The High Court gave solicitor Philip Clarke judgment for €28,421.66 in his fee claim against retired physician Gerald Stevens, while referring the remaining disputed fees for taxation. The ruling followed a summary judgment application: the court allowed Stevens to defend only the part of the counsel fee claim above the amounts in counsel’s original fee notes.
Clarke claimed fees, VAT and outlays arising from legal work connected with Stevens’s successful judicial review proceedings. Those proceedings had quashed firearms convictions and resulted in an award of costs against the State. Clarke took over the file after the judicial review order, and later work by him concerned the possibility of an appeal and recovery of those costs.
The judge recorded that counsel’s original fee notes totalled €31,190.39 including VAT. Later fee notes sought higher sums, and the Taxing Master allowed €39,? [sic]. The judgment’s listed taxed amounts were €19,541.50 for senior counsel, €15,326.67 for junior counsel and €3,630 for written submissions, totalling €38,498.17. Clarke’s claim sought the taxed sums, less the €7,618.43 already paid to counsel.
Stevens argued that the higher fee notes were improper because lower notes had already been issued, and that the Taxing Master had not been told about them. At this summary judgment stage, the judge did not decide disputed facts about what happened at taxation. He found Stevens had an arguable defence to fees above the original notes, but no basis to contest the original-note amounts. The court awarded Clarke €23,571.96 for those counsel fees after credit for the prior payment, with statutory interest from 1 March 2002.
Clarke also claimed for his own work and €113.70 in outlays. Stevens’s stated objection that Clarke charged for work after his retainer ended did not match the bill: the last service charged was dated 2 July 2003, before the retainer ended in October 2004. The judge referred the balance of the claim, including the appropriate amount of Clarke’s fees and any additional counsel fees, to the Taxing Master. He ordered a further €4,840, including VAT, for Clarke’s fees, with interest from 31 July 2003, and judgment for the outlays.
The immediate judgment total was €28,421.66, plus the specified interest. Clarke could recover any further sums allowed on taxation. The court also awarded Clarke the costs of the proceedings to date, finding that Stevens had not used the offered opportunity to refer Clarke’s bill to taxation.