United Arab Emirates
The DIFC court rules provide the court with considerable discretion when it comes to making orders as to costs. However, the general rule is that the unsuccessful party will be responsible for settling some part of the successful party's costs, and generally, any court fees that party has incurred. The court must have regard to all the circumstances when making an order as to costs. This includes consideration of the degree of success of the cases of the parties, their conduct during the proceedings and any offers to settle. There is also potential for the DIFC court to make no order as to costs. This is usually where the DIFC court finds that the merits of each party's case are balanced.
The DIFC court will assess the amount of costs due to the successful party on either a standard or indemnity basis. Where costs are assessed on the standard basis, the court will:
- only allow costs which are proportionate to the matters in issue to be recovered; and
- resolve any doubt which it may have as to whether costs were reasonably incurred or reasonable and proportionate in amount in favor of the paying party.
On the other hand, where costs are assessed on an indemnity basis, any doubt as to whether costs had been reasonably incurred or are reasonable and proportionate in amount is interpreted in favor of the successful party.
It is also worth noting that the DIFC court is empowered to issue an interim costs order in favor of a party. These costs orders will usually reflect 50% of the costs incurred by the party, or what the court believes is the minimum it will recover.
The ADGM court rules, although somewhat less extensive than the DIFC court rules on costs and their recovery, broadly follow the framework of the DIFC court rules.
Each of the DIFC and ADGM courts have fee schedules relating to court proceedings and applications that are updated on a regular basis. There are a number of fees applicable to a claim including filing fees, application fees and hearing fees.
For substantive claims, and in general, fees are calculated on claim and counterclaim values and expressed as a lump sum plus a percentage.
At the time of writing (December 2023):
- the DIFC court fees for money and/or property claims were:
CLAIM VALUE |
FEE |
Up to and including USD500,000 |
5% of the value of the claim and/or the property with a minimum of USD1,500 |
USD500,000-USD1 million |
USD25,000 + 1% over USD500,000 |
USD1 million-USD5 million |
USD30,000 + 0.5% over USD1 million |
USD4 million-USD10 million |
USD50,000 + 0.4% over USD5 million |
USD10 million-USD50 million |
USD70,000 + 0.15% over USD10 million |
Over USD50 million |
USD130,000 |
- the ADGM court fees for money and/or property claims were:
CLAIM VALUE |
FEE |
USD100,001-USD500,000 |
3% of the value of the claim |
USD500,000-USD1 million |
USD15,000 + 2% |
USD1 million-USD 5 million |
USD25,000 + 0.6% |
USD5,000,001 - USD10 million |
USD49,000 + 0.4% |
USD10 million |
USD69,000 + 0.15% to a maximum of USD99,000 |
All other claims |
USD4,000 |