Read below the Highlights on UAE Federal Law Decree No. 18 of 2018 amending certain provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure issued by Federal Law No. 11 of 1992:

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His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates, has issued a Federal Law Decree amending certain provisions of the Civil Procedure Code. Ten (10) Articles of the Civil Procedure Code have been amended by new texts, entailed by current situation and unceasing development in the United Arab Emirates.

These amendments are as follows:

1) Amendment of jurisdiction of the minor circuits formed by a single judge established by Article 30 of the Law:

Legislator has assigned minor circuits formed by a single judge, jurisdiction over the Civil, commercial and labor actions and counterclaims whatever was their value, as well as personal status actions, actions for division of common property and signature validity lawsuits and, actions related to the claim and specification of wages and salaries whatever was their value. regulation of this law shall specify value quorum of these circuits and value quorum of the final judgments.
The law has also assigned Mr. Minister of Justice or the President of the Local Judiciary Committee to allocate one or more of these circuits to adjudicate cases submitted before them during a single session. The regulation shall regulate the procedures, applicable before these circuits, judgements issued thereby and cases of appeals therein and their execution mechanism.
Regarding major circuits, formed of three judges, shall have jurisdiction over deciding upon all Civil, commercial and labor actions which do not fall within the jurisdiction of the minor circuits, all administrative and real estate actions, whether original or accessory, whatever was their value and, deciding upon temporary or summary claims and all other counterclaims as well as the claims related to the original request, whatever was their value or type and, bankruptcy and preventive composition lawsuits and, lawsuits that fall within their jurisdiction as per the law.

2) Amendment of Articles 59, 114, 115 of the law to include the judges, the attorney general, the members of the prosecution and the courts’ employees whether they are males or females:

Legislator has replaced the term “ their wives ” by the term ” their spouses ” wherever they appear in these articles and has also replaced the term ” his wife ” wherever it appears by the term ” his spouse ” to extend scope of such articles to the judges, the attorney general, the members of the prosecution and the courts’ employees whether they are males or females.

3) Amendment of Article (162) of the law by acceptance of the explanatory memorandum of reasons of the appeal until date of the first session to exchange memorandums and recusals before the Case Management Office.

Legislator has allowed the appellant to submit the grounds of his appeal until the date of the first session, to exchange memorandums and recusals before the Case Management Office, otherwise the appeal shall be dismissed, whereas this Article, before the amendment, obligates the appellant to submit the grounds of his appeal until the first session set for hearing the grounds.

4) Amendment of Article (164) of the law by acceptance of the appellee’s appeal until the date of the first session to exchange memorandums and recusals before the Case Management Office:

Legislator has granted the appellee the right to prosecute an appeal either through the usual procedures or through a brief including his appeal grounds until the date of the first session to exchange memorandums and recusals before the Case Management Office, whereas that permission granted for the appellee to prosecute an appeal was limited in the law, before the amendment, to the date of the first session of prosecution.

5) Amendment of Article (166) of the Law by decision of the Court of Appeal to cancel the ruling and return the case to the Court of First Instance to rule on the matter thereof, if there is a nullity in the decision for a reason related to the notice of the statement of claim:

Legislator has decided that if the Court of Appeal found that there has been a nullity in the decision for a reason related to the notice of the statement of claim, it shall decide cancellation of the decision and return the case to the Court of First Instance to rule on the matter thereof.

6) Amendment of Article (173) of the Law on the value quorum of the appeal in cassation:

Legislator has amended the value quorum of the appeal in cassation, which was fixed to an amount exceeding two hundred thousand dirhams, to become in accordance with the value quorum of the action, that will be determined by the regulation of this law or in case the action’s value was not estimated.

7) Amendment of Article (177) of the Law concerning the period for payment of the appeal’s fees and guarantee:

Legislator has granted the appellant in virtue of this amendment a period of three business days following the date of filing the appeal at the Case Management Office of the court that had issued the judgment or the Federal Supreme Court, or the Court of Cassation in order to pay the entire fees in addition to the guarantee and shall be enclosed with evidence of payment, so the appeal may be registered in the relevant register, next to fulfillment of that procedure.

8) Amendment of Article (183) of the Law in the section concerning the non-acceptance of the appeal:

Legislator has added another reason preventing the appeal to be accepted if the legal issue raised in the appeal was preceded by a court ruling and did not see the grounds for its annulment.

9) Finally… legislator has decided to implement this decree by law from the day following date of its publication on the official gazette.

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