A patient may believe that poor medical care caused a serious injury but still hesitate to speak to a solicitor because of one practical concern: what will a medical negligence claim actually cost? The concern is understandable. These cases can require specialist medical reports, barristers, court proceedings and significant investigation before liability is established. The most important point is that legal costs are not one single charge. In Ireland, you need to distinguish between your solicitor’s professional fees, third-party outlays such as medical expert fees, and any possible liability for another party’s legal costs. The exact financial position depends on the costs arrangement for the individual case. Irish law also gives clients important protections: your solicitor must provide clear written information explaining expected legal costs or how those costs will be calculated.
People sometimes use outcome-based phrases to describe arrangements in which a solicitor’s professional fee depends on the outcome of a claim. Those phrases can create the impression that an unsuccessful claim carries no financial risk at all. That should never be assumed. An arrangement dealing with your solicitor’s own fee does not automatically answer who pays for medical reports, expert witnesses, court expenses or another party’s costs. Understanding those differences before significant work begins is far more important than the label used for the funding arrangement.
What Costs Can Arise in a Medical Negligence Claim?
The clearest way to understand the legal costs of medical negligence is to divide them into three categories. The first is the solicitor’s professional fee for providing legal services. The second is outlays or disbursements, meaning costs paid or payable to third parties while investigating and pursuing the case. The third is possible exposure to the legal costs of another party once litigation is involved. Each category operates differently, so a client should know who is responsible for each one before assuming that a particular funding arrangement removes all financial risk. The LSRA’s costs guidance reflects this distinction by requiring solicitors involved in litigation to explain expected costs, expert and barrister involvement, and circumstances in which the client may have to pay another party’s costs.
| Cost category | What it generally covers | What the client should establish |
| Solicitor’s professional fees | The solicitor’s legal work on the claim | How the fee is calculated and when it becomes payable |
| Outlays and disbursements | Medical experts, barristers, court charges and other third-party expenses | Who initially pays them and who bears them if the claim does not succeed |
| Other party’s legal costs | Costs that may arise through litigation and a court costs order | In what circumstances the claimant could become responsible for them |
Solicitor’s Professional Fees
Professional fees are the charges for the legal work carried out by your solicitor. In a medical negligence case, that work may include reviewing the history of treatment, obtaining and considering medical records, instructing appropriate experts, assessing liability and causation, corresponding with the defendant, preparing proceedings, advising on settlement and dealing with the case through litigation where necessary. The precise way those fees are calculated depends on the costs arrangements that apply to the individual solicitor-client relationship. Irish law requires clients to be told about their legal costs in writing rather than leaving the basis of the fee unclear until the case ends.
This is also why statements such as “you pay nothing if you lose” can be misleading if they are read too broadly. Even if an arrangement affects whether the solicitor’s own professional fee is payable following an unsuccessful claim, that does not by itself answer what happens to third-party expenses or possible adverse costs. A client should therefore ask about the solicitor’s fee and the other costs separately.
Outlays and Disbursements
Outlays are expenses connected with the case that are separate from the solicitor’s professional fee. In medical negligence work, these can be important because independent medical evidence may be needed to establish whether treatment fell below the appropriate standard and whether that failure caused or materially contributed to the patient’s injury. Depending on the case, outlays may include the cost of obtaining medical records, reports from independent medical specialists, expert witness fees, barrister fees, court charges, service fees and other necessary third-party expenses. Section 150 specifically addresses the likely use and cost of barristers, expert witnesses and other service providers in litigation-related legal services.
There is no safe universal answer to the question, “Who pays the expert reports?” Different costs arrangements can deal with these expenses differently. The useful question is therefore more precise: who pays the outlay initially, and who is ultimately responsible for it if the investigation ends or the claim is unsuccessful? That point should be clarified before significant expert costs are incurred.
Possible Liability for the Other Side’s Legal Costs
The defendant’s legal costs are a separate issue again. Once a medical negligence case enters court proceedings, the claimant’s own funding arrangement should not be assumed to protect them automatically from every possible costs order. The Courts Service explains that costs in High Court proceedings are usually awarded to the successful party against the other party or parties, although the actual costs position depends on the law, the proceedings and orders made by the court.
For that reason, section 150 requires additional costs information where legal services relate to litigation or are likely to result in litigation. The client should be told about the circumstances in which they could be required to pay the legal costs of another party. This financial risk should be understood before a case reaches an expensive stage, rather than first being discussed shortly before trial.
What Must Your Solicitor Tell You About Costs?
Irish law places specific cost-transparency duties on solicitors and other legal practitioners. For a client considering a medical negligence claim, these rules matter because it may be difficult at the beginning to know exactly how many medical experts will be required, whether proceedings will become necessary, or how much work will ultimately be involved. The Legal Services Regulation Act 2015 deals with this through a sequence of protections: section 150 concerns advance costs information, section 151 allows a written costs agreement, and section 152 requires a Bill of Costs after the legal services have concluded.
