‘One Stop Shop’ for justice now a reality
Abu Dhabi Judicial Department enables remote case access via video conferencing
The Abu Dhabi Judicial Department (ADJD) has announced the launch of a new initiative dubbed ‘One Stop Shop for Litigation’ that will allow judges of Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Al Dhafra courts to hear disputes and render judgements from anywhere without being restricted by the geographical location where a case is registered, relying on the use of video conference technology.
This is facilitated while taking into account the courts’ jurisdiction and enforcement of judgements in the same geographical location where a case was registered.
The initiative, which is the first of its kind in the world, complements ADJD’s efforts towards streamlining procedures and speeding up the resolution of dispute in order to achieve its strategic priority of enhancing effectiveness and sustainability of judicial processes and delivering efficient justice, ADJD explained.
Electronic litigation
Yousef Saeed Al-Abri, the Undersecretary of ADJD, confirmed that this step has helped the courts of the emirate achieve global leadership in the field of electronic litigation. It came as part of the directives of Shaikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Presidential Affairs and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department, to meet the judicial and legal needs, adapt to the rapid developments witnessed by the emirate of Abu Dhabi and achieve the goal of having developed and integrated legal and judicial system capable of providing fast and flexible judicial services, in conformity with the best international practises and standards.
The initiative will lead to reduction in litigation time and increase in the rate of disposition, in addition to decreasing the cost of litigation.
Transfer of knowledge
On the other hand, the one-stop-shop will contribute to enhancing the community’s confidence in the judicial system through the transfer of knowledge among judges and raising the efficiency of judges in remote courts as they will have to hear and resolve more cases while making further communication and deliberations with judges of other courts.
Al-Abri also indicated that the initiative benefited from the remote litigation technology, by making optimal use of technical resources of ADJD, which is considered the most sophisticated in the region.