Sharjah Court Timing: Working Hours, Where to Go and How to Check Your Case

Direct answer. Sharjah's courts sit under the Sharjah Judicial Department, and the emirate's official judiciary platform, sjd.ae, lists working hours of Monday to Thursday, 7:30 am to 3:30 pm. It gives its location as the Al Layyah (Al Khan) area, near Khalid Port. Those are office hours, not your hearing time. The court fixes your session, and the Civil Procedure Code (Federal Decree-Law No. 42 of 2022), which governs civil procedure before the federal and local courts, including Sharjah's, makes a served party responsible for following its adjournments. To check a Sharjah case, use the Sharjah judiciary e-services linked from sjd.ae, not the Dubai Courts portal. This guide covers who runs the Sharjah courts, the hours and holiday rules, finding your hearing, the case inquiry, remote sessions, and missed dates.

Who runs the courts in Sharjah today

Start here, because it decides which website, which office and which phone number you need.

Sharjah now has its own judicial system. The sjd.ae platform presents three bodies together: the Judicial Council, the Judicial Department and the Public Prosecution. In July 2025 the Sharjah Government Media Bureau reported that the Sharjah Court of Cassation had started work and issued its first rulings. The court was set up under Law No. (7) of 2025 on the Regulation of Judicial Authority in the emirate. The Bureau described the Court of Cassation as the court that hears challenges to judgments issued by the appeal courts.

This matters because many guides still tell Sharjah residents to use the federal Ministry of Justice portal. You may also still find Sharjah listed among the federal-judiciary emirates on some pages. For a case before a Sharjah court, the emirate's own platform is the place to look. Your summons or case papers name the court that issued them, so check that line first.

If you are not sure which court system your dispute belongs to at all, read our guide to which UAE court handles your case before you go anywhere.

Sharjah court timings: office hours, hearings and holidays

"Court timing" means three different things, and each has a different source. Mixing them up is how people arrive at a closed office or miss a session.

Office hours and customer service

The sjd.ae platform lists its working hours as Monday to Thursday, 7:30 am to 3:30 pm. Friday is not among the listed working days, so do not plan a Friday visit without confirming on sjd.ae or through its support channel first. Hours can also change in Ramadan and around public holidays, so check the platform again in those weeks.

Treat any clock time you read on a third-party site as a guess. The platform's own listing is the only one that counts. Many errands no longer need an office visit at all, because requests can be raised and tracked online.

Hearing times are set by the court

You do not book a hearing. Once a claim is registered, the Case Management Office prepares the case and the court lists it for a session. Article 45 of the Civil Procedure Code places this office "at the seat of the competent court". It handles "registration and service, exchange of submissions, documents and experts' reports between the litigants".

After that, the judge controls the calendar. Article 57(1) puts the burden on you: "A duly-served litigant shall follow up on the adjournments, hearing dates and proceedings". Decisions made after the case starts take effect "with no need to serve a notice", with narrow exceptions. In plain terms, once you have been served, nobody has to remind you of the next date. Check the case file after every session.

When a hearing falls on a public holiday

Article 57(2) of the Civil Procedure Code deals with this directly. It covers a hearing or judgment date that "falls on a public holiday for any reason whatsoever". That session is adjourned "to the same day on the week following such antecedent date with no need to serve a notice thereon".

So a Thursday hearing that lands on a holiday moves to the following Thursday, and no new notice will arrive. Write the new date in your diary yourself.

When court papers can be served

Process servers work to a clock of their own. Under Article 7(1), service of process or execution steps take place "between seven in the morning [07:00 am] and nine in the afternoon [09:00 pm]". On public holidays they happen only in urgent cases with a judge's permission. That window does not apply to service by "modern means of communication", such as electronic notice, except recorded calls (Article 7(2)). A text or email notice can therefore arrive at any hour and still count.

Where the Sharjah courts are

The sjd.ae platform gives one location: the Al Layyah (Al Khan) area, near Khalid Port, Sharjah. Do not assume that is where your hearing takes place. A court system has more than one building and more than one circuit, and buildings change.

Before you travel:

• Read the court and circuit named on your notice or in the electronic case file.
• Confirm the building through the sjd.ae support channel, or ask your lawyer.
• Allow time for parking, security screening and finding the right hall.
• Keep your case number with you; staff locate files by it.

If you live on the east coast of the emirate, check whether your matter can be handled remotely before you plan a long drive. The remote-hearing section below explains how.

How to check your Sharjah court case

The Sharjah judiciary platform describes its e-services as covering case inquiry, public prosecution services and the litigation system. The e-services portal sits at eservice.sjd.ae and opens with a sign-in page. A mobile app is also listed for Android and iOS.

