I think Gerard O'Donoghue is cherry picking the facts, for example in this paragraph; -
"At what point did it become normal that a relatively innocuous property dispute can cost up to €6m? Over the course of the 58-day hearing (which is in itself ridiculous) the average daily cost appear to have been in excess of €103,448. Those engaged in the legal profession are grossly overpaid."
As someone who was involved in a Hight Court case as an expert witness last year, I can tell you that my Court time was a fraction of my time out of court spent preparing the case.
As someone who was involved in a second court case I know the legal fees alone ran to over a million Euros.
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Mr. O'Donoghue is making two different arguments.
1. That legal people get paid too much - and he says this without any analysis of the time taken in case preparation or evaluation.
2. That the hearing itself took too long - again without any analysis of the time taken in case preparation or evaluation.
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But the real joke is on Mr. O'Donoghue.
This is a most inappropriate example of the point he was trying to make.
http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/1220/lisadell.html
My reading of the case is that the pile was bought by two Barristers who intended to run it as a business but the ROW's prevent them limiting access to the estate.
They took the case against the Council, they ran up the outrageous costs, they lost and now it looks as if they will have to pay costs.
So the public good, as represented by the Council's position, is vindicated and the two Barristas have to foot the bill.
A fair result all around I'd say and one in which two practising members of the legal profession received a massive rebuke.
ONQ.