DIFC Courts

What are DIFC Courts?

The Dubai International Financial Centre Courts (DIFC) were established in the year 2004, by virtue of law enacted namely Dubai Law No.12 of 2004. Moreover, for specifying the jurisdiction of Courts and for providing speedy and independent administration of justice DIFC Law no. 10 of 2004 was enacted to set out the powers, procedures, function, and administration.

The DIFC Courts follows and works upon the principle of Common Law System. Furthermore, the official language of DIFC Courts is English. The disputes such as commercial or civil whether national, regional, or worldwide are amenable to the jurisdiction of DIFC Courts.

To opt the jurisdiction of DIFC Courts the parties/party signatory to the contract must adopt the jurisdiction of DIFC Courts, if they wish to pursue litigation or resolve the dispute as per the law applicable in DIFC.

• Disputes where the amount of the subject matter of the case is less than 500k AED.
• Matters relating to Employment disputes, wherein the parties to the dispute have agreed in writing to settle their claims and disputes within the jurisdiction of DIFC Small claims Tribunal
• Where the amount of the subject matter of the case is less than 1 million AED, and parties in the disputes have agreed in writing earlier to settle their disputes within the jurisdiction of DIFC Small claims Tribunal
• Any other cases which the Chief Justice may deem fit which are to be tried and settled by Small Claims Tribunal.

This Court holds single judge proceedings having a complete jurisdiction over the disputes mentioned below:

• Disputes emanating from establishments/entities operating within or registered under DIFC laws.
• Disputes arising from breach of contract which involves jurisdiction of DIFC Courts.
• Objections and Appeals arising from impugned orders passed by DIFC regulatory bodies which fall under DIFC laws.
• Any application that falls under the jurisdiction of DIFC Courts.

Court of appeal is the highest court in DIFC legal framework. The parties which are aggrieved by the order passed by lower courts/tribunal appeal in this Court. Moreover, institutions of fresh cases are barred in this court only matters relating to appeal or judicial review are entertained by this court.

This division deals with the cases which involves question of technology or expertise and need to be adjudicated by the person possessing special knowledge or skills in that field such as data breach, misuse of data, disputes regarding ownership and many more. Moreover, the disputes regarding engineering works or claims arising from any untoward incident caused at constructing sites or sectors are dealt in this court.

Arbitration proceedings are also conducted in DIFC courts. The common law principle is followed in arbitration proceedings. Moreover, these courts consist of judges specialized in International Arbitration and deals with matters including but not limited to interpretation of arbitration agreements, imposing, or granting interim measures during arbitral proceedings and execution of awards passed in proceedings.

DIFC courts were established with an aim to ensure highest international standards of legal procedure are met out and to provide fast, reliable, and efficient services to the global institutions.

Nour Attorneys Law Firm tends to provide best services to its clients and ensures that their rights may be protected in any situation. Moreover, our highly qualified team of lawyers and legal consultants has expertise in defending and contesting cases before the DIFC Courts and presenting our clients in arbitral proceedings.

Our law firm cooperates with the clients to prepare litigation claims before the institutional and special courts and to represent the client and plead before said courts to achieve client’s best interests by assigning the task to a licensed lawyer who is highly experienced and fully capable of pleading before courts.