A Taxing master is an independent person appointed by the Irish

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

, pursuant to section 3 of the Court Officers Act 1926, to assess the legal costs of a party to a legal matter. The Taxing master provides an independent and impartial process of assessment of

legal costs Court costs (also called law costs in English procedure) are the costs of handling a case, which, depending on legal rules, may or may not include the costs of the various parties in a lawsuit in addition to the costs of the court itself. In the ...

, which endeavours to achieve a balance between the costs involved and the services rendered. The party seeking to have a bill of costs put before the Taxing master, must lodge that bill with the Taxing master's office, together with a summons to tax and an order of the court/requisition to tax. The position of the Taxing master and his/her office is governed by the Courts (Supplemental Provisions) Act 1961. This was amended by the Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2011, whereby a taxing masters's

term of office A term of office, electoral term, or parliamentary term is the length of time a person serves in a particular elected office. In many jurisdictions there is a defined limit on how long terms of office may be before the officeholder must be subjec ...

is for a period not exceeding 5 years. Every person represented by a solicitor in Ireland in a matter before the High Court is entitled to have their bill assessed by the Taxing master. Should a client feel his bill is not fair or reasonable he should ask his solicitor in writing to have the matter taxed. However, where a client of a solicitor feels they have been overcharged they should make a complaint to the

Law Society of Ireland The Law Society of Ireland () is a professional body established on 24 June 1830 and is the educational, representative and regulatory body of the Solicitor, solicitors' profession in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. As of 2020, the Law Society ha ...

References

Law of the Republic of Ireland {{Ireland-law-stub