Scope of work
Civil law is the root from which most everyday dealings between individuals and businesses grow: a contract concluded, an obligation performed or breached, a harm suffered that calls for repair. The UAE Civil Transactions Law governs these relationships closely, but applying its provisions to a particular set of facts is where the real legal work lies: characterising the relationship, identifying the obligation breached, and proving both the damage and the causal link.
We handle the contractual side at both stages. Before a dispute, we draft and review agreements on the assumption that the text will one day be read by a judge: the subject matter and the term, the grounds for rescission and any agreed compensation, the mechanism for resolving disagreement and the governing law. After a dispute arises, we build the claim on what the file can actually prove: specific performance, or rescission with damages, or set-off and restitution, according to what best serves the client.
Tortious liability reaches wider than contract: harm to person or property caused by another, motor accidents, professional error, and liability for things and for those in one's care. In these actions the assessment of damages is the real battleground, so we document the material and moral loss and any earnings forgone, supported by technical expertise where the file calls for it.
What we do in this area
- Drafting, reviewing and negotiating civil contracts: sale, lease, contracting, services, loan and guarantee.
- Claims for performance of a contractual obligation, or for rescission together with damages for the loss suffered.
- Tortious liability claims and compensation for material loss, moral harm and forgone earnings.
- Claims arising from motor accidents and workplace injury, pursued with the insurers where relevant.
- Professional negligence claims and liability for things, animals and buildings.
- Unjust enrichment, payment of what was not due, and recovery of sums paid without lawful cause.
- Payment orders and interim or protective measures to preserve rights before the merits are decided.
- Appeals and cassation in civil judgments, and enforcement proceedings.
How we work
A civil file is won on the documents before it is won on the podium. We begin by going through the client's papers one by one, identifying what proves the relationship, what proves the breach and what quantifies the loss, then tell the client plainly what the file is missing, before proceedings are issued rather than after.
And we weigh the route with a commercial eye: not every claim is worth an action, and a considered settlement can serve the client better than a judgment that takes years. We say so when that is the right answer.