In Nolan v County Registrar [2025] IECA 110, the Irish Court of Appeal delivered a significant ruling on the appropriate scale of legal costs in personal injury cases. The decision reinforces the principle that litigants must carefully select the correct court jurisdiction when initiating proceedings.
Background
- The case involved a personal injury claim brought in the Circuit Court, where the plaintiff was awarded €8,000 – an amount that falls within the District Court’s monetary jurisdiction.
- The Circuit Court awarded the plaintiff costs on the District court scale, e.g. a differential costs order.
- At the adjudication of costs before the County Registrar, the plaintiff sought costs of €32,986.89. The County Registrar applied the District Court scale and awarded the plaintiff costs of €8,775.78.
- The central issue before the Court of Appeal was whether legal costs should be awarded to the plaintiff on the Circuit Court scale or the lower District Court scale.
In a judgment delivered on the 20th May 2025 by Ms Justice Hyland, the Court of Appeal held that costs must align with the jurisdictional value of the award. Since the compensation fell within the District Court’s remit, the plaintiff was only entitled to recover costs on that scale, despite having pursued the case in a higher court.
This ruling serves as a cautionary reminder that litigants who choose a higher court without justification, risk reduced cost recovery. It also supports broader efforts to promote proportionality and cost-efficiency in civil litigation, in line with the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015.
Significance of the decision
The decision should influence forum selection strategies and cost assessments in future personal injury and low-value claims.
The Nolan decision provides some welcome certainty to Irish litigants in the area of legal costs – an area which an OECD Economic Survey published in February 2025 suggested "may have risen faster than the overall HICP (harmonised index of consumer prices) over the last five years, in contrast to many other EU countries". The OECD survey commented that "Inadequate data frameworks also hinder the monitoring and assessment of litigation costs, which are perceived as high and may reduce incentives to resort to legal action, when needed."
In our experience, in 2025, the increase in the levels of plaintiff legal costs awards in both the High Court and more particularly in the Circuit Court continues to be a very significant feature of the Irish litigation landscape. In the Circuit Court, plaintiff costs regularly exceed the damages award or the settlement amount – even when claims are resolved at a very early stage.
DACB use Calderbank Letters, tender offers, and Section 17 Notices to counter the effect of the rising cost awards. For any further information, get in touch with us.
