The Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Courts have unveiled a new suite of digital public services in the week of GITEX Global 2024.
These include a new mediation centre, a digital notary service, and the expansion of its wills offering to cover digital assets.
The new services were unveiled via live demonstrations at GITEX, which is taking place this week at the Dubai World Trade Centre.
The Mediation Service Centre is a new alternative dispute resolution avenue that will enable parties to negotiate the resolution of their dispute with the help of DIFC Courts registered mediators.
Parties will be able to choose the mediators and agree fees and terms in advance, as well as the choice to conduct mediation online using a newly upgraded and AI-enabled Case Management System (CMS), or in-person at the DIFC Courts premises.
The Digital Assets Will enables individuals to distribute their digital assets using a non-custodial wallet.
The new will joins existing types offered by the DIFC Courts, including the full will, property will, financial assets will, the business owners will, and the guardianship will. These wills can be added to tejouri, a global digital vault that launched in 2022 and provides an online safe for data.
The digital notary service provides three options for users: an automated self-service; a live virtual system; and an in-person service for English documents.
Document types accepted for attestation and notarisation will include, but are not limited to, affidavits, witness statements, wills, power of attorney, trade licences, title deeds, health certificates, marriage certificates, and bank statements.
Commenting on the new services, His Excellency Justice Omar Al Mheiri, director of the DIFC Courts, said: “In our new digitally driven societies, individuals and businesses are demonstrating increased desire for easily accessible public services. The strong growth momentum arising from the implementation of the Dubai Economic Agenda D33, and the Dubai Digital Strategy, has touched a diverse range of sectors, including government legal services. Our obligation is to deploy the latest emerging technologies to facilitate this growth and demand.”
“Breaking down the boundaries of access to justice sits at the core of our operations and these new digital services provide ease of process across administrative tasks, such as notarisation, to more complex matters involving alternative dispute resolution and inheritance,” he said. “The DIFC Courts, together with its public and private sector partners, is proud to spearhead some of the UAE’s most progressive government legal services, supported by smart technology implementations.”
Established in 2004, the DIFC Courts are Dubai’s English language common law judicial system and form a key part of the UAE legal system, They are independent from, but complementary to, the UAE’s Arabic-language civil law system.
