Litigation

Litigation is the process of resolving a dispute through the courts. In the UAE, civil litigation typically begins with the claimant filing a statement of claim with the Court of First Instance through the electronic case management system, paying the required court fee (calculated as a percentage of the claim value with a ceiling), and serving the defendant. The court then proceeds through exchange of memoranda, optional expert reports, and — in most civil and commercial cases — a judgment rendered largely on the papers rather than after oral hearings. Proceedings are in Arabic; foreign-language documents must be translated by a legally sworn translator. Judgments of the Court of First Instance can be appealed to the Court of Appeal and, on points of law, to the Court of Cassation.