Press release
Minister McEntee welcomes first report and strategic plan of the Office of the Legal Costs Adjudicators
Published on
Last updated on
Published on
Last updated on
The Minister for Justice and Equality, Helen McEntee TD, today welcomed the 2019 Annual Report of the Office of the Legal Costs Adjudicator which she has laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas. Similarly, she also welcomes the laying and publication of the Office’s first Strategic Plan 2020-2023. These reports mark the coming into operation of the new Office of the Legal Costs Adjudicators established on 7 October 2019.
In welcoming this development the Minister stated:
"This first Report and Strategic Plan represent a landmark for the new Office of the Legal Costs Adjudicator. The Office is a key structural reform introduced in relation to legal costs under the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015 with the active support of the Courts Service. It has delivered the modernisation of the old Taxing-Master function, making it more transparent in its decision-making processes. This has been augmented with new management and accountability structures under the stewardship of the Chief Legal Costs Adjudicator, Mr. Paul Behan."
The mission of the Office is to enable access to the independent, impartial and objective resolution of legal costs disputes through the provision of a courteous and professional service in the performance of its statutory functions. The Office also endeavours to maintain and provide transparency throughout the adjudication process, with reasoned outcomes being published and accessible via the register of determinations, so as to inform both legal practitioners and the public.
Minister McEntee said:
"We now have greater transparency in how legal costs determinations are being made. The Adjudicators’ Office makes details of its key determinations publicly available in the Register of Legal Costs Determinations. The basis on which its determinations can be made are also informed, for the first time in legislation, by a set of Legal Costs Principles set out in Schedule 1 of the 2015 Act. At the same time, under section 150 of that Act, additional transparency obligations have been placed on both solicitors and barristers in relation to the better notification of legal costs and their potential implications to their clients."
ENDS
The Office of the Legal Costs Adjudicators was established on 7 October 2019 with the abolition of the Office of the Taxing Master, when Part 10 and Schedule 1 of the Legal Services Regulation Act, 2015 were commenced following the enactment of the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015 (Commencement of Certain Provisions) (No.2) Order 2019 (S.I. No. 502 of 2019).
The Office of the Legal Costs Adjudicators, in addition to having the previous powers of the Taxing Masters, deals with disputes on legal costs between parties involved in litigation in the Superior Courts and other matters, such as disputes relating to costs between a legal practitioner and their client.
The statutory powers, functions and duties of the Office, derived from the Legal Services Regulation Act, 2015, are underpinned by the Rules of the Superior Court (Costs) 2019, which came into effect on 3 December 2019.
602 cases transitioned from the Office of the Taxing Master to the Office of the Legal Costs Adjudicator, and up to the end of 2019, 374 cases were settled, 60 were determined and 168 were adjourned. 26 determinations were published on the Register of Determinations during the reporting period.
Following the commencement of the relevant provisions on 7 October 2019, a range of legal costs transparency and reform measures have come into operation under Part 10 of the Legal Services regulation Act 2015. These make extensive provision for a new and enhanced legal costs regime that will bring greater transparency to how legal costs are charged by legal practitioners.
When there are any significant developments in a case which give rise to further costs, the Act provides that a client must be duly updated and given the option of whether or not to proceed with the case in question.
In addition, it is no longer permissible for legal practitioners (that is, solicitors or barristers) to set fees as a specified percentage or proportion of damages payable to a client from contentious business or for barristers to charge junior counsel fees as a specified percentage or proportion of Senior Counsel fees.
An aggrieved client also has the option of applying for the adjudication of disputed legal costs by the modernised Office of the Legal Costs Adjudicators.
The Act sets out, for the first time in legislation, a series of Legal Costs Principles that enumerate the various matters that shall be taken into account in the adjudication of disputed legal costs by the Adjudicators. The Act also provides for the establishment of a publicly accessible Register of Determinations which is now in operation and discloses the outcomes and reasons for decisions made by the Adjudicators. County Registrars will maintain a similar register.
The Act also introduced a system for processing more minor disputes about excessive costs, which will be the subject firstly of informal resolution attempts in conjunction with the Legal Services Regulatory Authority, but will then escalate to formal resolution where alternative dispute resolution may not succeed.
This can help avoid the monetary and other burdens on a consumer or enterprise which can otherwise arise under a formal taxation of costs procedure. The charging of legal fees that are grossly excessive will be considered a matter of professional misconduct.