Legal process in Dubai takes 18-24 months

Litigation cases in Dubai take on average 18 months to resolve, according to leading lawyers – and hearings may soon go on for even longer as more disputes flood the courts.

"Court proceedings may well take in excess of 18 to 24 months from filing a case at the Court of First Instance to being in a position to enforce an executable judgment," Stephen Ballantine, Senior Legal Consultant at Galadari & Associates, told Emirates Business.

Salem Salem Al Shaali, General Manager at Al Shaali & Co, said: "When we consider three-stage litigation, the process usually takes a year and a half. However some cases might be solved in three months and this is what we are experiencing with real estate disputes. We can consider three months as the standard period for first degree litigation."

In many instances cases pass through all the possible stages from lower court to appeal court, supreme court and execution court, making the length of time taken much longer.

About 90 per cent of disputes are resolved before a complaint is even filed with the courts and between 70 and 90 per cent of cases that are referred to the courts are resolved before a hearing takes place.

However the percentage of cases settled in the early stages of the legal process in Dubai is far lower than the global average because of the country's legal payment structure. The rule here is that each party is responsible for its legal costs, win or lose, and lawyers say this tends to "lock in" parties engaged in litigation until a final judgment is reached.

"If this costs rule were changed – making the losing party pay the winning party's legal fees – the volume of cases being filed in the courts would be dramatically reduced," added Ballantine.

This structure is being applied at the DIFC Courts, the region's only English-language, common law court.

DIFC Courts Registrar Mark Beer said: "In most common law systems the losing party pays all the legal costs. In our court, generally, the winning party's legal costs are paid by the losing party. This makes people think seriously before going to court – it deters them from bringing spurious claim."

Going to court in Dubai carries a high price, as it does anywhere in the world. KK Sarachandra Bose, a partner at Dar Al Adalah Advocates & Legal Consultants, said that in order to file a recovery case here a litigant had to raise an average court fee of 7.5 per cent of the amount claimed, with a cap of Dh30,000. "There are instances where the translation and attestation costs run above the value of the claim," he added.

"The photocopying of papers for submission can run to hundreds of pages, depending on the number of parties involved."

Lawyers' fees are also not cheap. Their charges vary according to their experience and expertise and in recovery cases the normal lawyer's fee is 10 per cent of the amount claimed.

Ballantine said: "Our firm charges hourly rates starting at Dh1,200 for paralegals to Dh2,300 for senior consultants like myself."

He said foreign firms tended to increase their fees by 40 to 50 per cent as they subcontracted most of the work to local firms.

"Foreign firms are in 99 per cent of cases unnecessary because they are not licensed to appear before the UAE courts. It makes financial sense to directly instruct a local advocates' office to avoid excessive charges."

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