The High Court awarded Martina Quinlan €25,000 in general damages for pain and suffering after an assault by her husband, Michael Quinlan, in their former family home in 2013. In a later decision on costs, the court ordered a €1,476 differential costs payment, confined to trial attendance costs. It also awarded the plaintiff Circuit Court scale costs with a certificate for Senior Counsel, and made no order for costs of the costs hearing.
The damages judgment had been delivered on 28 February 2025. The court said the absence of medical evidence meant it could not find that the assault caused a particular clinical injury, required a particular course of treatment, or affected the plaintiff’s current condition and prognosis. It therefore limited damages to the assault itself and its immediate aftermath.
At the 7 March costs hearing, the defendant sought a differential costs order under section 17(5) of the Courts Act 1981 and opposed a Senior Counsel certificate. The court considered that the claim had appropriately begun in the High Court and, based on the pleaded personal injury particulars, could realistically have attracted damages within that court’s jurisdiction. It also found it had been appropriate to keep the case there through early February, while medical records might still provide objective evidence and High Court damages remained realistic.
The defendant’s warning letter seeking differential costs was dated 5 February. The court found that costs incurred before that letter were properly incurred as High Court costs. It declined to order a differential for trial preparation after the letter, anticipating that the difference would be minimal.
The court reached a different conclusion about the trial attendance costs. Shortly before the 28 February hearing, it would have been evident that neither the plaintiff’s medical records nor reports could be put before the court and that her GP and orthopaedic surgeon could not attend. The judge said the plaintiff should have considered seeking an adjournment to remit the hearing to the Circuit Court. That failure led the court to order a modest differential, measured as €1,200 plus VAT of €276, for the defendant’s solicitor’s attendance at the 90-minute High Court assessment compared with a Circuit Court assessment.
The costs ruling did not alter the damages award. The differential order was limited to €1,476 in trial attendance costs.