Abu Dhabi: The Federal National Council is set to debate on Wednesday a draft law to fast-track out-of-the-court settlement of trade claims worth less than Dh500,000, Shaikh Mohammad Abdullah Al Nuaimi, a member from Ajman, said.

Shaikh Mohammad, also chairman of the Legislative Committee at the House, added that a report made by an ad-hoc committee suggested that the settlement period of these small claims be brought down to not more than 63 working days.

Shaikh Mohammad said the draft law covers claims worth less than Dh500,000, claims worth more than Dh500,000 in which parties may voluntarily resort to out-of-the-court settlements and claims which have no fixed amont.

The Federal Law No 26 regarding the Establishment of Conciliation and Reconciliation Committees at the Federal Courts was passed in 1999 and has subsequently been amended. The law set up conciliation committees in all the Federal Courts (Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Fujairah). The Abu Dhabi Courts still apply Law No 26 despite having opted out of the federal court system in 2007. The Conciliation and Reconciliation Committees, which form part of the Courts, are responsible for facilitating settlement of civil, commercial and labour disputes. The Courts will not issue a case if the parties have not first submitted the dispute to the Conciliation and Reconciliation Committee. Parties will usually be asked to attend on at least seven days’ notice. The law provides that the Conciliation and Reconciliation Committee and the parties have 30 days to achieve a settlement, though it takes a conciliation committee months to reach a settlement.

If a settlement is reached, it is embodied in a court document. Significantly, the settlement is treated as a writ of execution and, therefore, in the event of default by one party the settlement can be directly enforced without first obtaining a judgement.

There are also a number of other committees which have been set up with the word “mediation” in their title, but they are not a form of mediation in the traditional ‘reconciliation’ sense of the word. For example, in Sharjah, the Rental Mediation Committee actually has exclusive jurisdiction to consider tenancy disputes in Sharjah applying Sharjah law. There is no right to bring a claim before the Courts and there is no appeal from the Committee’s decision.

Members of the House will also put questions to a number of ministers about economy diversification, Emiratisation in the insurance industry, counselling for only Emirati marriages and announcing vacant jobs in the federal government.