Workshop on the working mechanism of dealing with bounced cheques in government claims, held by the Government of Dubai Legal Affairs Department, with the Dubai Police.

The training workshop was held in light of the amendment to the Federal Commercial Transactions Law No. (18) of 1993, in Article 635 bis, which was added pursuant to Federal Decree Law No. (14) of 2020. 

The workshop was chaired by Dr Juma Obaid AlFalasi, Director of the Advocates and Legal Consultants Affairs Directorate, and Lt. Col. Dr Abdurrahman Yusuf Al Obaidli, Head of the Legal Affairs Department of the General Department of Human Rights. 

During the workshop, the presenters discussed instances where a cheque is evidenced by the drawee to be with insufficient funds or no funds at all. In these instances, the cheque has been deemed a writ of execution, under Federal Decree Law No. (14) of 2020, and the bearer may demand that execution be enforced on the cheque in whole or in part, under the procedures and rules stipulated by the Executive Regulations of the Civil Procedures Law.

The amendment gives the dishonored cheque a writ of execution, whereby the bearer may resort to the execution judge directly seeking execution on all or the remaining balance of a cheque as a writ of execution, without having to follow the conventional litigation process by seeking the issuance of a petition order against the debtor, which is a time- consuming process, as the creditor will have to give notice of no less than 5 days to the debtor demanding payment of a cheque. If the 5-day notice period lapses without the debtor paying the cheque, a petition order will be served on the debtor. 

However, such a petition order will not be deemed as a writ of execution until it goes through all grievance and appeal stages as prescribed by law, which causes a delay for the beneficiary to cash the cheque and affects the trust in the cheque as a negotiable instrument payable on demand.

The speakers pointed out that the legislative amendments aim to achieve expeditious administration of justice, given that these amendments decriminalized issuance of a cheque with no sufficient funds or no funds at all, and developed new alternatives and mechanisms to ensure that cheques are collected in the fastest and simplest possible way, by eliminating any judicial and procedural restrictions, whether criminal or civil. 

In addition, the amendments aim to reassure customers and enhance their trust in the cheque as a negotiable instrument payable on demand, easily and conveniently.

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