Who This is for
An invoice unpaid past every reasonable follow-up, a client who now disputes work they accepted, a partner who has stopped responding.
Proceedings have been registered and there is a date. What matters now is that the response is prepared properly and lodged within the period allowed.
This is the point at which the file should be assembled — while documents can still be obtained and positions recorded.
Obtaining an award and recovering against it are separate exercises with separate procedures.
Internal disagreements that have moved to letters, or to a filing.
Jurisdiction may sit with a particular court, with a financial free zone’s own courts, with arbitration, or with a specialised committee, depending on what was agreed and where.
What's Included
How it Works
Assessment
We read what you have before saying anything about the merits. Contracts, invoices, correspondence, payment records, delivery documents, any prior legal exchange.
Position, evidence, jurisdiction
Three questions in order: what is your claim or defence in substance; what in the file actually evidences it; and which forum hears it. A strong position with no evidence, or good evidence in the wrong forum, both fail — for different reasons and at different costs.
A recommendation, including the recommendation not to proceed
Some matters should be settled, some should be written off, and some should be brought. We tell you which category we think yours falls into and why. Where the cost of pursuing a claim is likely to exceed what is realistically recoverable, we say so before you instruct us, not after.
Pre-action
Formal notice, and where appropriate a documented attempt to resolve. This is part of the record, and it is read.
Preparation and filing
The claim, the bundle and the translations, filed with the court, with fees paid and the case registered.
Conduct of the matter
Hearings, submissions, expert stages where the court appoints one, and instructions taken from you at each decision point. You are told what has happened after each stage in terms you can act on.
Judgment and enforcement
If an award is obtained, enforcement is a separate application with its own process. Recovery depends on what the other side actually holds, which is a question worth asking before the first filing rather than after the last.
What We Need from You
Send the unhelpful documents as well. Anything you leave out will be produced by the other side at a worse moment.
Timeline and Cost
We do not publish durations for court matters. Timelines are set by the court’s own process, by the other side’s conduct, by whether an expert stage is ordered and by whether a decision is appealed. Anyone offering a schedule at the outset is describing a hope.
Our fee is fixed and agreed in writing against a defined scope of work — the assessment, the pre-action stage, preparation and filing, and each subsequent stage quoted as it is reached, so you always know what the next step costs before you authorise it. We do not charge a percentage of amounts claimed or recovered. Court fees, translation, expert fees and enforcement costs are payable to the relevant body and shown to you separately, at cost.
We make no representation about the outcome of any matter, and we will not tell you what a court will decide.
Get a Fixed QuoteWhere it Goes Wrong
Work delivered on a verbal instruction, a variation agreed in a phone call, an extension granted informally. The dispute is about what happened; the file is about what can be shown. These are not the same thing, and the gap between them is decided long before anyone considers filing.
Once a relationship deteriorates, people send messages that read very differently when they are exhibited to a court. Everything written after a dispute starts is part of the record, including the messages sent at two in the morning.
A contract may point to a particular court, to a financial free zone’s own courts, to arbitration, or to nothing at all. Filing in the wrong forum costs time and fees, and time may be the thing you cannot recover.
Contracts frequently contain notice periods and claim-notification requirements. Missing one can affect a claim that is otherwise sound. This is found in the file, not in the law, and it is found by reading.
Whether the other side holds anything recoverable is a question for the beginning. A judgment against an entity with no assets is a document.
A contract executed personally instead of by the company, or by a company whose licensed activity did not cover the work, changes who can sue, who can be sued, and what can be claimed.
A case registered against an individual, an absconding report, or an unresolved fine can restrict travel and complicate everything else. It is a separate process and it needs handling separately.
Questions
Can you tell me whether I will win?
No. We will tell you what your file supports, what it is missing, and what the process involves. Anyone who tells you more than that is selling something.
How long will a case take?
That depends on the court’s process, the other side’s conduct, whether an expert stage is ordered and whether the decision is appealed. We will not give you a duration at the outset, because we would be guessing.
Do you charge a percentage of what is recovered?
No. Fees are fixed against a defined scope and agreed in writing before the work starts. Court and third-party costs are shown separately, at cost.
A claim has been filed against me. What is the first thing to do?
Send us the paper and tell us the date you received it. Response periods run from service, and the first decision — whether to defend, to contest jurisdiction, or to settle — is easier to make well when it is not made late.
Can you act if the contract says the dispute goes to arbitration?
The forum is determined by what was agreed. We review the clause first, because filing in a court where the parties agreed to arbitrate, or the reverse, wastes time and money.
My documents are in English. Is that a problem?
Proceedings before the UAE courts are conducted in Arabic and documents generally require legal translation. We arrange sworn translation as part of the file preparation.
Can I bring a case if I am not in the UAE?
Usually, through a notarised and attested power of attorney. We tell you at the outset which steps, if any, require your presence.
What if the other side has no money?
Then a judgment may not produce a recovery. We would rather raise that at assessment than after you have funded a case to its conclusion.
Is it worth pursuing a small claim?
Sometimes not. Where the likely cost of pursuit exceeds what is realistically recoverable, we say so and suggest what else can be done — including a documented settlement, which is often the better commercial answer.