Despite the fact that the bankruptcy procedure is mentioned in the Civil Legislation of the United Arab Emirates, unpaid debts are still a criminal offense in this country.

Rapid economic growth has drawn the problem as the bankruptcy proceedings became tremendously acute. The decriminalization of bounced cheques should be the first step towards the development of modern legal tools and procedures for debt restructuring.

Currently the only way to recover unpaid debts is a trial process.

The Civil Law is applied in the United Arab Emirates, but in the vast majority of courts (there are several court jurisdictions in the UAE) all hearings are held only in Arabic language, and, accordingly, all the documents must also be submitted to the court only in Arabic.

In addition, for the present moment a lawyer, who has the right to protect the client’s interests in a court, can only be an Emirati citizen.