Justice minister Helen McEntee has announced the appointment of the new chief legal costs adjudicator, Mr Barry Magee, who takes over this role from his predecessor Mr Paul Behan, upon his retirement. Mr Magee has been an adjudicator with the Office of Legal Costs Adjudicators since 2020 and is joined by recently appointed legal costs adjudicator, Mr Stephen Boggs. It is anticipated that a third adjudicator will be appointed in due course.
This handbook is currently being updated in line with changes in 2024 that have occurred in this ever evolving area of Irish law. Legal practitioners may email [email protected] to receive a copy in January 2025.
In June 2024 Mr Stephen Boggs BL was announced as the state’s new Legal Costs Adjudicator. Mr Boggs’ appointment as one of three Legal Costs Adjudicators within the Office of Legal Costs Adjudicators as provided for by the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015. Formerly known as the Taxing Master’s office, there were only two taxing officers in situ, pursuant to existing statute at the time. However, now further appointments may be made to this office should the need arise.
Mr Paul Behan was appointed Taxing Master of the High Court in 2017 and was later appointed Chief Legal Costs Adjudicator with the commencement of the Legal Services Regulation Act in 2019. Mr Behan has the distinction of being the state’s last Taxing Master, a long and historic office, and indeed he is the first Legal Costs Adjudicator. The changes to this area of Irish law were seismic and required a person of great experience at the helm. We wish [...]
22nd Sep 2024: Pursuant to section 154 (5) of the Legal Services Act 2015, where a detailed bill of costs (drawn pursuant to section 152 of the 2015 Act) has been served upon a client by a legal practitioner and that bill remains unpaid on the expiry of thirty days, the legal practitioner may apply to the Chief Legal Costs Adjudicator for that bill to be adjudicated. Such application must be made within twelve months from the date of service of the [...]
16th March 2022 This booklet which has been in circulation since 2008 has been once again updated to take into account the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015 and the Rules of the Superior Courts (Costs) 2019. Both the 2015 Act and the 2019 Rules were enacted respectively in October and December 2019. There have been sweeping changes across this area of the law and the booklet deals with the more significant aspects thereof when it comes to legal costs. [...]
7th January 2022: The Office of the Legal Costs Adjudicators has issued a practice direction, due to the significant increase of the Covid 19 Omicron Variant. The default position is to hear all adjudications where possible by way of a remote hearing. Any cases which are unsuitable for a remote hearing will be heard by way of a physical hearing. Such cases considered unsuitable, may involve witnesses at the hearing or such matters that could not be conducted fairly by [...]
12th November 2020: In October 2020, the Minister for Justice and Equality appointed Mr. Barry Magee to the position of Legal Costs Adjudicator. Mr. Magee’s appointment comes a year after the appointment of Mr. Paul Behan as the State’s first Chief Legal Costs Adjudicator and Dr. Niall O’Hanlon as Legal Costs Adjudicator, following the commencement of the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015. This is the first time, certainly in living memory, that the State has appointed three Legal Costs Adjudicators, [...]
SI No. 584/2019 The Minister for Justice and Equality, Mr Charles Flanagan commenced the above Statutory Instrument on 3rdDecember 2019. Not only has this SI overhauled the Rules of the Superior Courts and in particular Order 99, it has also made sweeping changes to Appendix W in terms of the Bill of Costs format and scheduled items. Formerly, the Bill of Costs was drawn pursuant to Order 99 and Appendix W in a seven-column format, which included a Solicitor’s [...]
Legal Services Regulation Act, 2015 Since the retirement of Master Declan O’Neill in June 2019, Master Paul Behan was the sole Taxing Master operating within the State. However, on 7thOctober 2019 the Minister for Justice and Equality, Mr Charles Flanagan formally commenced Part 10 of the Legal Services Regulation Act, 2015. The commencement of this Act established the Office of the Legal Costs Adjudicators which takes over all functions of the Taxing Masters Office. In addition, Mr Paul Behan [...]