Evening courts in Abu Dhabi set up to speed judicial process

Abu Dhabi: Shaikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Presidential Affairs and Chairman of Judicial Department in Abu Dhabi, has issued instructions to set up evening courts to speed up legal procedures.

Sultan Saeed Al Badi, undersecretary of the Judicial Department, yesterday told Gulf News that although these courts will handle all cases, the first evening court will be the Commercial Court at Al Nahyan Complex, which will deal with financial and investment-related cases.

"The evening courts will be launched gradually in accordance with a timeframe in a number of areas, especially remote districts, to ease the burden of the courts downtown and spare litigants and judicial officials from inconvenience."

Increasing efficiency

Abu Dhabi will become the first emirate to have evening courts.

The evening courts, Al Badi said, not only involve additional working hours, they are also a system which enables litigants to seek justice without wasting working hours during the day, and prevents a backlog of cases.

Al Badi said Shaikh Mansour's instructions are in keeping with the government's restructuring effort to improve services and increase efficiency and accountability.

"The move was prompted by the growing number of cases being registered with courts across the emirates, including those involving commercial, banking, insurance and labour-related disputes," he said.

Abu Dhabi will also launch specialised courts to handle investment and securities-related cases in addition to industrial disputes.