Nobody should start a judicial review without the money conversation — and no solicitor should let them. Here is the honest picture: what you pay, what you risk, where the special protections apply, and how the risk is managed in practice.
Your Own Costs
A contested judicial review involves solicitor, counsel and court fees across assessment, pleadings, leave, exchanges and hearing — High Court litigation, costed like it. Two disciplines keep it proportionate. First, staging: a defined initial assessment, then a pre-action letter that resolves a meaningful share of cases at a fraction of proceedings, then decision points at leave and at opposition. Second, candour at the start: the realistic range, in writing, before you commit. (In contentious business, a solicitor may not calculate fees as a percentage or proportion of any award or settlement.)
The Exposure If You Lose
The default rule — costs follow the event — means an unsuccessful applicant can face the respondent’s bill as well as their own. That exposure is real and belongs at the centre of the decision to litigate. It is also a discretion the courts temper: partial success, genuine public-interest dimensions and litigation conduct all move outcomes. And in two major territories, the default itself is displaced.
Environmental Protection: Section 50B
Qualifying environmental challenges enjoy section 50B of the 2000 Act: each side generally bears its own costs — losing does not mean paying the State’s lawyers — with carve-outs for abusive conduct and preserved power to award winning applicants their costs. It is Ireland’s Aarhus Convention machinery: environmental justice must not be prohibitively expensive. Whether your case qualifies is a threshold legal question answered at the first consultation.
The New Planning Regime
For planning judicial review, Chapter 2 of Part 9 of the 2024 Act is phasing in a rebuilt architecture: prescribed scales of fees (first regulations made May 2026) capping recoverable amounts, and a financial assistance mechanism for environmental litigants, not yet operational — with section 50B continuing meanwhile. The ground is moving; current, case-specific advice is the only reliable map. Background: the 2024 Act changes.
Legal Aid and the Bottom Line
Civil legal aid reaches judicial review through the Legal Aid Board’s means and merits tests — realistic in welfare, protection and similar cases, and always worth assessing. The bottom line we give every client: judicial review is never free, the downside is never zero, and both are knowable in advance. The cases worth bringing survive that honest arithmetic; the kindest advice about the others is early. See also the process end to end.
Get the Numbers Before the Decision
Realistic costs, realistic exposure, realistic protections - in writing, at the first consultation, before you commit to anything.
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About the Author
Richard O’Shea, Solicitor practises with Mary Molloy Solicitors (established 1981), advising clients across Ireland on judicial review, public law, immigration and litigation. Richard holds a Diploma in Mediation from the Law Society of Ireland and acts in challenges to decisions of Government departments, tribunals, local authorities and other public bodies. Contact Richard on 01 5827148 or richardoshea@marymolloysolicitors.com.
This article is for general information only and does not constitute legal advice. Every farm and family situation is different, and you should obtain advice on your own circumstances before acting. In contentious business, a solicitor may not calculate fees or other charges as a percentage or proportion of any award or settlement.