The Bar Council’s fee recovery service, introduced in July 2020, has chased up overdue fee notes for 123 members, according to the latest edition of the Bar Review.

Just 51% of members using the service are full juniors and 22% are senior counsel, with the remaining 27% spread across fourth- to eleventh-year juniors.

To date, the service has successfully secured payments in excess of €270,000 for 77 overdue fee notes.

The team is still pursuing over 180 overdue fee notes for members, with a combined value of over €1.3m.

As part of the structured-fee-recovery process, a Bar Council member has the option to lodge a complaint with the Legal Services Regulatory Authority (LSRA) regarding non-payment of fees.

The Bar Council team is currently actively managing 19 such complaints on behalf of members.

Two complaints have been paid by the solicitors in question during the LSRA’s preliminary investigation, prior to the admissibility determination 

One complaint was deemed inadmissible following the LSRA preliminary review, and has been withdrawn.

One complaint has been deemed admissible, and has now gone before the Complaints Committee for further investigation.

Complaints

All remaining complaints are currently under preliminary investigation prior to an admissibility determination by the LSRA.

Law Library members may avail of the fee-recovery service in respect of three overdue fee notes at a time, provided reasonable attempts have been made to secure payment, and the fee notes are overdue for a period of six months or more.