The High Court has ordered that each side bear its own legal costs in a family law case involving anonymised parties Ms B and Mr B.
Mr Justice Max Barrett delivered the costs judgment on 10 November 2022. He said Ms B had argued that Mr B should pay her costs. Mr B submitted that there should be no order, while maintaining that if costs were awarded, they should be awarded to him. The judge accepted Mr B’s position that each side should meet its own costs.
The costs question followed earlier proceedings. In a judgment the previous December, the court reduced Mr B’s monthly spousal maintenance payments from €1,500 to €750, while otherwise leaving the Circuit Court order in place, subject to a possible change in the wording about an end-of-year payment. The judge said Mr B had largely succeeded on the financial issue that was his principal concern.
In June, the court also dealt with a custody matter and Ms B’s application to take the children of the former marriage on holiday to a distant destination outside the European Union. The judge allowed travel to any EU jurisdiction but declined to approve the proposed non-EU destination. He said he had accepted the recommendations in a report by Professor Sheehan, after Ms B had initially opposed the need for a report under section 47 and later agreed to one.
The judge said family law proceedings should not generally be treated as a contest in which a winner takes all. He found nothing in Mr B’s behaviour or the conduct of the proceedings, and no other factor, that would justify ordering him to pay some or all of Ms B’s costs. He acknowledged she might have difficulty meeting her legal bills, but said sympathy was not a sufficient legal basis to shift those costs to her former husband.
The court therefore made no order as to costs. The judgment did not revisit or change the earlier financial, custody or holiday decisions.