The stages of litigation in Saudi courts: from notice to enforcement and closure

Why the stages matter to the office manager, not only the lawyer

The lawyer knows the stages of a lawsuit. The problem is that the whole office has to know them too: the assistant who counts the deadline, the partner who reviews twenty cases in the Sunday meeting, and the employee who answers the client asking where their case has got to.

Every stage ends on a date from which a new count begins. Most deadlines in Saudi law are short and counted in days, and missing one means the judgment becomes final or the right to object is lost. A case file that does not show the current stage and the date the count starts from leaves that calculation in one person's head.

The seven stages, in order

1. 01

   Notice

   A case usually begins before the court: a demand letter or formal notice to the other party, gathering the documents, and signing the power of attorney and the fee agreement. This is where the conflict check is run and the file is opened in the office under its internal number. There is no Najiz case number yet.

2. 02

   Settlement

   In some claims settlement is mandatory before court. Labour disputes, for example, start with amicable settlement at the Ministry of Human Resources: the first session is set within 10 working days of filing and the attempt runs for up to 21 working days. If it succeeds, the settlement record becomes an enforceable instrument; if it fails, the claim is referred to the Labour Court. Commercial and family matters have reconciliation centres to which a dispute may be referred before or during hearings.

3. 03

   First instance

   The statement of claim is filed through Najiz with the court that has subject-matter and territorial jurisdiction: general, commercial, labour, personal status or criminal. The parties are served, hearings are held, memoranda and evidence are submitted, and the judgment is issued as a numbered deed. The date that matters here is not only the date the judgment is pronounced but the date set for receiving a copy of it, because the objection period runs from there.

4. 04

   Appeal

   The losing party may object before the Court of Appeal within 30 days, or within 10 days in urgent matters, under Article 187 of the Law of Civil Procedure. The objection is a written memorandum submitted through Najiz. If the period passes with no objection, the judgment becomes final. Minor claims in the commercial courts are not subject to appeal at all.

5. 05

   The Supreme Court

   This is not a third hearing of the merits. A petition for cassation before the Supreme Court is accepted on specific grounds: violation of Sharia or the statutes, error in applying or interpreting them, a judgment from a court without jurisdiction or improperly constituted, or error in the legal characterisation of the facts. The period is 30 days, and the court examines whether the law was applied correctly, not the facts of the dispute afresh.

6. 06

   Enforcement

   Once the judgment is final, an enforcement request is filed through Najiz with the Enforcement Court. The court issues the enforcement order and the judgment debtor is served, with 5 days from service to comply or explain, under Article 34 of the Enforcement Law. If they do not comply, the subsequent statutory measures follow, such as disclosure of assets, a travel ban and suspension of services. This stage can take longer than the lawsuit itself, and the client needs someone following it.

7. 07

   Closure

   The file is closed with a written outcome: what was awarded, what was enforced, what remains. Fees are settled, documents are archived with their versions, and the client is informed. Most importantly, the closed file stays in the system, because conflict checks in the years that follow depend on it.

What the case file records at each stage

Mistakes that keep recurring

• Counting the appeal period from the last hearing instead of the date set for receiving the judgment copy.
• Recording the Hijri date in one file and the Gregorian in another, then counting the period from one without the other.
• Mixing up the Najiz case number with the office's internal number, so an employee searches in the wrong place on hearing day.
• Closing a file without writing the outcome, so two years later the firm cannot tell whether the other party was an opponent or a client.
• Assuming every judgment is appealable. Minor commercial claims are not, and urgent matters have 10 days, not 30.