{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/county-court-rules-northern-ireland-1981/part-21/rule-4",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/county-court-rules-northern-ireland-1981/part-21/rule-4.json",
  "legislation": "nisr/1981/225",
  "legislation_title": "County Court Rules (Northern Ireland) 1981",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/county-court-rules-northern-ireland-1981",
  "path": "part/21/rule/4",
  "kind": "rule",
  "number": "4",
  "heading": "Costs",
  "text": "(1) Where money has been paid into court by any defendant and the plaintiff does not serve notice of acceptance under Rule 3 and does not obtain a decree against that defendant for an amount, exclusive of costs and expenses, greater than that paid into court, then—\n[(a) where the plaintiff is not under legal disability and subject to sub-paragraph (c), he shall be entitled to recover from the defendant 75% of his solicitor’s costs and outlays (other than his counsel’s fee), calculated in accordance with the scale fee on the amount decreed; and he shall be liable for 25% of the defendant’s solicitor’s costs and outlays (other than the defendant’s counsel’s fee) and for 100% of the defendant’s counsel’s fee, both as calculated in accordance with the scale fee on the amount claimed.]\n(b) where the plaintiff is under legal disability, costs shall be in the discretion of [ the judge or district judge as the case may be].\n[(c) the division of responsibility for costs specified in sub-paragraph (a) may be varied in the discretion of [ the judge or district judge as the case maybe].]\n(2) Where a defendant becomes entitled to costs under this Rule such costs shall be paid to him out of the money paid into court before any payment out of the said money is made to the plaintiff.",
  "extent": "N.I.",
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [
    {
      "type": "footnote",
      "label": "f1",
      "text": "Sub-paragraph (a) substituted by S.R. 1995 No. 151 with effect from 01.09.95"
    },
    {
      "type": "footnote",
      "label": "f2",
      "text": "Words amended by S.R. 2013 No. 19 with effect from 25.02.13"
    },
    {
      "type": "footnote",
      "label": "f3",
      "text": "Sub-paragraph (c) inserted by S.R. 1995 No. 151 with effect from 01.09.95"
    }
  ],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisr/1981/225/part/21/rule/4",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T03:45:17.527867+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}