The Court Services Agency has denied that a backlog of court expert bills is causing delays in the justice system. 

A parliamentary question revealed that there are currently 569 bills for court experts that at present remain unpaid, almost a fifth of which have been pending for more than 91 days, stoking fears that this could be contributing to delays in closing magisterial inquiries. 

However, in a statement on Friday, the CSA denied this claim, saying that the majority of the pending bills have only remained so for 30 days. 

The agency said that before bills are paid they are put through a verification process and that invoices must be signed by the member of the judiciary that appointed the expert. 

On principle, experts are only paid once the work they have been commissioned to do is completed and it is ensured that the work meets the expected requirements. 

Additionally, it is sometimes experts themselves who take their time in sending an invoice.

“The Agency would like to point out that the majority of experts do not submit their invoices immediately after finishing the job and presenting a report, so much so that there are experts who submit invoices of six months or even a year prior,” they said. 

Accusations that this backlog is causing delays in the justice system are “baseless and unfounded”, the agency said. 

The CSA said it has spent a total of €26 million on court expert expenses in the past three years, for a total of €9,316,651 in 2021, €8,976,706 in 2022 and €8,397,708 in 2023. 

The government has increased the budget allocation for court experts by €2 million, they added.