The High Court recently acceded to an application seeking security for costs in 3V Benelux BV v Safecharge Card Services Limited [2019] IEHC 675. Both parties had engaged legal cost accountants to estimate the costs of the proceedings, which concerned breach of contract and modification of products to comply with anti-money laundering legislation.

Once the parties had submitted their estimates it emerged the Plaintiff had not included an estimate for the costs of a regulatory expert. The Court took the view that a prior affidavit of the Defendant had disclosed the fact that a regulatory expert had been engaged on their behalf, which would likely be marked by an expert for the Plaintiff. The need for an expert witness and the issues that an expert will be required to address are relevant to the assessment of the skill, knowledge and time required to deal with same.

The judgment can be read at the following link: https://beta.courts.ie/view/judgments/8f509d03-2d08-4bd1-84cb-d468f61a2b3d/9d55e4f9-111e-4bd3-bc95-133cc472467e/2019_IEHC_675_1.pdf/pdf