Five years of cases before the ADGM Courts

2021 saw the fifth anniversary of the first disputes registered before the Courts of the Abu Dhabi Global Market. Peter Smith takes this opportunity to consider the cases that the ADGM Courts have heard.

The Courts publish a searchable list of claims before them. The first claims were registered at the Courts in 2017, and the numbers of cases show a swift increase over the intervening five years from seven claims in 2017, 13 in 2018, eight in 2019, 53 in 2020 and to well over 100 in 2021. An early indication is that the Courts are highly likely to surpass the 2021 total in 2022.

Many, if not most, of the cases registered before the Courts relate to claims by banks against customers in breach of financing contracts, particularly credit card debts, and also to landlord-tenant disputes. None of these decisions have been reported.

5 years in the Courts of the ADGM

Peter Smith has acted in a number of disputes before the ADGM Courts, including in the winding-up of Veloqx RSC Limited, the security for costs application in Global Private Investments RSC Limited and the application to set aside default judgment in Laktineh & Co. Ltd. v (1) Ahmed Al Hatti and (2) Cayan Real Estate and Development LLC [2020] ADGMCFI 0001 (30 January 2020, Justice Lord McGhie). He was a drafter of the ADGM Pro Bono Scheme Rules and sits on the ADGM Rules Liaison Group.

Peter Smith takes a look back at the cases over the last five years in the ADGM Courts including employment, property, commercial disputes, company and insolvency and arbitration cases.

Read Peter’s full article here, Five years of cases before the ADGM Courts

Find out more

To find out more, contact Sam Carter on +44 (0)203 989 6669 or Colin Bunyan on +44 (0)20 7427 4886 for a confidential discussion.

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External Publications 11 Apr, 2022