The Section 150 Costs Notice
A Section 150 Costs Notice is one of the most important documents for understanding the financial side of a legal claim. The Act requires the notice to be written in clear language likely to be easily understood by the client. Following instructions, the solicitor must provide information about legal costs, generally before beginning the legal service. Where an exact figure cannot reasonably be stated at that stage, the basis on which the costs will be calculated must still be explained.
For litigation, the information goes further. The solicitor should explain the work expected at the different stages, the costs or likely basis of costs, whether a barrister, expert witness or another professional is likely to be engaged, and the financial consequences that may follow if proceedings are withdrawn or discontinued. The notice must also address circumstances in which the client could be likely to pay another party’s legal costs. If the expected costs later become significantly greater than previously disclosed, the LSRA states that updated written cost information must be provided.
That makes the Section 150 notice more than a statement of the solicitor’s hourly rate or professional fee. In a medical negligence case, it should help the client understand the broader financial picture.
What Should a Written Costs Agreement Explain?
Section 151 allows a legal practitioner and client to make a written agreement dealing with the amount and manner of payment of all or part of the legal costs. It is important to describe this accurately: the legislation says the solicitor and client may make such an agreement. It should not be represented as a separate mandatory document that every medical negligence claimant must sign. Where an agreement contains the information required by section 150, the Act also provides for how those provisions interact.
From the client’s perspective, the agreement should leave as little uncertainty as possible about what they have accepted. They should know which professional fees are covered, how payment will be calculated, what happens if the case ends before proceedings, who bears outlays, and how the costs position changes following a successful or unsuccessful outcome. If any wording is unclear, the client should ask for an explanation before agreeing to it rather than relying on a short description of the funding arrangement.
What Happens When the Case Ends?
At the end of the legal services, section 152 requires the legal practitioner to prepare and provide a Bill of Costs. This is the final written account of the costs associated with the work. The Act requires particulars including a summary of the legal services provided and an itemised statement of the amounts charged. The LSRA also explains that the Bill of Costs should set out relevant VAT, money recovered for or payable to the client where known, and legal costs recovered from another party or an insurer on behalf of another party.
The purpose is transparency. A client should be able to compare what they were told about costs earlier with what was actually incurred and recovered by the end of the matter.
Can a Solicitor Take a Percentage of Medical Negligence Compensation?
A solicitor’s legal fee in contentious business cannot simply be expressed as a specified percentage or proportion of the damages or other money that may become payable to the client. Section 149 of the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015 expressly prohibits legal costs structured in that way, subject to the statutory wording and exceptions contained in the section.
This means an arrangement under which payment of professional fees depends on the outcome should not be confused with saying, for example, that the solicitor automatically receives 20% or 30% of the client’s damages as the legal fee. The two concepts are different. Section 149 also states that a legal practitioner cannot deduct or appropriate an amount for legal costs from damages or other money payable to the client without the client’s prior written agreement.
A client who receives compensation should therefore be able to understand the relationship between the damages awarded, legal costs recovered from another party, outlays, the solicitor-client bill and any amount that may lawfully be deducted under the agreed terms. The compensation figure should never be treated as though a solicitor is automatically entitled to an agreed percentage of it.
What Happens to Costs If Your Medical Negligence Claim Succeeds?
A successful medical negligence claim may conclude through settlement or a court determination, but success does not mean that every cost question disappears. Compensation and legal costs are separate parts of the financial outcome. Depending on the settlement terms or court costs position, the defendant may be required to pay legal costs in addition to damages. However, a claimant should not automatically assume that every amount incurred between solicitor and client will always be identical to every amount recoverable from the other party. LSRA complaint guidance specifically warns that even a successful litigant may still have responsibility for some of their own legal costs, which is why the potential costs position should be explained before settlement.
The final accounting should therefore make clear the damages recovered, the legal costs recovered from the defendant where applicable, the outlays incurred, VAT and any amount remaining payable under the solicitor-client costs arrangement. Section 152’s Bill of Costs requirement helps the client see that breakdown rather than receiving a single unexplained figure at the conclusion of the claim.
This is particularly important where a settlement offer deals with damages and costs separately. Before agreeing to settlement, a client should understand the practical financial result, including whether any legal costs or expenses could remain payable by them after the sums recovered from the defendant are taken into account.
What Costs Could Remain If the Claim Is Unsuccessful?
An unsuccessful medical negligence claim does not produce one universal costs outcome. The result depends on the stage at which the claim ends, the applicable solicitor-client arrangement, the outlays already incurred, whether court proceedings have begun and whether any costs order has been made. The correct approach is to separate these issues rather than assuming that failure automatically means either “everything is free” or “the client pays everything.” Section 150 is intended to give clients advance information about the financial risks that can arise, particularly where litigation is involved.
