Lawyers' groups have given a broad welcome to proposed new rules governing legal fees but say that they will not necessarily result in lower costs.
However, both the Bar Council, which represents barristers, and Minister for Justice Michael McDowell expressed the belief that increased competition resulting from the new measures may eventually help to drive down legal costs. Under the proposals announced by Mr McDowell yesterday, lawyers will have to base their fees on work done rather than setting global costs.
Upfront barristers' brief and refresher fees and solicitors' instruction fees will be consigned to the past, to be replaced by itemised time-billing.
Lawyers acting in civil cases will be required to provide clients with an estimate of costs at the beginning of any work, and to provide regular updates as work proceeds. "I have no doubt that, once the new costs arrangements have been put in place, the market for civil legal services will become more predictable, consistent and transparent for consumers," Mr McDowell said.
Consumers had a right to see what they were letting themselves in for at the start of litigation, he added.
The Minister published the report of the Legal Costs Implementation Advisory Group and said that he would move to implement its proposals immediately.
These provide for the establishment of a new body to regulate legal costs and a legal costs assessment office to take over the functions of the existing Taxing Master system.
Mr McDowell said that the first task of the regulatory body would be to draw up guidelines for the recovery of costs by a winning party in a case from the losing side.
The maximum awards allowable in the Circuit Court would increase from €38,000 to €100,000 while the limit for the District Court would increase from €6,350 to €20,000.
A side-effect of this change would be that most defamation and civil assault cases would no longer be heard in front of a jury, as the sums involved would generally not reach the threshold for the High Court.
Such cases are decided by a jury in the High Court but by a judge alone in the lower courts.
The jurisdictional limit of the Small Claims Court would also be increased, from €2,000 to €3,000, and the range of cases allowed would be widened. Mr McDowell said that he had instructed his officials to draft legislation making the changes, but he admitted that this would not be ready until the end of the year. "This report will be acted upon. It will not be left on the shelf. Legislation will be brought forward. I am serious about change."
The issue of legal costs was not "party political contentious", he insisted, and there was a public appetite for change.
Ken Murphy, director of the Incorporated Law Society, which represents solicitors, said it supported reforms to ensure that legal costs were modern and predictable. It would be recommending that its members switch to time-billing, but there were resource issues involved. A Bar Council spokesman said that the measures would deliver improvements by introducing an element of competition into legal fees.
Barristers would have to provide an estimate of costs from the outset, thereby creating the opportunity for a consumer to negotiate on price or get a solicitor to seek another quote.
Up to 17 extra judges would be appointed shortly to increase resources for hearing cases, he indicated.
Mr McDowell said that yesterday's announcement complemented the establishment of the Legal Services Ombudsman to provide for independent, statute-based supervision of the complaints schemes of both solicitors and barristers.
The Implementation Advisory Group was established by Mr McDowell to progress the recommendations of the report of the Legal Costs Working Group.
It examined that report's recommendations and consulted widely with professional legal bodies as to how the recommendations might best be acted on.