قانون التقاضي المدني في الإماراتمرسوم بقانون اتحادي بإصدار قانون الإثبات في المعاملات المدنية والتجارية

Article (7) 1. If the court or supervising judge, as the case may be, orders that any of the evidentiary proceedings be initiated, the court or supervising judge shall include in the relevant judgment or decision the date of the first hearing for initiating the relevant procedure, with no need for new notice if the procedure requires more than one hearing, except in case of serving a notice on an absent litigant of the allegation of forgery or administration of an assertory oath thereto. 2. The procedures carried out shall be documented, either in an electronic or paper format, according to the procedures set forth in the Code of Civil Procedure.

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Federal Decree – Law No. (35) of 2022 Promulgating the Law of Evidence in Civil and Commercial Transactions 5 3. A clerk shall be present during the evidentiary proceedings to draw up the record, either electronically or in paper form, and co-sign the same with the judge, with no need for the litigants and stakeholders to sign the same.

Article (11) 1. Evidentiary proceedings, including admission, examination or cross-examination, testimony or oath-taking, shall be conducted before the court. If the same is impossible, the court may move or delegate one of its judges to conduct the procedure. 2. If the person who makes the admission, examined person, witness or person to whom the oath is administered and the like resides in the State but outside the jurisdiction of the court and the evidentiary proceeding is impossible to be electronically conducted, the court shall delegate another court located within his place of residence. In such case, the provisions of judicial delegation set forth in the legislation in force shall apply in this regard. 3. If the person who makes the admission, examined person, witness or person to whom the oath is administered resides outside the State and it is impossible to electronically conduct the evidentiary proceeding, the court may send a letter rogatory to the competent court in such state to conduct the required evidentiary proceeding on the former's behalf, pursuant to the judicial conventions concluded in this regard.

Article (13) 1. If a litigant fails to file the documents or conduct the required evidentiary proceeding,

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Federal Decree – Law No. (35) of 2022 Promulgating the Law of Evidence in Civil and Commercial Transactions 7 the court or the supervising judge, as the case may be, may decide to fine him an amount of not less than (AED 1,000) one thousand dirhams and not more than (AED 10,000) ten thousand dirhams, under a decision to be recorded in the hearing transcript. Such decision shall have the same enforceability of judgments and shall be non-appealable. 2. The court or the supervising judge, as the case may be, may exempt the convict from the fine, in whole or in part, if he has an acceptable excuse. Part 2 Evidence by Admission or Examination of Litigants

Article (21) 1. The court or the supervising judge, as the case may be, may, sua sponte or on a litigant's motion, order to the opposing party to appear for examination. A party to be examined shall appear at the hearing scheduled for the same. 2. If a litigant has an acceptable excuse preventing him from appearing in person to testify, his testimony may be heard via means of remote communication. Failing which, the supervising judge may move to his place to hear his testimony. If the examination is taking place before the court, it may delegate one of its judges to examine him. The court or the supervising judge shall determine the date and place of hearing his testimony, and a transcript on the same shall be drawn up and signed by the delegated or supervising judge and the clerk. 3. If a litigant fails to appear for examination without an acceptable excuse, or refuses to answer without legal justification, the court shall draw its own conclusions at its sole discretion and may admit evidence by way of witness testimony and presumptions in cases where the same is not allowed.

Article (23) 1. The court or the supervising judge, as the case may be, may direct to any litigant the questions it deems appropriate or those requested by the opposing party to be addressed to him by the court. The answer shall be given at the same hearing, except if required, as the court or the supervising judge deems appropriate, to reschedule another date for giving the answer. 2. A litigant may object to a question put to him, and shall indicate the reason for his objection. 3. The court or the supervising judge, as the case may be, may prevent any question which does not relate to the action, has no bearing on evidence or is not admissible. 4. The answer shall take place in the presence of the litigant requesting the examination; however, the examination shall not be contingent upon his appearance. 5. Questions and answers shall be recorded in the hearing transcript and shall be read out to the litigants present. The examined person may correct his answers that he requires to be corrected. The transcript shall be signed by both the judge and clerk. Part 3 Documentary Evidence

Article (28) 1. An informal instrument shall be deemed issued by the person who signed it and legally valid vis-à-vis him, unless this person explicitly denies that the handwriting, signature, signature stamp, or fingerprint attributed to him is his, or his successors deny the same or declare that they do not know that the handwriting, signature, signature stamp, or fingerprint is of the person from whom the right passed to them. 2. The person against whom an informal instrument is invoked and who discusses the content thereof before the supervising judge or the court, as the case may be, may neither deny the validity thereof nor invoke that he does not know that such instrument is issued by the person from whom the right passed to him.

Article (30) 1. Electronic or paper books of merchants shall not be legally valid vis-à-vis non-merchants; however, the data contained therein on the supplies made by the merchants may constitute a base on which the court may administer the suppletory oath to either party, in the matters which may be proved by the testimony of witnesses.

