The cost of taking a case to the Supreme Court

THE SUPREME Court of Ireland is the highest judicial authority and final court of appeal in civil and criminal matters...

THE SUPREME Court of Ireland is the highest judicial authority and final court of appeal in civil and criminal matters. It deals mostly with matters of constitutional law and decides if bills referred by the President or existing laws comply with the Constitution.

But it can also hear cases from the Court of Appeal or direct from the High Court in exceptional circumstances involving public importance and that is how it will be asked to view the case against the proposed wastewater treatment plant in Kilkee.

How long is a piece of string? An application for leave to appeal costs €250 but that is in no way representative of what comes after.

You will trawl the internet in vain for a specific cost per hour or even per day to be heard in the Supreme Court, but the paper work costs alone can run into thousands.

A case before the Supreme Court will almost always involve some specific tenet of the law or even constitutional rights, so days of meticulous background research, at a fee per hour, will go into framing an argument.

Legal representation is likely to be the biggest cost, with an instructing solicitor and a barrister both necessary, but going into this court without a senior counsel would be the equivalent of trying to sail across the Atlantic on a wooden pallet with a hanky tied to a piece of string.

The educated guess is that it will cost you in the region of €100,000 to take a case before the esteemed Supreme courtroom of the Four Courts in Dublin.