The High Court has awarded costs to three personal injury claimants whose constitutional challenges to the Judicial Council guidelines were parked while the separate Delaney case proceeded through the courts.
Rosemary Farrell, Padraig Farrell and Anthony Douglas obtained leave for judicial review in November 2021. Their cases challenged the application of the new personal injury guidelines and included a claim that section 7(2)(g) of the Judicial Council Act 2019 was unconstitutional.
The cases returned to court twice for procedural matters, but no statements of opposition were filed. By January 2022, the High Court had effectively selected Delaney v PIAB as the case in which the overlapping constitutional issues would be determined. The three applicants then allowed their own proceedings to remain parked.
The Supreme Court eventually ruled in Delaney in April 2024 that section 7(2)(g) was unconstitutional. However, it also held that the guidelines remained legally effective because the Oireachtas had subsequently given them force through 2021 legislation. Ms Delaney received her costs despite succeeding on only part of her case.
Ireland and the Attorney General argued in the present proceedings that there had been no legal “event” in favour of the three applicants because their cases never proceeded to judgment. They proposed that each side bear its own costs.
Ms Justice Bolger rejected that approach. She found that the applicants had raised substantially the same constitutional issue before Delaney was treated as the lead case and had acted prudently by not pressing ahead with parallel litigation.
The judge said that approach avoided needless duplication and expense, which was consistent with the principles governing modern costs decisions.
The applicants were awarded the costs of all steps taken up to January 2022, as well as the costs of the present costs application. The amount is to be adjudicated if the parties cannot agree it.