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Federal Decree – Law No. (35) of 2022 Promulgating the Law of Evidence in Civil and Commercial Transactions 13 2. Merchants' mandatory regular books, whether electronic or paper, shall be legally valid in favor of their merchant owner vis-à-vis his merchant opposing party if the dispute is pertaining to a commercial business. Such legal validity may be challenged by counter-evidence, which may be derived from the opposing party's regular books. 3. Mandatory books, whether regular or irregular, electronic or paper, shall be legally valid against their merchant owner with respect to the entries upon which his merchant or non-merchant opposing party relied. In such case, the entries of such books which are in favor of their owner shall also be legally valid in his favor. 4. If either merchant litigants relied on the electronic or paper books of his opposing party and admits, in advance, the accuracy of the contents of such books, and the opposing party unjustifiably refuses to produce or give access to his books, the court may administer a suppletory oath to the party who relies on the book to prove his claim.

Article (32)

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Federal Decree – Law No. (35) of 2022 Promulgating the Law of Evidence in Civil and Commercial Transactions 14 1. Annotating an electronic or paper deed of debt, by the creditor's handwriting without signature, to the effect of the discharge of the debtor shall be legally valid vis-à-vis the creditor until otherwise is proven. Annotating the deed to this effect shall also be legally valid vis-à-vis the creditor, even if such annotation is not written or signed thereby as long as the deed never left his possession. 2. The provision of Clause (1) of this Article shall apply if the creditor establishes, by his handwriting without signature, the discharge of the debtor in another original copy of the deed, or in an acquittance, and the copy or the acquittance, whether electronic or paper, is in the possession of the debtor. 3. Repayment made via electronic means shall be deemed discharge of the debtor.

Article (33) 1. A litigant may request the supervising judge or the court, as the case may be, to order his opposing party to produce any paper or electronic instrument in the latter's possession that has bearing on the action in the following cases: a. If the law entitles him to request the production or receipt thereof; b. If the instrument is shared between him and his opposing party. An instrument shall be deemed jointly belongs to both litigants, in particular if it serves the interests of both litigants, proves their mutual obligations and rights or affects the legal position of both litigants. c. If his opposing party relies on such instrument at any stage of the proceedings. 2. The request referred to in Clause (1) of this Article shall not be admissible unless it satisfies the following elements: d. Description and content of the instrument in as much detail as possible;

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Federal Decree – Law No. (35) of 2022 Promulgating the Law of Evidence in Civil and Commercial Transactions 15 e. The indications and circumstances proving that the instrument is in the opposing party's possession; and f. The fact required to be proved by the instrument, and the grounds for obligating the opposing party to produce it.

Article (34) 1. If the opposing party admits that the instrument is in his possession or he remains silent or the requesting litigant establishes the veracity of his request, the court shall order the instrument to be immediately produced or on the date set by it. 2. If the opposing party refuses to produce the requested instrument after he is given a time limit for one time, the copy produced by the requesting litigant shall be deemed as a carbon copy of the original. If the requesting litigant had not produced a copy of the instrument, the court may accept his statements as to the form and content of the instrument. 3. If the opposing party denies the possession of the instrument and the requesting litigant fails to submit to the court adequate evidence proving the veracity of his request, the requesting litigant may request that the court administers an oath to the opposing party that such instrument does not exist, he has no knowledge of its existence or whereabouts, he is not hiding it, or he did not neglect to search for it in order to prevent his requesting party from using it as evidence. If the opposing party refrains from taking the abovementioned oath and does not defer the oath to the requesting litigant or defers the oath to the requesting litigant who takes the oath, the copy produced by the requesting litigant shall be deemed as a carbon copy of the original. If the requesting litigant had not produced a copy of the instrument, the court may accept the requesting

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Federal Decree – Law No. (35) of 2022 Promulgating the Law of Evidence in Civil and Commercial Transactions 16 litigant's statements as to the form and content of the instrument.

Article (35) 1. In commercial proceedings, a litigant may request that the opposing party produces an instrument related to the proceedings or gives him access thereto to peruse it, and the court shall order the same according to the following controls: a. The instrument must be specific or of a specific type; b. The instrument must be related to the commercial transaction, the subject matter of the proceedings, or leads to revealing the truth about the same; and c. The access to such instrument may not lead to the infringement of any right to trade secrets or any associated rights, unless the court decides otherwise under a substantiated decision. 2. If the opposing party refuses to produce the instrument to the requesting litigant as ordered by the court pursuant to the provisions of Clause (1) of this Article, the court may deem his refusal as a presumption of the veracity of the requesting litigant's claims.