What to have ready

Every inquiry works faster with the right details to hand:

• Case number and year. Take them from your summons, a payment receipt or a court message, exactly as printed.
• Your Emirates ID and passport. Keep both ready in case the portal or the service office asks for identity details.
• Your role in the case. Know whether you are the claimant, the defendant or a third party.
• Any power of attorney. If a relative or lawyer checks for you, they will usually need your authority. Our guide to powers of attorney in the UAE explains how to issue one.

Step by step

Portals are redesigned often, so follow the logic rather than memorising screens:

1. Open sjd.ae and go to its services area.
2. Choose the e-services portal and sign in.
3. Find the case inquiry or request tracking service.
4. Search with the case number and year, then open the case to see its stage, the circuit and the next session.

If you cannot find the case, check the year and the case type first. Then check whether the case has moved stage. An appeal or an execution file can carry its own number, separate from the first-instance case.

What the inquiry will not tell you

A status screen is not your full file. It shows where the case stands, not the arguments or the expert's working. It also covers only that court system. A Sharjah inquiry will not show a case filed in Dubai, Abu Dhabi or a free-zone court, and a Dubai inquiry will not show a Sharjah case.

Criminal matters

Criminal cases begin with the police and the Public Prosecution, not the court. The sjd.ae platform presents the Sharjah Public Prosecution alongside the courts, so public prosecution services are part of the same platform. Once a case is referred to a criminal court, it becomes a court file with its own case number.

If your papers name a federal court

Some matters may be before a federal court. In that case, use the Ministry of Justice channels at moj.gov.ae. Its toll-free number is 800 333 333, and its smart services site links to a portal for virtual sessions. Use the system that issued your papers; a case number from one system means nothing in another.

Attending in person or remotely

Remote hearings are part of the Civil Procedure Code, not a temporary arrangement. Article 331 lets the president of the court, the president of the circuit or the competent judge "take the procedures remotely whenever they decide to do so at every stage of the civil lawsuit". Article 330 says the rules on attendance, publicity, pleading and judgments still apply when a step is done wholly or partly remotely.

You can also ask to attend in person. Under Article 333, in a remote trial "any of the parties to the case" may ask the court to hold the trial in person, and the court decides after notifying the other parties.

Two points matter most in Sharjah:

• Check your notice or the electronic case file for whether the session is remote or in person. If it is unclear, ask through sjd.ae support or your lawyer.
• File written submissions through the e-services system before the deadline the court sets, rather than bringing them to the session. What counts as evidence is covered in our guide to evidence rules in UAE civil cases.

If you miss a hearing in Sharjah

A missed session does not pause the case. The Civil Procedure Code sets out what happens next:

A defendant who filed a statement of defence, was represented by a lawyer, or issued a power of attorney before the Case Management Office or at a hearing is treated as present, "even if the Defendant fails to appear thereafter" (Article 54(1)). The appeal clock matters too. Under Article 153(1), the time limit to challenge a judgment normally runs from the day after it is issued. In some cases it runs from the date of service instead, for example where the losing party missed every hearing and filed no defence.

If you have already missed a date, act the same day. Check the case file for what was ordered, and get advice on any challenge deadline. The exact time limit depends on the judgment and the case type.

Before court: check where your matter starts

Some disputes do not start at the courthouse at all, and arriving there first wastes a trip.

• Labour claims. Under Article 54 of the Labour Law (Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021, as amended), a worker or employer first applies to the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MOHRE). Under the article's current text, MOHRE itself decides claims of up to AED 50,000 (and disputes over a breached MOHRE settlement); other claims that do not settle go to court. Check the current process on mohre.gov.ae before you file.
• Family matters. Divorce, custody and maintenance follow their own route. Our guide to family court jurisdiction and process in the UAE explains the steps.
• Civil claims. For the full arc from filing to judgment, see our civil lawsuit process and timelines guide. The procedural rules are in the Civil Procedure Code.

Under Article 48(2), a defendant must submit a statement of defence "not later than [10] ten business days following the date of being served the process". If you have just been served, that clock is already running.

Quick recap for Sharjah litigants

• Right portal. Check a Sharjah case through sjd.ae; Dubai Courts and the federal portal will not show it.
• Your dates are your job. Under Article 57, once you are served you follow the adjournments yourself.
• Arabic is the court language. Article 5 of the Civil Procedure Code makes Arabic the official language of the courts, with an interpreter for those who do not speak it, so have documents in a foreign language translated well before your hearing date.

When to get legal help

Knowing the hours is the easy part. What decides a case is how you respond to what the case file shows. If the inquiry shows a new hearing, a judgment or an execution file you did not expect, get advice before the next date.

You can find a litigation lawyer on LEXAI, compare profiles and contact the lawyer directly. You deal with the lawyer and pay the lawyer yourself, outside LEXAI. For quick orientation on what a status entry means before you brief anyone, you can also ask the LEXAI AI assistant. This guide is general information, not legal advice.