‘Juvenile court cases handled differently than adult criminal cases’

People are always perplexed about criminal, civil law cases: Hajri

KUWAIT CITY, Nov 27: Faris AlHajri belongs to a family of advocates. Graduating from the Kuwait University, he has been practicing law since 8 years. Hajri claims he has never lost a case. However, in his experience he has come across vari- ous criminal and civil cases.

Hajri says “coming from a family of lawyers, I always got the exposure I needed. My father was a prominent advocate in Kuwait and always directed me towards law”.

He says people are always perplexed about criminal and civil law cases whereas these are two different categories. Hajri explained “it is a crime to break into a home because this act violates the privacy and safety of the occupant. That is a criminal case”.

Civil law cases deal with disputes between private parties, or negligent acts that cause harm to others. For example, if individuals or companies disagree over the terms of an agreement, or who owns land or buildings, or whether a person was wrongfully dismissed from their employment, they may file a lawsuit asking the courts to decide who is right”.

Hajri recalls a case where a juvenile was charged as an adult for harassing a lady but wanted his trial to be shifted to juvenile court as punishments are less severe upon convic- tion there. He recommended the defendant should be a part of a program of supervision, care and rehabilitation.

Juvenile court cases are handled differently than adult criminal cases. In juvenile court, there are no juries and all cases are handled by a judge. While adult court proceedings focus more on punishment, in juvenile court the focus is on rehabilitation, he added.

Hajri currently plans on doing his LLM from New Jersey as he says he spent part of childhood days there. He encourages young Kuwaiti lawyers to get good education abroad and work here as Kuwait provides a vast scope.