A recent amendment in the Civil Procedures Code (Federal Law number 11 of 1992) by virtue of Federal Law no. 10 of 2017 initiated a setup of the expert court to be presided by one judge along with two local and international experts.

This is in accordance with Article 30 of the new Law. Post the enactment of the new Law, recently in April 2019; the law was first implemented in Abu Dhabi Judicial Department.

In addition, a new decision has been passed by Chairman of Judicial Department 6/2019 regarding the competence of the expert court. The decision requires the expert to be aware and competent of the disputes referred to them. Furthermore, the expert courts would be no less than the major courts and would hold the same authority as that of major courts, pursuant to Article 23 of the Civil Procedure Law. The specialists are liable to similar arrangements overseeing the inadequacy, recusal, and expulsion of judges and are additionally be bound by indistinguishable obligations from the judges and subject to the equivalent disciplinary methods and investigation measures, as accommodated under the laws pertaining to judiciary. However, the expert courts are not authorized to sign the judgment issued by them which poses a question on the veracity and validity of their judgment.

In any case, parties with especially complex cases currently have the alternative to demand the Expert Circuit courts to hear the issue with a council of a judge along with two specialists, rather than the normal court with three managing judges. The new Law will allow the parties to seek an opinion over a technical matter from the judge possessing explicit knowledge about a concerned subject matter. Civil Lawyers of Dubai strongly affirm this action and believes that it is a next step in the right direction as it will save time and efforts of parties which were to initially seek an expert report as evidence supporting the technicality of the subject matter.