Two bags of post delivered to the Four Courts yesterday were accidentally shredded by a contractor brought in to destroy other documents, it has emerged.
The Courts Service confirmed in a statement that post delivered to the Four Courts complex in Dublin yesterday was inadvertently destroyed by way of "confidential shredding".
The destroyed mail includes letters and documents sent to the District Court Fines Office, Licensing Office, Circuit Court Jury Office, Circuit Criminal and Civil Offices and the Family Law High Court Office. The spokesman insisted only general mail, including penalties, were destroyed.
Important legal documents, such as affidavits and plenary summons, are personally stamped and filed by law clerks in a different area of the building.
People who sent fines to the Four Courts or correspondence relating to jury service within the last few days are asked to make contact to ensure their correspondence arrived.
"The Courts Service regrets any inconvenience caused by this human error.
"This error was caused by an outside contractor who deals with the confidential shredding of documents, mistakenly adding two bags of mail to his bags of documents for shredding.
"There is no question of a breach of confidentiality, or any documents going astray, as the documents and letters were shredded on site," a Courts Service spokesman said.
The Courts Service has placed advertisements in the national press asking those who may have posted mail to the Four Courts in the past few days - and who have not received a receipt or acknowledgment - to contact the relevant office, to ascertain if their letter was received or not.