Dubai, United Arab Emirates; 17 March 2020: Further to the update provided on March 15, 2020, effective immediately, in an effort to protect the health and wellbeing of our staff and court users, the DIFC Courts employees will operate on a work-from-home remote basis. The doors of the DIFC Courts and Registry offices will also be physically closed from 17 March 2020 until 26 April 2020 (or, pending further notice).
1. Remote hearings, online filings and e-bundling for Court of First Instance (CFI)
Generally speaking, all hearings conducted from 17 March 2020 will be via teleconference.
For hearings already listed, the Registry will be in touch over the next few days with hearing dial-in arrangements.
We urge practitioners to take advantage of the e-bundling platform which is available through the CMS. If you would like further training on e-bundling, please contact ITHelpdesk@difccourts.ae.
If practitioners are unable to use the e-bundling platform (and reasons may be requested by the Registrar), then permission may be sought to lodge bundles in hardcopy. Given that our judges are now located offsite, deadlines for the lodgement of hardcopy bundles will be brought forward to enable delivery to the judge. On that basis, if you wish to request permission for the lodgement of hardcopy bundles, requests are to be sent to the Registry well advance of the hearing, and no later than 8 full days before the hearing.
Those wishing to utilise the e-bundling platform will be subject to the usual deadlines for submission set out in the RDC.
2. Remote hearings for Small Claims Tribunal (SCT)
All hearings conducted for SCT cases will be either through videoconference (for overseas litigants) or teleconference (for those situated in the UAE).
The SCT Team will be in touch with litigants very soon to arrange consultation and hearing logistics.
In line with our usual process, all documents you wish to file in the Small Claims Tribunal must be filed electronically.
3. Registry and enquiries
We continue to encourage practitioners and court users to email the Registry for all enquiries.
A reminder that emails should be addressed as follows:
In the event of urgent queries and applications, please contact the Registry switchboard number on +971 4 427 3333 between 8.00am and 4.00pm, Sunday to Thursday. Should you be unsuccessful in contacting the relevant person through the Registry switchboard number, please contact:
4. IT support
Our excellent IT team is ready to assist with any issue in respect of the Case Management System, dialling into hearings and the e-bundling platform.
All IT related queries are to be directed to ITHelpdesk@difccourts.ae, with the Registry (registry@difccourts.ae) in copy.
5. Urgent applications or extremely urgent queries
For urgent applications or extremely urgent queries outside of office hours, please contact the Registrar on Duty on +971 56 398 9583.
6. Access to the Court and Registry offices
There will be extremely limited access to the Court or Registry Offices from 17 March 2020.
If you have a hearing, and the judge has granted permission to have it onsite, access will be limited only to counsel and the instructing solicitor. Observers and solicitors not active on the case will not be allowed entry.
Access to the DIFC Courts’ library and other rooms will be temporarily closed from 17 March 2020.
7. Special permission to attend Court / Registry
If you have been given permission to attend Court or lodge bundles in hardcopy, please print off the permission email and show it to security on entrance.
8. Pro bono clinic
The pro bono clinics will be temporarily suspended until 26 April 2020 or pending further notice.
9. Payment of court fees
Court filing fees may be paid either through wire transfer or online through the payment link you receive in an email upon filing a document on the Case Management System.
A reminder that for online payments, the payment cap is AED 10,000. If your payment is more than AED 10,000, please make payment through wire transfer.
For online payments, please email through your “Swift Copy” so we can accept payment from our end. For wire transfers, it is always helpful to email us a screenshot of your transfer so we can track it.
All emails must be sent to the Registry (registry@difccourts.ae) attaching the necessary proof of payment. Please ensure that the case name and number is titled in the email. For more detailed enquiries regarding mode of payment, please contact finance@difccourts.ae copying in Shahin.Shaikh@difccourts.ae.
10. Wills Registry
We are currently working with our IT department to make a virtual registration option available to wills as soon as possible. However, this will require some time to set up on our part and we hope to have this available for appointments before the end of next week. The DIFC Wills Service will update all Registered Will Draftsmen once the system is live.
Should you have any enquiries in relation to Will registrations or any registrations that require urgent attention prior to the system being set up please inform us by emailing us on info@difcwills.ae or calling us on +971 4 404 8888. For urgent queries, please contact Shannon Herriot, Manager and Senior Compliance Officer for the Wills Service Centre on +971 56 998 5091.
11. Probate Appointments
Probate appointments will be suspended until 26 April 2020, or pending further notice. If you require urgent assistance with a probate matter, please contact the Registrar on Duty, Nour Hineidi, on +971 56 398 9583.
From our team here at the Courts, we send our very best wishes to all court users for a healthy and safe few weeks ahead.
