Armidale Regional Council court battle: Legal fees ARC and chief executive Susan Law ordered to repay revealed

The Leader can confirm the legal fees owed to the councillors comes to $344,233.74 and the council will need to cover its own legal costs in the case on top of that.

The council and chief executive Susan Law lost a NSW Land and Environment Court battle in June when they tried to block five councillors from a vote to terminate Ms Law's contract.

Both parties were ordered to pay the legal fees of councillors Debra O'Brien, Dorothy Robinson, Jon Galletly, Ian Tiley and Margaret O'Connor in the case and have refused to disclose the amount of ratepayer dollars that will need to be spent by ARC.

"Council will be seeking clarification on whether the costs are reasonable or not," a spokeswoman for the council said.

"Council has concerns that these are excessive in nature and is seeking a court assessment."

The waste of taxpayer dollars has angered the community, Northern Tablelands MP Adam Marshall said.

"The split will be a matter for the first applicant to sort out with Susan Law, that's a matter for the council," he said.

"I would be the same as everyone, infuriated that we would be tipping hundreds of thousands of ratepayer dollars down the tubes for a legal action that ultimately was a futile legal action."

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Since the court case, all of the councillors have been suspended for three months without pay and interim-administrator Viv May was appointed.

Ms Law, mayor Simon Murray and councillors Libby Martin, Dianne Gray and Brad Widders have now handed in their resignation.