Courts go digital in COVID times

Muscat: Dr. Khalifa bin Mohammad Al Hadrami, Secretary-General of the Judicial Administrative Affairs Council, issued a circular on July 15, 2020, saying that people need not come to courts as everything would be managed electronically in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A statement by The Legal Affairs Council, says: "Dr. Khalifa bin Mohammad Al Hadrami, Secretary General of the Administrative Affairs Council, issued a circular for everyone’s attention that all the services for the litigants will be available electronically from August 2, 2020. Therefore, people will not be received in the courts of judicial services.”

Services available through the lawyers portal are:

1- Registration of cases.

2. The filing of lawsuits in the courts of first instance.

3. Registration of applications.

4. Receiving lawsuit inquiries.

5. Payment of judicial fees.

6. Receiving ads

7. Follow-up on the lawsuit procedures.

8. Print lawsuit.

9. Recording of the execution requests.

10. Recording of disputes of execution.

11. Requests to include lawyers.

12. Exchange of notes.

13. Registration of appeals.

14. Deposit of appeal newspapers.

Services available to all litigants through:

1. Follow-up on the progress of lawsuit.

2. Follow-up of the implementation of judgments.

3. Follow-up on the dates of the sessions.

4. Follow-up on decisions, judgments and orders.

5. Seeing of the judicial principles, the judicial journal, independent rulings and legal publications.

6. Seeing and pulling out statistics, viewing and printing of legal publications.

7. Receiving judgments from any court۔

“This comes as the Council believes that the lawsuit can be managed electronically through the website and lawyers portal, and this judicial platform will help all litigants while preserving their health,” the statement added.