Dubai: Dubai Courts Department (DCD) was among the first departments across the emirate to adopt the smart government initiative by transforming its services into smart ones.
Since the announcement of the smart government initiative, DCD announced in June 2013 the launching of its ‘Smart Court’ campaign that has aimed at improving public services and procedures via smartphone applications.
“That step was among DCD’s major achievements during 2013. It has placed the department at the forefront of its counterparts, especially in terms of achieving the vision of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, in launching the ‘Smart Government’ programme. Such an unprecedented move has helped to develop the legal system in Dubai. It also makes the legal system to be consistent with all sort of developments across the emirate,” said Chief Judge Eisa Al Sharif, Head of Dubai Appeal Court.
DCD, which is the caretaker of the legal system in the emirate, constantly enhances its services and procedures and continues to do so in a well-established pattern to keep up with the development in Dubai, he said.
In exclusive comments to Gulf News, Al Sharif said: “Dubai Courts Department has become known on the world map of judicial departments. DCD has and constantly remains abreast of all upward trends whether financial, commercial, cultural, civic or social — through the highly-sophisticated, swift and qualified services that it caters to its strategic partners and litigating parties.”
Dubai Court of First Instance started functioning in 1958, he said, and 1970 witnessed the launch of the Appeal Court. Eighteen years later the Dubai Cassation Court was launched.
“Back then, DCD was located in what used to be known as Naif Fort. It was a two-story ancient building ... later it moved to another location behind Dubai Municipality. In 1992, the department moved to its current location near Dubai Creek. The process of expanding the building, the courtrooms, sections and administrations, and judges’ offices went on gradually until it reached its current structure. The expansion and development process went smoothly and in par with the boom in Dubai.
“What made DCD outclass its counterparts was the quality of e-services rendered to the judicial body such as judges, lawyers and clients. DCD also became the first department to introduce specialised courts for real estate, commercial, sharia, labour, civil and more.”
The Appeal Court head further praised the swiftness in the adjudication process in cases at DCD.
“The rate of achievement with regard to case adjudication was accompanied by a distinction in achieving justice within the society through precision and speed in settlement, adjudication of claims and execution of judgements. That was all thanks to DCD’s initiative of key performance indicators. All such performances and achievements are published in DCD’s annual report. The annual report reveals the achievements of DCD and contributes to enhancing the competitiveness as well. The findings and statistics that are published annually evidently prove that there is more stability and development in all sectors. The report also helps DCD in avoiding all negatives,” he added.
The report reflects the commitment of DCD’s departments and sections to the pursuit of excellence, and their ongoing quest to improve its organisational performance.
Meanwhile DCD’s Centre for Amicable Settlements of Disputes [civil cases], is highly appreciated by Al Sharif, who said it has acquired enough expertise that helps in resolving massive case loads.
In terms of advanced e-services, DCD renders excellent electronic services such as the e-judge, e-lawyer, e-courtroom, e-case registration and e-notary public.
“Many electronics services have been made available and downloadable on computers, laptops, tablets and smart phones. In addition to all this, plenty of laws and landmark rulings have also been made available on different software programs and applications which help the members of the judicial industry in their legal research. DCD also launched a very remarkable service called Shoor [advice]. Shoor is a free program that offers free legal consultations to litigants. More than 55 lawyers have volunteered in that program and offered free legal advice to nearly 920 litigants over 1350 hours between October 2012 and October 2013,” said the Chief Judge.