Will I Owe My Solicitor a Professional Fee?
Whether a professional fee remains payable after an unsuccessful claim depends on the costs arrangement agreed with the solicitor. The client should have this explained in clear terms at the beginning. It is useful to ask what the agreement treats as an unsuccessful outcome, what happens if investigation stops after an expert opinion, what happens if proceedings are later discontinued, and whether the professional-fee position changes at different stages of the case. The answer should come from the actual written costs terms rather than assumptions based on labels used informally to describe funding.
Who Pays Outlays Already Incurred?
This is often the more important question in a medical negligence case. By the time an investigation reaches a firm conclusion, money may already have been spent on medical records, expert reports, barristers or other outside services. These are real third-party costs even where the solicitor’s own professional fee is treated differently following an unsuccessful outcome. The LSRA requires a solicitor in litigation-related work to ascertain likely costs before engaging barristers, expert witnesses or other service providers, provide that information to the client and satisfy themselves that the client approves the engagement. The client should therefore ask in advance whether the solicitor is funding an expert cost initially, whether the client is expected to pay it as it arises, and who bears it if the case is discontinued or cannot be supported by the expert evidence.
Could I Have to Pay the Defendant’s Costs?
Potential liability for the defendant’s legal costs becomes particularly important once court proceedings are involved. The Courts Service notes that High Court costs are usually awarded to the party who succeeds against the other party or parties, while section 150 requires clients entering litigation to receive information about circumstances in which they may have to pay another party’s costs. The key point is simple: an arrangement dealing with your own solicitor’s professional fee should never be assumed to eliminate every possible financial consequence of losing litigation. The adverse-cost position should be considered separately and explained in the context of the particular claim.
Why Can Medical Negligence Claims Involve Significant Outlays?
Medical negligence claims can generate substantial investigative costs because proving that a patient suffered a poor outcome is usually not enough by itself. The claim may require medical evidence addressing whether the care provided fell below the appropriate standard and whether that failure caused or materially contributed to the injury being claimed. The High Court’s Clinical Negligence List itself defines clinical negligence proceedings by reference to alleged negligence or breach of duty in clinical or healthcare treatment or advice, showing why medical issues and legal liability are closely connected in these cases.
Independent expert evidence can therefore be central to assessing breach of duty and causation. A delayed cancer diagnosis case may require specialist opinion about earlier testing and the effect of the delay. A birth or neonatal injury may involve evidence about obstetric or neonatal care. A surgical negligence case may require assessment by an expert in the relevant surgical field. Cian O’Carroll Solicitors’ current medical negligence practice includes cancer misdiagnosis, childbirth injuries, neonatal care injuries, stroke care negligence and surgical negligence, so these are directly relevant examples rather than unrelated claim types.
The important funding issue is not simply that experts cost money. It is whether the client has been told why an expert is required, what the likely cost is, and how responsibility for that expense is dealt with under the costs arrangement.
Why Medical Negligence Costs Should Not Be Compared Directly With an Ordinary IRB Claim
Medical negligence follows a different route from many ordinary personal injury claims. The Courts Service states that most personal injury claims must first go through the Injuries Resolution Board, but specifically identifies medical or clinical negligence as claims that do not go through that process and can proceed directly to court. Its High Court guidance similarly identifies medical negligence as an exception to the usual PIAB requirement before a personal injury summons is issued.
This matters for costs because a reader may find general Irish personal injury information discussing IRB applications, assessments and associated fees and assume that the same funding structure applies to a medical negligence case. That comparison can be misleading. Medical negligence often requires specialist evidence on breach and causation and may move into litigation without the ordinary Injuries Resolution Board stage. The legal-cost discussion should therefore be based on the actual medical negligence process rather than copied from a road traffic, workplace or public-liability claim.
Why You May Not See Outcome-Based Fee Phrases Advertised by Irish Solicitors
Irish solicitor advertising is subject to specific rules administered by the Legal Services Regulatory Authority. The LSRA states that the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015 (Advertising) Regulations 2020 apply to online advertising as well as print, audio and visual advertisements. Its consumer guidance expressly lists “no win no fee”, “no foal no fee” and similar wording among phrases that are prohibited in advertisements referring to personal-injury services where they could suggest that legal services will be provided at no cost to the client.
That advertising restriction should be distinguished from the private costs arrangements that a solicitor and client may agree in accordance with Irish legal-cost rules. A solicitor can explain the legal costs and funding terms that apply to a particular matter, but a firm’s advertising must comply with the separate regulatory restrictions. This is also why a reliable explanation of medical negligence funding should focus on professional fees, outlays, adverse costs and written cost disclosure, rather than using a slogan that could leave a client with the impression that a claim carries no possible cost.
