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Low-income families exempted from legal, other fees: Al Hinai

MUSCAT — Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdullah bin Zahir Al Hinai, justice minister and deputy chairman of the Supreme Judicial Council, yesterday issued a ministerial decision regularising the judicial assistance for insolvents.

The decision exempts the insolvents, who are party of judicial claims from the prescribed legal fees for filing the claims. They are also exempted from the fees related to legal notices and experts’ fees that are required in some cases. They are also relieved from any expenses from appointing lawyers (on their behalf) in cases in which the law stipulates this.

The exemption also covers all the degree of jurisdiction for the insolvent from the time he submits an application for getting judicial assistance before the First Instance Court and throughout the Court of Appeal and the Court of Cassation.

The decision defined the categories that will benefit from the exemption namely those recorded at the social security, government and private sector employees whose gross salaries are less than RO400. It also covers all those who may officially prove that they are unemployed or jobless.

The decision stipulates that judicial assistance application should be submitted to the secretariat of the respective court at which the claim or the appeal is considered.

The application should complete the requirements related to justifications for requesting assistance and supported with official documents.

The court secretariat will record the application at the date of its submission and notify the other claim of the application before the date of its deliberation. The decision pointed out that the decision about the assistance requests will be made by a judge appointed by the general assembly of the court within 15 days from the date of its submission.

The decision stipulates that legal aid will be provided to cases most likely to be in favour of insolvents once it has been established that they are unable to pay resultant legal fees of such cases.

The bylaw for organising the judicial assistance for insolvents came in implementation for the provisions of the Civil Procedural Law, which stipulates that the justice minister will regularise the judicial assistance bylaw for insolvents after coming to an agreement on it with the Finance Ministry. This comes in a bid to provide insolvents with the legal base that provide them access to judicial institution to administer justice easily without making financial inability a deterrence to seeking justice which is a secured and warranted right for everybody.