Who pays the expert in a court case?

In principle, whoever asks for the expert. You pay for the expert you hire to submit your own report. The expert appointed by the court at a party's request is paid for in advance by that party, or by both parties half each if both ask for one and agree on a single expert. In the end, if the judge orders the other party to pay the costs, which are the expenses of the proceedings, that order includes the experts' fees, up to a limit. Anyone who has been granted legal aid (“asistencia jurídica gratuita”) does not, in principle, pay for the expert evidence.

José Manuel Alburquerque

Alburquerque Abogados

Litigation

While the case is under way

Each party pays in advance for the evidence it proposes. In the case of experts, this means the following:

  • The party-appointed expert, the one you choose and hire to prepare a report and submit it with your claim or your defence, is paid whatever you have agreed with them, whether you win or lose the case.
  • The expert appointed by the court because a party has asked for one works at that party's expense. The expert can ask for an advance against their invoice. If the party does not pay it within five days, the expert is released from the appointment and no other expert is appointed, so that evidence is lost.
  • If both parties ask the court for an expert and agree to have just one, they pay half each. If one of them does not pay its share of the advance, the other can make up the full amount or recover what it paid.
  • If you have been granted legal aid, the expert evidence is provided by technical staff of the courts or the public authorities or, if there are none, by a private expert appointed by the court, at no cost to you.

In the end, the costs

When the case ends, the judgment decides on costs. If it finds wholly in favour of one party, it will normally order the other to pay them. The costs include the experts' fees, both those of the party-appointed expert and those of the court-appointed one. That is why the winning party can recover what it paid the expert, although not always, nor in full:

  • What the party ordered to pay the costs has to pay for the lawyers and other professionals who have no official rate, experts among them, cannot exceed one third of the value of the case for each winning party, unless the judge finds recklessness, which means litigating in the knowledge that one is in the wrong.
  • The party who has to pay can challenge the fees of the other side's expert if they seem excessive and the court can reduce them.
  • If the judge finds in favour of a party only in part, in principle each party pays its own costs, its own expert included, while the common costs are split equally.
  • If the winning party refused without good reason to take part in the attempt to reach an agreement to which it was invited, when this was compulsory or had been ordered by the court, it will not recover its costs, not even those of the expert. The law generally requires an attempt to reach that agreement before a claim is brought.

A costs order against the other party does not mean that you will actually be paid, because if that party has no income or assets there will be nothing to pay from. And if you are the one who loses, you may also have to pay for the other party's expert, within the same limits.

This answer is provided for educational purposes and offers initial guidance on the question raised. Every matter has its own circumstances and nuances that require individual assessment. For that reason, before taking decisions with significant consequences, it is advisable to consult a professional and not to rely solely on this information. Personalised advice makes it possible to apply these explanations to the specific case and to assess the options available with greater certainty.