It is anticipated that the Irish government will seek to legislate for a scale of party-party legal costs (where the unsuccessful party is ordered to pay the costs of the successful litigant) in 2026. The government's refreshed Action Plan on Insurance Reform contains priorities aimed at lowering insurance premiums, with legal costs inflation high on the agenda. The Action Plan specifically calls for the development of new guidelines to set clear levels of legal fees for personal injury litigation, with the aim of promoting transparency and fairness in legal costs. We expect that initial proposals to achieve this will be introduced by Dail Éireann in 2026, and will be hotly contested by the Law Society of Ireland, the office of the Legal Costs Adjudicator and the Bar Council.

It is anticipated that cyber insurance will be an area of growth in Ireland. Regulatory compliance is driving demand (notably NIS2 and the Digital Operational Resilience Act), along with increased media coverage of major breaches. It is expected that more modular policies will be available, allowing businesses to select options such as cover for regulatory fines, third-party liability, and IT provider coverage. The modularity will help businesses align coverage with their risk profiles and compliance obligations. Further it is expected that cyber policies will increasingly address AI-specific risks. Demand for risk mitigation services is also likely to increase to try and prevent incidents. This will include vulnerability scanning of IT infrastructure, employee training, and dark web monitoring. Similarly, predict-and-prevent services will increase with options to include supply chain scanning, employee credential monitoring, and breach simulations. 

Third party litigation funding is set for renewed attention as Ireland considers reform of its long-standing prohibition on third party legal funding pursuant to common law maintenance and champerty rules. The Law Reform Commission (LRC) published a comprehensive consultation paper in July 2023, exploring models for legalisation and regulation, and invited submissions from stakeholders before the December 2023 deadline. The final report with the LRC's recommendations is expected soon and will likely shape the future framework for litigation funding in Ireland.  Following the European Commission’s cross-border study on litigation funding (published in March 2025) and the European Parliament's draft directive, it is anticipated that the European Union will press ahead with proposals to introduce common regulatory standards across Member States. However it is likely that Member States will retain the discretion to decide whether third-party litigation funding can be offered in relation to proceedings within their jurisdiction.

From early 2026, with a phased approach, all providers of building works in Ireland must be registered on the Construction Industry Register Ireland. It is eventually expected to affect over 20,000 providers. It is anticipated that the register will eliminate unqualified operators, enforce compliance with building regulations, and help restore consumer confidence. This is particularly the case where providers are required to demonstrate competence in accordance with prescribed criteria. However, increased regulation will raise the risk of claims arising from regulatory investigations by the admissions and registration board which will be established by the Construction Industry Federation (the statutory registration body) which may result in financial or criminal sanctions.

Two new High Court practice directions introduce new procedures for applying for a trial date in clinical negligence proceedings, aiming to ensure cases are properly pleaded and full information is exchanged before a trial date is assigned. This should in turn enable more timely and accurate reserving. They also aim to facilitate earlier resolution of actions and reduce legal costs. The practice directions also establish a dedicated Clinical Negligence List within the High Court and will apply to all stages of clinical negligence proceedings, intended to enhance procedural efficiencies by ensuring claims are given focused attention resulting in more certainty for insurers in what has traditionally been an unpredictable battleground.

With the increasing incursion of English and Welsh law firms into Scotland and vice versa in a bid to provide clients with a UK-wide service, there is a risk of firms not appreciating the often subtle differences between the substantive law, procedural rules, codes of professional conduct and even cultural differences to handling litigation in each jurisdiction. Similar issues can arise in dealing with cross border disputes. If not dual qualified and suitably experienced, solicitors can be at risk of assuming (wrongly) that principles are the same, and operate in the same way, in both jurisdictions, leaving themselves exposed to potential claims. This is particularly the case having regard to the differences between the two jurisdictions in relation to limitation (and, in Scotland, prescription).

In August 2025, the Inner House of the Court of Session published a decision in which the judges made two significant findings impacting the law on prescription in Scotland. First, the court significantly narrowed the scope for claimants in Scotland to rely on the relief mechanism in Section 6(4) of the Prescription and Limitation (Scotland) Act 1973 when faced with time bar defences. Secondly, it reshaped the legal landscape in Scotland in relation to the prescription of collateral warranties, finding that a collateral warranty could give rise to a fresh five year prescriptive period. These are two considerable changes to the legal landscape which will have far reaching consequences in the context of construction claims.

Scotland's response to Grenfell has been a bit stop start. However, activity has stepped up since the end of last year, especially in the wake of Grenfell 2 and the UK government's response to that being published.  These two developments have put the spotlight - and renewed pressure - on the Scottish government for it to speed up its response to Grenfell which is seen in many quarters as just being too slow.  Like the UK government, the Scottish government published its own response to Grenfell 2 and it too accepts all of the recommendations made by the inquiry. Scotland is however largely actioning its own response, in circumstances where only limited provisions of the Building Safety Act 2022 apply, with its own flagship legislation, the Housing (Cladding Remediation) (Scotland) Act 2024, which came into force at the start of this year. The Act is a shop front and a significant volume of secondary legislation is needed to add flesh to the bones, consultations and initiatives in respect of which are being developed.

The Legal Services (Scotland) Act 2025 was finally passed in June 2025. It updates the regulation of legal services in Scotland and modernises the regulatory framework. It grants new powers to the Law Society of Scotland to regulate legal businesses and allows for quicker investigation of complaints against solicitors. There are increased powers to suspend solicitors from practice and it introduces a new offence of pretending to be a lawyer, intended to give the public confidence that those they seek advice from are properly qualified. The Act introduces a register of licensed providers that must be kept providing detailed information in relation to each licensed legal service provider.