The Supreme Court has ruled that two insurance brokers who represented themselves in successful defamation litigation against the Irish Brokers Association could not recover about £500,000 claimed for their own time preparing the case.
Albert Dawson and Dudley Dawson, trading as A E Dawson and Sons, had gone through four High Court jury trials in the proceedings. The fourth resulted in a verdict in their favour and damages of £135,000, together with an award of costs.
The brothers represented themselves at that trial and during the subsequent taxation of costs, when the amount recoverable from the unsuccessful party was assessed.
They sought £355,675 for recorded preparation time calculated at £140 per hour, plus a further £140,000 for unrecorded time. The Taxing Master refused those claims, although allowances had been made for their attendance in court during the trial.
Chief Justice Keane, delivering the Supreme Court judgment, upheld that approach. He said recoverable costs are traditionally confined to legal costs capable of being measured by the court. The private time and labour of a lay litigant, unlike professional legal work, did not fall within that category under Irish law.
The court acknowledged that this could appear unfair to a person forced to bring or defend proceedings without lawyers. However, Keane CJ held that changing the rule was a matter for the Oireachtas rather than the courts. He also rejected the argument that the rule infringed the constitutional right of access to the courts.
The Supreme Court separately upheld the High Court's removal of a £7,000 allowance for advice obtained from Augustus Cullen and Son while that firm was not formally acting on record. The relevant rule permitted recovery of necessary out-of-pocket legal steps, not general advisory fees of that kind.
The appeal was dismissed and the High Court order affirmed.