What Should You Ask Before Agreeing How Your Claim Will Be Funded?
A funding discussion should leave you knowing what happens financially at every important stage of the case. Irish costs rules are built around advance disclosure and continuing transparency, so asking clear questions is appropriate before expensive medical reports or court proceedings are authorised. The answers should also match the Section 150 notice and any written costs agreement you receive.
Before proceeding, ask:
- How will the solicitor’s professional fees be calculated?
- Who initially pays for independent medical reports and other outlays?
- Who is ultimately responsible for those outlays if the investigation does not support a claim or the case is unsuccessful?
- What happens to the solicitor’s professional fee if the claim ends without compensation?
- In what circumstances could you become liable for the defendant’s legal costs?
- If the claim succeeds, could you personally owe legal costs or expenses that are not recovered from the defendant?
- Will you receive updated written information if the expected costs increase significantly?
Cian O’Carroll Solicitors focuses on medical negligence and serious personal injury work in Ireland, with its medical negligence practice covering areas including cancer misdiagnosis, birth and neonatal injuries, stroke care and surgical negligence. If you are considering a medical negligence claim, the appropriate discussion is about the costs and funding terms that would apply to your own circumstances, including responsibility for expert evidence and litigation costs, before substantial expenses are incurred.
Frequently Asked Questions About Medical Negligence Legal Costs in Ireland
Are Solicitor Fees and Medical Expert Fees the Same Thing?
No. A solicitor’s professional fee pays for the legal services provided by the solicitor. A medical expert’s fee is generally a separate third-party expense or outlay incurred because specialist medical evidence is required. Irish cost-disclosure rules specifically recognise expert witnesses and other outside service providers as separate cost items that may need to be identified and approved in litigation-related work.
This distinction matters because an agreement concerning the solicitor’s professional fee does not automatically determine who bears the cost of an independent medical report.
Do I Have to Pay for a Medical Expert Report Upfront?
There is no single rule that every client must personally pay every expert fee upfront, nor should it be assumed that the solicitor will always fund those costs. The position depends on the costs arrangement in the individual matter. Section 150 requires the solicitor to ascertain the likely cost or basis of cost before engaging relevant experts or other providers in litigation work, inform the client and obtain the client’s approval to the engagement.
The client should ask both who pays the expert initially and who remains responsible if the report does not support continuing the claim.
Does Winning Mean the Defendant Pays Every Legal Cost?
No automatic assumption should be made that every solicitor-client cost or outlay will always be recovered from the defendant. A successful claimant may obtain an order or agreement concerning legal costs, but the amount recoverable from the other side and the total cost incurred between solicitor and client are distinct concepts. LSRA complaint guidance expressly notes that even where litigation succeeds, a client can still face responsibility for some of their own legal costs.
The expected position should be explained before settlement so that the client understands what they are likely to receive after legal costs and outlays have been accounted for.
Can My Legal Costs Increase During the Case?
Yes. Medical negligence investigations can develop as records are obtained, expert evidence is received and the issues in dispute become clearer. Irish costs rules recognise that the original estimate may therefore change. The LSRA states that if a solicitor becomes aware that likely legal costs will increase significantly from those stated in an earlier Section 150 notice, the client must be given updated written cost information.
A significant increase should therefore not first appear without explanation on the final bill.
Can Legal Costs Be Taken From My Compensation?
Section 149 provides that a legal practitioner cannot deduct or appropriate an amount for legal costs from damages or other money payable to the client without the client’s prior written agreement. The same section also restricts legal costs in contentious business from being expressed as a specified percentage or proportion of the damages or other money payable to the client.
This is why clients should understand any proposed deductions in advance rather than assuming that a solicitor automatically receives a share of the compensation.
What Should I Do If I Do Not Understand the Costs Notice?
Ask the solicitor to explain it before substantial work continues. The LSRA says clients are entitled to cost information written in language they can understand, and its professional guidance provides for further clarification concerning costs information.
In particular, make sure you understand the professional fee, likely expert and barrister costs, responsibility for outlays, possible adverse costs, how payment will work if the claim succeeds or fails, and what happens if the case is discontinued. If those points are clear at the beginning, there is much less scope for misunderstanding later.
The key point is that your solicitor’s professional fee is only one part of the financial picture in a medical negligence claim. Independent medical reports and other outlays can create separate expenses, while court proceedings can introduce possible exposure to another party’s costs. Irish law therefore requires clear written costs information, and clients should understand the terms before significant expenditure is incurred.
Cian O’Carroll Solicitors acts in medical negligence and serious personal injury matters in Ireland. If you believe medical treatment caused you or a family member serious harm, we can assess the circumstances of the case and explain the legal-cost arrangements that would apply before you decide how to proceed.