Redress Board payment may not be as unreasonable as it appears

THE issue of legal costs incurred at the Residential Institutions Redress Board was in the news recently with words like “rip-off” and “scandal” used by certain parties.

The case of a solicitor who submitted a bill of costs for over €36,000 was cited as an example of supposed unreasonable charging.

However, the Redress Board annual accounts for 2004 show that at least one firm received €36,859 costs in respect of a single case and many other firms received between €30,000 and €35,000.