Featured Insights Overview

A creditor can freeze a debtor's bank accounts, property and shares before any judgment exists, through an application to the summary judge made without notice. The order lapses automatically unless the substantive claim is filed within eight days, which is where most attachments are lost.

A buyer that discovers a problem after completing a UAE acquisition has around 18 months to notify a warranty claim, and most claims fail on the form of the notice rather than on the facts. Since 1 June 2026 the new Civil Code has added a route the SPA cannot exclude, because the duty to disclose information of decisive importance is mandatory and any clause limiting it is void.

An Emirati employee does not accrue end-of-service gratuity. They are enrolled in the federal pension scheme, and the employer must register them with GPSSA within 30 days of joining and contribute between 12.5 and 15 per cent of the contribution account salary every month. Two pension laws apply in parallel depending on when the employee first entered the workforce.

Cargo released without the original bill of lading can leave exporters unpaid and without the goods. We explain carrier liability under UAE Maritime Law, the effect of letters of indemnity, the one-year time bar and the remedies available to exporters, banks and cargo insurers.

A tribunal seated onshore in the UAE cannot award the winning party its legal fees unless the institutional rules or the arbitration clause confer that power. The Dubai Court of Cassation annulled a costs award in February 2024 and reversed itself nine months later, leaving the clause and the seat as the two things that decide the outcome.

Part 24 of the Rules of the DIFC Courts lets a judge decide a claim, part of a claim or a single issue without a trial, where the other side has no real prospect of success. A five-judge Court of Appeal applied it in 2025 to a dispute that turned on one email, while a second 2025 decision refused it because the issues depended on conduct and causation.

A UAE bank must pay against compliant documents whatever the dispute over the goods, and a court will stop payment only on conclusive proof of the beneficiary's own fraud. Six UAE decisions show the three grounds the courts accept, and why an application made after the bank pays will fail.

A foreign arbitral award is enforced in the UAE by application to the execution judge, who must decide within five working days. Between 2013 and 2022 Dubai courts refused awards over debtor domicile, unsigned pages and domestic procedural conditions, and in 2025 the Court of Cassation rejected all three.

In technical UAE commercial disputes, the court sees the case largely through the report of the expert it appoints under the Evidence Law. Objections not raised within the short window on the initial report are generally lost once the final report is filed, and a party that fails to pay the expert's deposit can lose the appointment altogether.

The DIFC Courts will freeze assets held anywhere in the world in support of proceedings running in another country, with no requirement that the parties or the assets connect to the DIFC. Three Court of Appeal decisions between 2023 and 2025 settled the jurisdiction, and Techteryx fixed the limit at whether the foreign judgment being pursued could be recognised here.

A dishonoured cheque becomes an executive instrument under Article 667 and enters the Execution Court without any prior judgment. The Federal Supreme Court confirmed in 2026 that executory force is not a final determination, so a drawer who can show the cheque was security for an obligation that never arose can have the executory formula cancelled.

An action to annul an onshore arbitral award must be brought within 30 days of notification, and Article 53 lists the eight grounds the challenging party has to prove. Nullity can also be raised as a defence to recognition, which carries no deadline, and a DIFC-seated award follows a separate route the DIFC Courts used for the first time in April 2026.

Demurrage and detention are contractual charges, so the entitlement comes from the charterparty or the bill of lading rather than from the Maritime Law. Since 1 June 2026 a party invoiced can ask the court to reduce an amount it proves is exaggerated, or one the carrier's own delay helped cause.

A share plan in a DFSA or FSRA authorised firm has to satisfy the remuneration rules, the controller regime and the employment law at the same time. A standard four-year vesting schedule addresses none of them.

RERA can cancel a Dubai off-plan project on nine grounds. Four of them concern the land or the master developer rather than the conduct of the developer selling the units. Once the decision is final, the escrow agent must refund purchasers within 14 days and the developer must cover any shortfall within 60 days, with no retention.

Federal Law No. 3 of 2022 applies to franchise agreements the parties register. What registration gives the local partner, and what it takes from the franchisor.

One Open Finance Licence covers two options, and the applicant picks Data Sharing, Service Initiation or both at the point of filing. This guide covers what the licence excludes, the obligations already sitting on banks and insurers, and why DIFC and ADGM permissions do not reach the mainland API hub.

Ministerial Decision 229 of 2025 tied qualifying commodity income to a published price reference, so the pricing clause is now a tax question. This guide covers title at the flange, binding inspection certificates, the demurrage time bar and letters of indemnity.

Urgent relief in a UAE arbitration comes from two forums at once. This guide covers the eight day attachment deadline, what a DIAC emergency arbitrator cannot reach, and why the default DIFC seat changes which court supervises the case.

The EDE activated a mechanism in February 2026 requiring more than one authorised agent per medical product. Registered commercial agents still hold statutory exclusivity, and this guide sets out the three routes to adding a second agent and what each one costs.