Conor McGregor Ordered To Pay Legal Fees of Nikita Hand Following Civil Rape Trial

Former UFC champion Conor McGregor is on the hook for what is estimated to be more than a million Euro after his recent courtroom defeat in Ireland.

Dublin High Court Justice Alexander Owens ruled Thursday that McGregor will cover the legal costs of plaintiff Nikita Hand, who last month successfully went after the MMA star with a claim of sexual assault.

Hand, who alleged that she was viciously choked and raped during a 2018 encounter with McGregor inside an Irish hotel penthouse, had previously been awarded nearly 250,000 Euro in damages after a jury found McGregor civilly liable.

The latest ruling means that the legal costs Hand needed for the trial, which The Guardian estimated to be 1.24 million Euro, won’t wipe out the damages she recovered. Had she been ordered to fund her own case, Hand would not just receive no money from the trial but would actually find herself roughly a million dollars less rich, even after receiving her damages.

Hand also won’t have to pay the legal fees of James Lawrence, a co-defendant in the case which the jury found not liable for sexual assault.

Justice Owens explained that Lawrence and McGregor worked in “lockstep,” including a filed joint defence. Because of this, Justice Owens found it “difficult to see” how there would be separate legal costs between the two, especially since Lawrence’s legal fees were covered by McGregor, per a report from The Irish Times.

“It is completely inappropriate to award Mr Lawrence any part of his costs even though he succeeded in his defence against Ms Hand,” Justice Alexander Owens said.

If Hand had to cover the legal fees of Lawrence, The Guardian estimates she would be owing 400,000 Euro, which would wipe out the damages payment she is expected to get from the case.

Justice Owens also weighed the idea of fining McGregor for contempt due to a series of social media rants the fighter went on after losing the case. McGregor, who still vehemently denies the claims of rape, argued that he was in a “kangaroo court.” Justice Owens claimed that McGregor’s comments were “scandalizing the court,” and said it “cannot be tolerated.”

The next hearing for the case will be on January 16th, 2025.