proceedings


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    #2
    hullaballoo
    Administrators, Entertainment Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 18,722 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭hullaballoo


    Impossible to know what's going on on reality here from what you've posted but the costs of a Circuit Court personal injuries case would be €15-20,000, yes. But the plaintiff in such a case would or should never be paying anything like that from their own pocket or the proceeds of an award. The vast majority of these costs are covered by the defendant. There may be some cases where there is a small sum payable from the client to the solicitor, but these would have to be flagged by way of a notice per section 150 of the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015. http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2015/act/65/section/150/enacted/en/html

    Why you would be under the impression you would have to cover these costs if successful is a mystery to me but the phenomenon is a regular occurrence and at this stage I put it down to poor communication by certain solicitors.

    However, I could take a cynical view that some solicitors are obfuscating the issue of fees in order to bamboozle people and drop large unexpected fee notes on people out of the blue after their case has concluded. But I'm sure that doesn't happen. If it did, it would be a matter for the LSRA.

    On the other hand, you do have to be alive to the risk that you could lose the case. In which case, you might be liable to pay the defendant's costs (again, these could be reasonably expected to be in the same region of €15-20,000). That's always a risk but many people don't have that kind of money in liquid assets, as a result of which, these costs are rarely successfully obtained as against a losing personal injuries plaintiff.

    Tbh I think the estimate for the High Court fees is a bit light. I would think these would be in the region of €45-60,000 for most High Court cases, which are on a different scale and generally have higher fees for Counsel due to the perception that there is a need for Senior Counsel in that jurisdiction.


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