The High Court made no order as to costs after the Director of Public Prosecutions succeeded in a point of law appeal concerning a road traffic conviction.
In a costs ruling delivered on 23 May 2023, Mr Justice Mark Heslin said the court had concluded in a judgment on 31 March 2023 that the District Court judge was correct in law to convict Philip Casserly. The costs ruling does not revisit that conclusion; it addresses only who should pay the costs of the appeal.
The DPP argued that the usual rule, under which costs follow the outcome, should apply. Casserly asked the court to make no order as to costs.
The judge said Casserly was entitled to state a case on a point of law, and the District Court judge who referred the matter had considered that a legal question arose. The judge also noted that the application had not been considered frivolous.
The appeal concerned the interpretation and operation of provisions of the Road Traffic Act 2010, as amended in 2011. The legal question included whether, when an arrested person’s obligation to permit a blood sample to be taken resumed, a Garda member had to repeat warnings given before that obligation went into abeyance.
The ruling said the legislation did not expressly provide for a warning; the obligation to warn arose from fair procedures and constitutional justice requirements. The judge described the issue as novel, not straightforward and one on which there were two legitimate views. No authority determining the outcome had been presented to the court.
Although the DPP had been entirely successful and Casserly’s interest was personal, the judge said the clarification in the earlier judgment had wider application and the appeal had benefited the public. Considering the issue’s public importance, he exercised the court’s discretion to depart from the usual costs rule and ordered that there be no order as to costs.