TAXPAYERS' MONEY is being wasted because of avoidable pre-trial applications in court cases involving local authorities and the Health Service Executive (HSE), the Master of the High Court has said.
Master Edmund Honohan SC said yesterday he was making costs orders every day against local authorities and the HSE in applications where costs were wasted. Mr Honohan said such costs as he had referred to are "avoidable" and it was taxpayers' money that is being wasted. Such costs are not incurred with the same frequency in litigation involving private sector clients, he added.
He made the remark when making a "wasted costs" order requiring a solicitor representing the HSE to personally pay the other side's costs of a procedural application.
Mr Honohan said the indications are that many public bodies are not even replying to letters seeking that documents be voluntarily discovered for litigation. However, the same bodies would later consent to court orders for discovery of the same documents.
If the public bodies had agreed to the request promptly, the application to court would have been unnecessary, Mr Honohan said. Instead, they were agreeing at the door of the court and usually agreeing also that their client would pay the other side's costs.
In the case before him yesterday, Mr Honohan said the solicitor for the South Eastern Health Board (HSE) had actually overlooked the listed motion which was then heard in his absence. The solicitor had then requested a rehearing of it.
Mr Honohan said the HSE should not have to pay for its solicitor's oversight and he made a "wasted costs" order which requires that the solicitor must himself pay the other party's costs of the first hearing.
Mr Honohan also said he could not understand why public sector clients in many cases were advised to agree to requests for very extensive discovery of documents.
When pressed about the need for certain documents sought, many applicants could not pinpoint why they needed such extensive discovery, he said. Most cases could be won without extensive discovery and some cases did not require any discovery.