merrion street

The Government, at its meeting today, has appointed Mr. Declan O’Neill to the post of Taxing Master following an open competition conducted by the Public Appointments Service. The Taxing Master provides an independent adjudication of legal costs in dispute. The majority of such adjudications determine the costs payable pursuant to court orders made in litigation. Other adjudications determine disputes that arise between lawyers and their own clients over legal costs and expenditure incurred.

The vacancy arises following the retirement of one of the two Taxing Masters, Mr. Charles Moran, in December 2010. Under section 3 of the Court Officers Act 1926, the appointment of a Taxing Master is made by the Government. For the first time in eighty five years, a competitive recruitment process in relation to the post of Taxing Master was conducted by the independent Public Appointments Service which advertised the post on 1 September 2011. A total of twenty one applications were received and, following a short-listing process, six candidates attended for interview. The Public Appointments Service provided a list of three candidates for the Government’s consideration. Mr O’Neill was appointed to the position on the basis of his extensive professional experience in the highly technical area of legal costs accounting.

This appointment is on an interim basis pending the establishment of the Office of Legal Costs Adjudicator provided for in the recently published Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011. A number of changes were made earlier this year to the conditions attached to the post. Up to now only practicing solicitors could be appointed as Taxing Master. The Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2011 expanded this to encompass barristers and legal cost accountants with ten years practice experience.