How you can get free legal advice in Dubai

Dubai Courts has introduced free electronic legal consultancy, case registration and records revision services to help inform the public about their rights and obligations and judicial procedures and to promote efficiency.

In coordination with prominent Dubai lawyers, the Courts is offering free electronic legal consultancy to the public under a new initiative called ‘Shoor’, which is one of three electronic services made available in partnership with law firms.

“The ‘Shoor’ (meaning ‘Consult’) initiative is aimed at giving the public legal advice on issues related to civic, real estate, financial, labour or personal affairs and facilitate judicial transactions for them. The initiative is also aimed at raising legal awareness and improving trust between the Courts and the community,” said Dubai Courts’ Director General Dr Saeed bin Hazeem while launching the three services.

46 lawyers volunteered to answer public queries during the initiative’s experimental phase and offered about 600 free consultancy hours, he said.

Dr Bin Hazeem stressed the importance of the partnership between the Courts and legal firms to help ensuring justice for all and enabling the public to know their rights and obligations under the country’s laws.

‘Al Salfa’

Dubai Courts’ ‘Al Salfa’ service enables clients to register their cases electronically, avoiding for them the need to physically approach the Courts. ‘Al Salfa’ is the first of its kind in the Middle East. Applicants can upload and send all needed documents electronically, pay fees, get cases registered, and get first hearing date through the Internet.

“After submitting case documents electronically, the concerned department will check them and communicate with the applicant electronically and inform if other documents are needed. After ensuring that all documents are complete, the applicant will be notified with the required fees. The applicant will be notified with the case number and first hearing date immediately after paying the registration fees electronically. The applicant does not need to approach the Courts before the first hearing of the case,” explained Dr bin Hazeem.

“‘Al Salfa’ (which means the ‘story’ or the ‘issue’) refers to the person who used to play a judicial role in the UAE’s local community in the early days,” he noted.

This service was introduced on an experimental phase last February and was made optional for a number of legal firms. Following the success of the experimental phase during which about 3,000 cases were registered electronically, this service will now be made available and mandatory for all law firms.

Claimants and defendants can now review their case records and get a print of the documents and rules electronically without the need to physically approach the Courts, allowing them to get all information about their cases, proceedings, decisions and rulings. This would help them avoid delays in Court proceedings and enable them to submit personally or through their lawyers required documents or evidence that can help them prove their point, he noted.

The three initiatives allow communication with the public from anywhere in the world, added Dr Bin Hazeem during the launch ceremony attended by  the chairman of the Emirates Lawyers Association and a number of prominent lawyers.

Optimisation of  technology and human resources, transparency, speedy round-the-clock service, reduction of costs and reduction in the number of daily visitors to Dubai Courts,  are among the other objectives of these initiatives, added Dr bin Hazeem.
 

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.