| Like many countries around the world, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) encounters severe congestion in its court system. In a system with three tiers of trial, a lawsuit might stay in the court for years before reaching final judgment. As a result, the legislature in the UAE barred the parties from filing any civil lawsuit in the court before having it reviewed by one of the newly established Conciliation and Settlement Committees. The committee, which is composed of a judge and two laypersons, attempts to resolve the dispute in an amicable way through applying nonbinding conciliation. Because of the insignificant amount of studies about the committees, many unforeseen issues and troubles have emerged. Many lawyers were also skeptical about the committees' role and contribution to resolve the delays in the court system. This distrust was due to their belief that these committees are nothing but another hurdle in the trial procedure. Thus, an extensive study is needed to address these issues. This study is the first in the UAE to address the committees' role and it aims to correct any misconceptions related to the role of the committees by evaluating their role and demonstrating their effect in reducing the number of lawsuits in courts. It utilizes the well-known American jurisprudence in the ADR field in order to explain and predict flaws that might exist in the system. The study shows that utilizing nonbinding ADR is not new to the UAE judicial system and that the legislature approach has proven to be effective in reducing judicial congestion. This study will pioneer the ADR library in the UAE and contribute, generally, to the advancement of the judicial system in the UAE, specifically, to the Conciliation and Settlement Committees. |
