Legal service prices in Ireland up 10 per cent since 2013

The NCC’s Costs of Doing Business in Ireland 2017 report notes that while the price of legal services “dipped for a brief period in 2013”, legal service prices in Q3 2016 were 10.4 per cent higher than the corresponding quarter in 2013.

The report urges that the “competition-enhancing and cost-reducing provisions” of the Legal Services Act are incorporated “rapidly” into the regulations issued by the new Legal Services Regulatory Authority.

It also calls for the profession to be modernised, continuing: “The establishment of a specialist conveyancing profession and the creation of a single tier counsel system should be considered in this regard.”

Speaking at the launch of the report, Professor Peter Clinch, chairman of the NCC, said: “There is a role for both the public and private sectors alike to manage proactively the controllable portion of their respective cost bases, drive efficiency and continue to take action to address unnecessarily high costs.

“Such actions will ensure that improvements in relative cost competitiveness are more sustainable, leaving Ireland better positioned to cope with external shocks.”