Civil Law

The civil law in the UAE comprises amongst others different types of claims such as commercial, personal status of family matters and real estate matters. Commercial cases are usually pertaining to breach of contract in UAE.

When filing a civil case in UAE the keys points that are to be considered are as follows:

• If the case is concerning a contractual dispute subject to the company law UAE then the copy of the contract is to be attached.
• All the supporting documents that are being submitted to the court should be translated into Arabic from the authorized translation centers.
• It is important to note that for certain types of civil cases, especially relating to personal status matters the Sharia Law in UAE might be applicable.
• It is important to note that, certain claims can have both a civil and criminal action to it, for example civil case for cheque bounce in Dubai. In such cases both the civil and criminal cases can be registered simultaneously and will proceed parallelly before the respective forums.
• The Federal Law No. (11) of 1992 concerning issuance of the civil procedures code commonly referred to as the “civil procedure code UAE”.
• A civil claim is to be filed at the relevant court which in most cases is the First Instance court of the relevant emirate where the defendant resides or works or if relating to real estate matters where the property is situated. 
• If claim which is rejected by the First instance court, if for instance in the emirate of Dubai, then within a specified time limit of 30 days the Dubai court appeal process should be instituted otherwise the request becomes time-barred. Similarly, if a favorable judgment has been obtained in the Emirate of Dubai, then the next step that lies is to enforce the judgment through the Dubai court execution procedure.