Suspension of Litigation in the UAE Federal Civil Procedure Law

Dr. Ghassan Arnous
Legal Advisor at Zayed Al Shamsi Advocates and Legal Consultants.

A civil lawsuit is the legal means granted by the legislator to individuals to claim their legal rights that are subject to infringement. Once the case is brought before the competent civil or commercial court, the court initiates legal proceedings until a final judgment is issued.

However, the progress of the case may be affected by certain incidents, among them is the suspension of litigation. The UAE legislator, in Articles (103) and (104) of the Federal Civil Procedure Law of 2022, identified the cases in which litigation or the proceedings are suspended, as follows:

Article 103 of the mentioned law states:

“1. The case may be suspended if the parties agree not to proceed with it for a period not exceeding six (6) months from the date the court approves their agreement. Such suspension shall not affect any mandatory time limit prescribed by law for any procedure. Neither party may resume the case during that period without the consent of the other.

2. If none of the parties resumes the case within eight (8) days following the end of the agreed period, the plaintiff shall be considered to have abandoned the case, and the appellant shall be considered to have abandoned the appeal. The Case Management Office shall then present the case to the competent judge after the expiration of the mentioned period for a decision to be issued accordingly.”

From the wording of the above article, it is noted that suspension of litigation in this case is by agreement. However, there is another case that does not depend on the will of the litigants but is ordered by the court. This is stated in Article (104) of the Federal Civil Procedure Law:

“The court shall order the suspension of the case if it sees that the judgment on the subject matter is dependent on the resolution of another issue on which the judgment depends. Once the reason for suspension is removed, any of the litigants may request the resumption of the case.”

From the above, we observe that the UAE legislator was keen to give the parties in the case the opportunity to pursue reconciliation efforts in order to reach a settlement, and thus allowed them to request the court to suspend the case for a specific period. On the other hand, the court may find that issuing a fair judgment in the case before it depends on resolving another matter. In such cases, the most appropriate procedure the court resorts to is the suspension of litigation.