The Federal Judicial Council: Private Companies and Offices May Serve Judicial Summons

The Chairman of the Federal Judicial Council issued Decision No. 2 of 2024 on allowing Private Companies and Offices to Serve Judicial Summons (“Decision”). The Decision applies to the private companies or offices which are established in the United Arab Emirates (“the State”) in accordance with the applicable laws, and that their activities and business include the service of processing judicial summons.

The Decision outlined certain conditions which should be complied with by the Private Companies and Offices (“the Entities”) for serving judicial summons. The Entities should follow the legal and professional rules of serving and processing judicial summons and ensure facilitating and expediting the summon processing procedures in agreement with the laws and legislations in force in the State.

According to the Decision, the Entities should create E-records to list all summoning actions carried out by its employees (“Employees”), and to have an adequate number of staff commensurate with the volume of work at all the federal courts, provided that they should hold appropriate academic qualifications, of decent appearance and known for their honesty and professionalism. The Entities have to submit a list of names and information of the Employees whom they nominate to conduct judicial summon services, and to enroll them in the training courses available at the Judicial Training Institute at those Entities’ expense, and may not exercise the judicial summoning services save after completing their training course.

The Decision also stated that the Employees must maintain the confidentiality of the summons related information and parties, and should operate within the time and geographical scope of each federal court separately, in line with Decree Law No. 42 of 2022 of the Civil Procedure, save in cases of necessities and as agreed upon. Furter, the Entities should provide the necessary technical facilities to receive queries of the summon related persons.

According to the Decision, the fee for processing judicial summon related to federal courts shall be AED 70 per summon if served physically upon the intended party and AED 30 per summon if served by any modern communication means.

Further, it is worth mentioning that the Judicial Inspection Department shall carry out the technical supervise on the judicial summon service exercised by the Entities and it may delegate courts in this respect, and it shall be in charge of approving courses and programs tailored for the clerks of summons. Any instruction to the Entities to serve a summon shall be made through the Ministry of Justice, according to the legislations and procedures applicable in the federal governments.

The Decision also pointed out that any provision contained in any other legislation that contravenes or contradicts the provisions of this Decision shall be abrogated.

This Decision has come into force from the date of its issuance.

The author of this alert is Ismail Ezzat.

For more information, please contact him at:

Ismail Ezzat Junior Associate E: ismail.ezzat@galadarilaw.com