Saudi Arabia to Reduce False Lawsuits with New Judicial Costs System

The application of the judicial costs system, which entails the imposition of fees when filing civil, commercial, and criminal lawsuits, borne by the convicted party or the party who loses the case in Saudi will be in full-effect from March 13.

The draft executive regulations for the judicial costs system revealed that the purpose behind imposing fees on types of cases is to reduce malicious and false lawsuits, and promote alternative means for settling disputes.

According to the new system, the estimation of the judicial fees of the lawsuit ranges between 5% and 2%.

The most prominent provisions mentioned are the mechanism for calculating the judicial costs of the lawsuits, estimated in a descending percentage of no more than 5%.

The draft also explains the mechanism for calculating the financial execution request and direct execution request, determining who bears the costs of execution requests, and ascertaining criteria for cost estimation of requests on lawsuits.

In addition to issuing rules and procedures for notification and objection to judicial litigation expenses, the draft includes issuing cost bonds for lawsuits, requests, and collection and objection methods, and clarifying cases of exemption from judicial costs.