08/05/2025
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08/05/2025
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KUWAIT CITY, May 8: In a move aimed at modernizing long-standing legal procedures and dealing with the growing number of minor civil claims, the Council of Ministers recently approved a draft decree-law for amending certain provisions of Decree-Law No. 46/1989 concerning low-value lawsuits. The explanatory memorandum for the draft decree-law confirmed that 35 years have passed since the law’s initial implementation.
At the time, the law included sufficient rules and provisions aimed at simplifying litigation procedures. According to judicial statistics, lawsuits valued at less than KD 2,000 accounted for 75 percent of all cases heard by the courts over the past five years. In light of this, and considering that some provisions of Decree-Law No. 46/1989, specifically Articles 1, 2, and 9, have already been amended, this new draft decree-law was prepared. Article 1 of the draft decree proposes expanding the scope of application of the original law by replacing the phrase “KD 2,000” with “KD 1,000” in Article 1 of Decree-Law No. 46/1989.
Article 1 of the draft decree stipulated the replacement of Article 2, requiring the court clerk to notify the defendant of the date of the first hearing. This notification may be delivered in person, via email, or through any modern electronic means of communication that allows for storage and retrieval, as determined by a decision of the Minister of Justice. The same article also replaces the text of Article 9. The revised first paragraph now stipulates that low-value lawsuits shall be resolved through a summary judicial ruling. This ruling must include a summary of the case proceedings, the claims made, and the sequence of hearings, while also clearly stating the legal and factual grounds for the ruling.
The paragraph concludes by affirming the application of general legal principles, under which judgments in low-value lawsuits are deemed enforceable by nature, as they are final and not subject to appeal, in accordance with Article 192 of the Civil and Commercial Procedures Law. The second paragraph of the amended article introduces a new provision that simplifies the conditions specified in the Civil and Commercial Procedures Law, specifically Article 115. Under that article, a court judgment is not required to include reasoning if three conditions are met: the ruling is issued by the Court of First instance, it grants all of the plaintiff’s claims, and the defendant, though properly notified, neither appears nor submits a defense memorandum.
Given that these conditions may also apply to low-value lawsuits, and to prevent any potential legal ambiguity, the same principle was incorporated into the second paragraph of Article 9. However, the conditions were eased to reflect the nature of such cases. The paragraph clarifies that providing reasons for the ruling is unnecessary when the case involves no dispute between the parties and it is evident that the plaintiff is entitled to all requested relief.
By Jaber Al-Hamoud
Al-Seyassah/Arab Times Staff
Al-Seyassah/Arab Times Staff
