A High Court jury had in 2009 awarded Ms Leech €1.87m damages plus costs over the articles but, in 2015, the Supreme Court reduced the award on appeal to €1.25m, plus costs.

ANYONE who has gone through an acrimonious divorce, a complicated business-related court case, or God forbid, a case involving medical negligence where the defendants are not fighting with their own money, did not need the Troika to tell them that Ireland’s legal fees are among the most spectacularly prohibitive in the world or that they were a barrier to the proper conduct of public life. 

The President of the High Court has said “comfortable assumptions” that legal fees should continue as before, “without the slightest regard for privations experienced by citizens”, including other professionals, does not serve “the interests of justice”.

LONG-AWAITED legislation and the recommendations of a 2005 report which investigated ways of reducing legal costs may finally be put into practice under the Government’s four-year rescue plan for the economy.

PROPOSED legislation to deal with grossly excessive legal bills is to be introduced sometime next year.