The Courts Service has launched phase 1 of the High Court e-filing of applications for legal costs adjudication on Courts Service Online (CSOL).
This allows legal practitioners and legal costs accountants to lodge applications for legal costs adjudication with the Office of the Legal Costs Adjudicators electronically in cases where parties are legally represented.
New court forms and new rules of court support this process.
To lodge an application online, legal practitioners and legal costs accountants must register on CSOL.
Benefits
- Online filing of notice of application for adjudication of costs
- Online payment of fees
- Adjudication application fee
- Court duty at conclusion of adjudication process
- Case tracking
- Online searchable register of determinations
- Greater accuracy in the collection of statistics
- More transparency in the area of legal costs for practitioners and the public
- Greater certainty for all parties in relation to how costs are determined
- Timely empirical data of decisions and determinations
- Reasons for determinations
Register for CSOL and instructional videos
The registration process has 3 stages.
Note: Google Chrome must be used to enter data and access information on CSOL.
Stage 1: create an account
Create an account by entering your details online at www.csol.ie.
You will need to enter:
- Account type (choose “Legal Costs Accountant” or “Legal Firm Account”)
- First name
- Last name (this should be the contact person designated by the firm/office in respect of CSOL – “Administrator”)
- Email address
- Name of firm or office (some information is pre-populated from a database provided by ILCA or the Law Society)
- Direct debit mandate details – account name, IBAN and BIC
Stage 2: submit manual registration documents
The legal costs accountant or the legal practitioner’s firm/office administrator downloads the documents required for registration from CSOL.
These documents should be completed in hard copy (with any supporting documentation as set out in CSOL) and returned to:
Central Application Support Unit,Courts Service,
Circuit and District Court Operations,
Phoenix House,
Smithfield,
Dublin 7
Stage 3: activate your firm/office account
When the manual documentation is received by the Courts Service, an email issues to the email address provided with an activation link.
The administrator follows the instructions in the email and activates the firm/office account on CSOL.
The administrator can then access CSOL and register additional users from the firm on CSOL.
Support for registration or general use of CSOL is available by emailing [email protected] .
Online guides
- Legal practitioners registration process
- Legal costs accountant registration process
- Creating and managing additional user accounts for your firm
- Activating user accounts on CSOL
Please note: this is a pilot project initially available to legal practitioners and legal costs accountants.
Online application guide
- Download and view: CSOL system user manual for legal practitioners and legal costs accountants
- Log in to CSOL using Google Chrome at www.csol.ie and select Create an application for adjudication of legal costs.
See Section 5 of the CSOL system user manual for step-by-step instructions on how to complete an online application.
Legal costs adjudication process overview
- Apply for a CSOL account.
- Log in to CSOL and complete the legal costs adjudication application (see the CSOL system user manual above).
- Lodge all prerequisite documentation with the Office of the Legal Costs Adjudicators (OLCA).
- A hearing or return date is given by the OLCA.
- Case adjudicated and allowed costs determined.
- OLCA enters amendments to the bill of costs on CSOL.
- Revised amount agreed by OLCA and legal costs accountant / solicitor.
- Draft certificate of determination prepared by legal costs accountant / solicitor and sent to OLCA.
- Draft certificate checked by OLCA and agreed with the legal costs accountant / solicitor.
- Affidavit of TOTs completed and signed.
- Court duty paid.
- Certificate of determination completed, signed and issued.
- OLCA updates and completes the Legal Costs Adjudicators register of determinations.
Support
- Support for registration or general use of CSOL: [email protected]
- Support for e-filing an application for adjudication of legal costs: [email protected]
- Read the frequently asked questions.
