In Northern Ireland Solicitors and Counsels’ fees are set out in legislation and the scales of cost have statutory force. This means that in most cases it is possible to predict the likely costs of County Court proceedings for all the parties involved in the proceedings.

The scales of costs for Solicitors and Counsel are set out in the County Court (Amendment) Rules (Northern Ireland) 2017 which came into operation on 13^th February 2017. This contains the scales of costs which applied up to 13^th February 2017 together with the new scales which came into operation on 13^th February 2018. The new figures apply to cases which are settled or heard in court after 13^th February 2018. The scales range from the lowest point in the scale which is a case not exceeding £500 in value where the full scale for Solicitors’ costs is £254 to the top of the scale where the figure is £4,833 for a case whose value does not exceed £30,000. By referring to the scales and the value of the settlement or award of damages it is possible to calculate the costs of proceedings with reasonable accuracy. The Solicitors’ costs will need to have VAT added and Counsels’ fee should be included where applicable, with VAT where Counsel is registered for VAT. The scales set out at Appendix 2 Part 1 of the 2017 Rules apply to most cases which are heard in the County Court by way of Civil Bill but there are further scales for cases of libel and slander, remitted actions, ejectment civil bills, and other proceedings which are all set out in the Rules. The Rules also set out fees for pleadings such as Replies to a Notice for Particulars.

For more detail on the County Court costs, we can refer to the County Court Rules (Northern Ireland) 1981 where Order 55 covers costs. One important provision of Order 55 is found at Rule 2A which says “Where a solicitor conducts a trial or hearing without counsel he shall, if the Judge so allows, be entitled to an enhancement of his costs in addition to the scale costs set out in Appendix 2.” The amount of the enhancement allowed under this Rule is usually set at 50% of the scale fee in Appendix 2 to which Counsel, if conducting the trial or hearing, would have been entitled.

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