Article (36) In the course of the proceedings, even before the Court of Appeal, the court or the supervising judge, as the case may be, may, either sua sponte or upon a litigant's request, decide as follows: 1. To implead a third party to produce an instrument in his possession; or 2. To request an instrument from a public entity or a certified copy thereof to the effect of being identical to the original where the same is impossible for the litigant. The court or the supervising judge, as the case may be, may request the

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Federal Decree – Law No. (35) of 2022 Promulgating the Law of Evidence in Civil and Commercial Transactions 17 public entity to provide, orally or in writing, the information in its possession relating to the proceedings, without prejudice to the provisions of the relevant legislation.

Article (39) 1. A claim of forgery may be made against formal and informal instruments, while the denial of handwriting, signature stamp, signature or fingerprint may be made only against informal instruments. 2. The litigant who claims forgery shall bear the burden of proving his claim. However, if a litigant denies issuing the informal instrument or his successor or representative deny

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Federal Decree – Law No. (35) of 2022 Promulgating the Law of Evidence in Civil and Commercial Transactions 18 the same or denies knowing of such instrument, his opposing party shall bear the burden of proving that it has been issued by him or his successor. 3. If a litigant affirms the veracity of a signature stamp affixed to the informal instrument but denies that he has affixed the same to the instrument, he shall raise a claim of forgery.

Article (40) If the person against whom an informal instrument is presented denies that the handwriting, signature, signature stamp or fingerprint attributed to him is his, or his successor or representative denies the same or denies knowing of the instrument, and the opposing party insisting on relying on the informal instrument which has a bearing on the dispute, and the facts and documents of the case are not sufficient to convince the court of the veracity of the handwriting, signature, signature stamp or fingerprint, then the court shall order verification by comparison and/or testimony of witnesses, pursuant to the rules and procedures stipulated in the present Law. However, witnesses may be heard only with respect to proving that the handwriting, signature, signature stamp or fingerprint has been affixed to the instrument.

Article (41) 1. The court or supervising judge, as the case may be, shall schedule a date for the appearance of litigants to submit all written instruments in their possession for comparison and agree on those instruments serving this purpose. If the litigant who bears the burden of proof is absent, without an acceptable excuse, the court may rule that his right to prove his claim be forfeited If his opposing litigant is absent, the court

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Federal Decree – Law No. (35) of 2022 Promulgating the Law of Evidence in Civil and Commercial Transactions 19 may deem the instruments submitted for comparison valid for comparison purposes. 2. The litigant who challenges the veracity of the instrument shall appear in person to sit for a handwriting test on the scheduled date. If he abstains from appearing without an acceptable excuse or appears and abstains from sitting for the handwriting test, the court may adjudicate that the instrument is valid.

Article (42) 1. If the litigants fail to agree on the instruments valid for comparison, only the following shall be admissible: a. Handwriting, signature, signature stamp or fingerprint affixed to formal instruments; b. Part of the instrument under investigation whose accuracy is admitted by the opposing party; c. The litigant's handwriting or signature written by him or fingerprint affixed by him before the court; and d. Handwriting, signature, signature stamp or fingerprint affixed to ordinary instruments proved to be attributed to the litigant. 2. Denied handwriting, signature, signature stamp or fingerprint shall be compared to the handwriting, signature, signature stamp or fingerprint proved to be attributed to the party against whom the instrument under investigation is provided as evidence.

Article (44) 1. The claim of forgery may be raised whatever the status of the action is. The claimant of forgery shall specify all points of forgery alleged, his relevant evidence and the investigation procedures required to be followed for proving it. All of the above shall be stated in a memorandum to be submitted to the court, electronically filed or recorded in the electronic or paper transcript of the hearing. 2. In case that the claim of forgery has a bearing on the dispute and the case facts and documents are not sufficient to convince the court of the veracity or forgery of the instrument, and the court deems that the investigation requested by the claimant of forgery has a bearing on the dispute and is admissible, the court shall order the same. 3. The order of investigation into the claim of forgery shall be by way of comparison and/or hearing witnesses, in accordance with the rules and procedures set forth in this Part.

Article (45) 1. The claimant of forgery shall deliver the instrument claimed to be forged, if it is in his possession, or its copy reported to him to the case management office. If he abstains from delivering the instrument or the copy thereof, as the case may be, his right to claim forgery shall be forfeited, and his claim shall not be admitted thereafter. 2. If the instrument is in the litigant's possession, the court shall order him promptly deliver

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Federal Decree – Law No. (35) of 2022 Promulgating the Law of Evidence in Civil and Commercial Transactions 21 the same to the case management office or order to seize and lodge it. If the litigant abstains from delivering the instrument and the court could not seize it, it shall be deemed as not found, and the same shall not prevent the subsequent seizure thereof, if possible. 3. In all cases, the judge presiding the hearing and the clerk shall sign the instrument before it is lodged with the case management office.