The Court of Appeal has quashed a Waterford County Registrar’s assessment of legal costs arising from a personal injury case, while rejecting a broader challenge to the legality of the District Court costs scale.
Kevin Nolan had been awarded €8,000 damages after a fully contested Circuit Court hearing concerning a 2018 trip-and-fall accident on a public footpath in Dungarvan. Because the damages fell within District Court jurisdiction, the Circuit Court awarded him costs on the District Court scale rather than the higher Circuit Court basis.
His solicitors later submitted a bill of €32,986.89 for adjudication. The judgment records that approximately €8,755.78 was ultimately recovered after Waterford County Registrar James Seymour applied the District Court scale and previous costs orders.
Nolan challenged both that adjudication and the wider rules governing District Court costs.
Ms Justice Hyland, delivering the Court of Appeal judgment, rejected the argument that the District Court scale unlawfully restricts recoverable costs under section 17 of the Courts Act 1981. The court held that fixing a sum for the cost of obtaining judgment in a specified type of District Court proceeding is permitted by the legislation and supports the policy of keeping legal costs proportionate to the value of the claim.
The court also rejected arguments that the scale exceeded the District Court Rules Committee’s powers or infringed Nolan’s right of access to the courts.
However, Nolan succeeded on one important point. Section 141 of the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015 required the County Registrar, when taxing costs, to have regard to statutory principles including whether costs were reasonably incurred and reasonable in amount. The Court of Appeal found that those principles had not been applied.
The January 2023 adjudication was therefore quashed and remitted to the County Registrar for reconsideration according to law. The District Court costs regime itself remains in force.