Former PR consultant awarded €1.25m for defamation loses bid to cut €165,000 fee
Former public relations consultant Monica Leech has lost her High Court challenge over rulings allowing a €165,000 instruction fee and certain other costs to a law firm which represented her in a defamation case over articles in the ‘Evening Herald’ 15 years ago.
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.
Ms Leech had instructed solicitors McCann Fitzgerald (MCF) in late 2004 to represent her in defamation proceedings over the ‘Evening Herald’ articles and also in defamation actions against other titles in the Independent Newspapers Group.
After the MCF retainer was terminated in August 2011, Ms Leech later instructed a Co Waterford-based firm, Kenny Stephenson Chapman.
Issues concerning exactly what costs are to be paid to Ms Leech by Independent Newspapers arising from the €1.25m award have been parked pending the outcome of the taxation of the solicitor/client costs.
Ms Leech had represented herself in proceedings before a High Court Taxing Master concerning the fees and costs claimed by MCF under its seven-year retainer.
Represented by William Fitzgerald, instructed by Kenny Stephenson Chapman, Ms Leech later sought a High Court review of the Taxing Master’s rulings. MCF, represented by Alan Keating BL, opposed her proceedings
Yesterday, Mr Justice Anthony Barr held there was no basis to set aside the Taxing Master’s decisions.
Ms Leech had sought to raise new grounds of objection concerning how the Taxing Master had quantified the fee when the law clearly stated “that cannot be done”.
The Taxing Master calculated the total solicitor’s professional fees at €238,813, not a €253,755 sum claimed as due on a time-assessment basis.
The solicitor had voluntarily applied a 30pc reduction to allow for overlapping work on the other defamation cases. The Taxing Master also applied that 30pc cut to conclude the net fee was €173,178 and applied further reductions to bring the total to €165,000.
Ms Leech argued the Taxing Master made errors, including taking €253,755 as the “headline figure” when quantifying. She argued the proper net instructions fee was €154,584.
Mr Justice Barr said any error in the headline figure used under the time billing section was “not that significant” as it was but the starting point for calculation of the fees on a time basis.