(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Court seeks to sign an agreement that will enhance enforceability of its rulings.
Dubai — DIFC Courts is strengthening its global clout by signing several agreements with foreign courts and another deal with Chinese courts is under discussion.
This was disclosed by a senior official of DIFC Courts which covers the Dubai International Financial Centre during a news conference on Sunday. It was held to announce the details of the court’s 2014 annual report.
The agreement will seek enforcement of DIFC Courts’ judgments as trade ties between Dubai and China is increasing significantly year on year. Last year China was the biggest trading partner of Dubai. Trade jumped 29 per cent to Dh175 billion or $47.7 billion.
Last year agreements were reached with Australia and Kenya and this year with Singapore’s Supreme Court and the US Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York.
“We need to connect as a court with countries that are most important to our country and most important to Dubai” DIFC Courts’ registrar Mark Beer told the news conference.
He declined to predict any date for the final agreement but confirmed the discussion in this regard. He mentioned that it would flesh out and cover the mechanics of a broad ministry-to-ministry agreement that already exists.
A dedicated Enforcement Department was also established in 2014 with the responsibility of handling the enforcement of all DIFC Courts’ decisions locally and internationally.
The DIFC Courts annual report said that 2014 was a milestone year in the history of Dubai’s English language common law courts with the total value of claims and counterclaims filed increasing by 81 per cent to cross Dh1 billion for the first time.
Cases totalling Dh1.76 billion in value were filed with the DIFC Courts in 2014 while the caseloads of the Court of First Instance (CFI) and Small Claims Tribunal (SCT) rose by 29 per cent and 69 per cent respectively. In addition the size and complexity of cases continued to rise with the average claim amount in the CFI increasing by 25 per cent from Dh33.5 million per case in 2013 to Dh42 million in the following year.
Michael Hwang Chief Justice of the DIFC Courts said: “Dubai’s reputation as an international centre of excellence for dispute resolution grew in 2014 alongside the increasing size and complexity of cases handled by the DIFC Courts. In line with our goal to offer an advanced world-class judicial system we constantly explored potential areas for improvement last year. In particular our ceaseless efforts to ensure the enforceability of DIFC Courts judgments across the globe garnered considerable success and we are steadily building one of the world’s strongest enforcement regimes.”
To ensure the efficient management of their increasing workload last year the DIFC Courts streamlined their processes to the extent that half of their written judgments are produced within a month and on average judgments are delivered within two-and-a-half months. In 2014 90 per cent of SCT cases were settled in less than three weeks and overall 92 per cent of cases in the DIFC Courts were resolved through settlement without the need for a trial.
—
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.