The strong stand taken by the taxing master Charles Moran against "grossly excessive" and "revolting in the extreme" legal fees charged by four barristers and a solicitor was a brilliant slapdown from within the system of the astonishing greed displayed by sections of the legal profession.

Fees charged by the barristers – senior counsel Paul Gardiner and former attorney general Harry Whelehan, junior counsel Dan Boland and Cormac McNamara and solicitor Denis Boland – amounted to €2.143 million and were slashed by 82% to €393,472 .

But what's less well known is the detail of the case for which they racked up their fees. It involved a compensation claim before the Personal Injuries Assessment Board, a board set up specifically to cut down on crazy legal costs. The PIAB's policy before this case was to provide a speedy and transparent system of assessing compensation by dealing directly with clients – not solicitors – in cases where blame was undisputed. This large legal team took the case – right up to the Supreme Court – to insist on their client's right to full representation in his dealings with the board.

They won and, of course, the case had everything to do with vindicating the rights of the little man and nothing to do with safeguarding the incomes of the legal profession.