Solicitor Obligations

[fineline]

Hello,

After a 12 year period, I finally won a Circuit Court hearing about a dispute with a neighbour / party wall / encroachment / property damage etc.

The judge awarded costs and a sizeable damages (€14K), coming to a total of about €70,000.

The Defendant (who is a good mark for the money) was shocked at the loss, and has since ceased all communications with his legal team.

The Court order is damages and costs, where the costs are to be " taxed in default of agreement". However, as the Defendant has gone quiet, I now face a substantial bill to have the bill of costs 'taxed', and will have to pay this on my own (rather than shared), an in order to get a judgement, which is a pre-requisite to taking any further action.

While I have paid some (about a third) of the fees to all the expert witnesses, engineers, legal team etc, I still have outstanding bills with them all.

Not only will I have the taxation bill to pay to Legal Cost Accountant, but this will take substantial time.

Naively, I assume it would be a relatively straightforward process after the Circuit Court judgement, but now it seems it will be very difficult to recover these costs and damages. Even with a charge on his home, I would have to wait until he sold the property etc, All very depressing!

My question ...the first time I learned of "taxation", sheriffs, charges on property, or even how difficult/unlikely it will be to recover these debts, etc was after the Circuit Court hearing. Is this not something i should have been informed about before now? Even my own legal team seem to have taken the foot off the gas on the matter, and I'm getting wooly answers about how this process will pan out, how long it might take, and how much it will cost.

The irony in all of this is that not being able to recover these costs, and/or the additional expense to try, could leave me in a bankrupt position.

I'd welcome any thoughts or advice from my learned friends on here.

GRMA

 

[Brendan Burgess]

"Mark" is a very common term used for the ability to recover a debt owed by someone.

But as some of you appear not to have heard of it, I have edited the question for clarity.



Brendan

 

[Brendan Burgess]

Even with a charge on his home, I would have to wait until he sold the property

I am not a lawyer but I don't think that this is correct.

You get a judgement for the amount.
If it's unpaid you register it as a judgement mortgage against his property.
You can then begin repossession proceedings and it's very likely that he will pay up at that stage.
If you have a decent solicitor, you will probably succeed as the courts do not like their judgements being ignored. It's not like a bank trying to repossess a property on an ordinary mortgage.

 

[Brendan Burgess]

the first time I learned of "taxation", sheriffs, charges on property, or even how difficult/unlikely it will be to recover these debts, etc was after the Circuit Court hearing. Is this not something i should have been informed about before now?

To be fair to your solicitor, most people know that recovering the costs of a legal action is time-consuming and difficult. Having said that, I would have expected your solicitor to discuss with you in advance of the legal proceedings whether you could recover any damages awarded.

I'm getting wooly answers about how this process will pan out, how long it might take, and how much it will cost.

Because they don't know.

 

[Peanuts20]

I was wondering about the "mark" as well. Still confused by it TBH.

OP really has 2 choices here, firstly spend more money on a legal accountant and go through the process of getting the County Registrar to make their decision. The accountant should turn this around quickly assuming all the information is available. If the other side doesn't pay, then the OP may need to seek a charge on the house, seek an seizure of assets order or an attachment of income order or potentially look to bankrupt the other side. The threat may be enough as sometimes people try to brazen things out.

The other option is to walk away but if the other side thinks they "got away" with it, they might just continue their poor behaviour

It does look like the solicitors did not give great advice but it would probably cost more to brief and engage a new firm as well.

 

[peemac]

Have your solicitor present a "discounted" proposal that is about 25% below what they would expect costs would be taxed at.

The chances are your solicitor will do a deal with you on the overall fees, but will look for full amount if the neighbour refuses the discounted deal.


I'd go about getting the court awarded compensation separately - your aggressiveness on that, including appointing sheriff collection, may get their attention on the costs matter.