Legal costs in Ireland: who pays? The laws and principles and comparative considerations

Nature of work ; the thesis engages in a qualitative examination of the costs follow the event rule by performing a comparative study which is underpinned by a methodological foundation predicated on functional equivalence. It examines where the judiciary exercise their discretion to displace the rule, and it investigates the notional concepts of winners and losers in complex litigation. Scope of the work : It examines the genesis and development of the loser pays rule in Ireland and England and Wales and the exceptions that were created in those and other jurisdictions which observed the Supreme Court of Judicature Act model. It considers the costs follow the e vent rule and the American (“ user pays” pays”) rule which are the two dominant rules. What was found : The jurisdictions of England and Wales and Ireland have developed myriad exceptions to the loser pays rule, with no apparent synoptic connectivity, in order to temper the harshness of the rule and render fairness and access to justice. The loser and the user pays rules are now more identifiable by their exceptions, rather than by the rules themselves. Rather than casting a dark shadow over their respective excep tions, the rules have shrivelled, owing to the ubiquitous expansion of the multiplicity of these exceptions, which have performed a takeover. Conclusions drawn from the investigation: Using the Dworkian doughnut analogy, the whole in the centre represents the exercise of judicial discretion, which has expanded, to create an internal pressure. The exceptions, which are contemporaneously expanding, create a separate external pressure. As a result both pressures have circumferentially altered the character of the loser pays rule. Contribution to knowledge: the investigation makes a prominent contribution to the Law of Costs , owing to the: (i) comparative nature of the research; (ii) substantive body of work; (iii) originality of the topic; (iv) forensically in depth nature of the investigation underpinned by a punctilious examination of pernickety rules; (v) conspicuous absence of publications on the costs follow the event rule in Ireland; (vi) cost neutral recommendations; (vii) factors in (i) (vi) above.