Costs / Charges

Solicitor’s charges

We will supply you with details of costs once we receive instruction to pursue your case or as soon as is practicable thereafter. In writing we will advise you of:

• Actual charges; or where this is not possible / practicable
• Estimate of charges; or where this is not possible / practicable
• The basis on which charges are to be made

Charges are calculated by reference to a number of factors including:

• complexity of the matter and urgency of the matter
• difficulty or novelty of the questions raised
• skill, labour, specialised knowledge and responsibility involved
• number and importance of documents prepared or examined
• amount of value or any transaction involved
• importance of the matter to you
• time reasonably spent by personnel on the matter
• place / places and circumstances in which the matter is pursued
• In addition to these charges, you will be responsible for payment of charges payable to third parties including government agencies.

Litigation

If we are dealing with a contentious matter for you, the law requires that the following explanation be given to you. Unless otherwise agreed, when we send you a bill of costs, you are responsible for the payment of that bill. You remain responsible for this amount even where you win a settlement and a term of that settlement is that you will be paid your costs. This is also the case where the defendant or other third party is ordered by a court to pay your costs. We will seek to recover as much as possible of the charges from the defendant or other third party.

When these monies are recovered, if you have already paid the charges, the money will be refunded to you, less any costs incurred in their recovery. Otherwise, they will be set off against the full amount due. The amount which the defendant or other third party may agree or may be ordered to pay will not generally be sufficient to cover our entire charges. If the costs recovered from the other party do not cover our charges, then you are obliged to make up the shortfall.

Outlay

In the course of handling your claim we will incur certain items of outlay including doctors fees for preparing medical reports, stamp duty on the proceedings, Counsels fees for drafting, and in some cases fees of Litigation Engineers for preparing reports. The outlay averages about €1,000 per case but in large cases can be much more. If your claim succeeds we can usually recover most of the outlay from the other side. You have the option of paying the outlay throughout the duration of proceedings in which case the recoverable portion thereof will be refunded to you at the successful conclusion of your case. Alternatively we can pay the outlay on your behalf in which case a handling fee will be charged at the conclusion of your case.

Our Professional fee will not be based on a percentage or proportion (share) of any award or settlement money that you get from the other side in your Court case.

For more information about your claim contact us today on  045 433332 to talk to us or email us   info@coughlansolicitors.ie or fill in our on-line form and we will call you back