AG’s office faces backlog of 6,100 civil cases

Over 6,000 open civil cases are on the desk of the attorney-general’s office, MPs heard on Monday.

The House finance committee was reviewing the budget for the attorney-general’s office for fiscal year 2025.

In a briefing memo sent to parliament, attorney-general George Savvides said that the number of civil cases – private, non-criminal cases – filed by people against the state comes to 6,100. The data is as of mid-October this year.

The AG’s office is the legal representative of the state.

These civil disputes concern claims, referrals and arbitrations, as well as general and specific applications. Such cases are adjudicated by the district courts.

Savvides informed parliament that, due to the volume of the cases, these have been sorted into categories – commercial, labour, property, claims and so forth.

One of largest expense items for the AG’s office relates to compensation and legal fees. For this year, these came to €8.1 million.

As far as the budget for the AG’s office goes, for 2025 it will come to €27.9 million – up from €26.4 million this year.

Of the €27.9 million, €15.8 million concerns payroll, and €7.1 million relate to operating expenses.