EXOD861 "You must not take a bribe" [this verse] -- even to entitle the innocent party and to obligate the guilty party. [This injunction applies] even if the two litigants together agree to pay him [for judging]. This is what our Sages, z"l, said (Kesubos 105a): "The legal decisions of one who takes a fee for adjudicating are void." However, it is permissible to compensate him the losses caused as a result of the disruption of his work, provided that the loss is clear, a fixed amount, and known to the public, and that one of the contestants does not reimburse his loss more than the other.