Filing anything with Dubai Courts in a language other than Arabic means it needs a translation first, and not just any translation. The official government portal puts it plainly: documents presented to the UAE’s courts must be in Arabic, or translated into Arabic by a legal translator approved by the UAE Ministry of Justice (u.ae, civil cases). A translation without that approval is treated as if there were no translation at all.
Documents court and litigation matters commonly involve
- Statements of claim and memoranda of defence
- Judgments from another jurisdiction, for recognition or enforcement
- Expert reports and Rental Disputes Settlement Centre files
- Witness statements and affidavits
- Contracts, invoices and correspondence submitted as evidence
- WhatsApp records, emails and other electronic exhibits
- Powers of attorney authorising a lawyer to act for you
Why accuracy matters more here than anywhere else
A contract translated loosely for internal reference is an inconvenience. The same contract translated loosely and filed as evidence can change the outcome of a case, because the Arabic version is what the court reads and rules on. Litigation translation has to preserve exact obligations, dates, amounts and defined terms, not just the general sense.
In practice that means a few rules we apply to every court file:
- One term, one translation. A defined party or concept keeps the same Arabic term across every document in the bundle.
- Names exactly as on the record. Party names follow the trade licence, passport or Emirates ID, so the court does not see two spellings of one person.
- Nothing left out. Stamps, handwritten notes, annex references and page numbers are translated or marked, because the other side will notice what is missing.
- Exhibits kept readable. Chat logs and emails keep their order, dates and sender names, so the judge can follow the thread.
Foreign judgments and documents from outside the UAE
A judgment, affidavit or certificate issued in another country usually has to be attested before it is relied on in the UAE: through that country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the UAE embassy there, and then the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which certifies the authenticity of the signatures and seals. The certified Arabic translation is prepared once that chain is complete, so it reproduces the stamps now on the page.
Checking the translator
The Ministry of Justice publishes a search of registered legal translators and offices. Our legal translator, Ahmed Muhammad Sabar, has been registered since 2008 under number 302, for Arabic and English.
Turnaround for urgent filings
Court deadlines do not move, so litigation documents get priority. Filings under ten pages are usually ready the same day, and for urgent matters we can translate more than 20 pages in a single day. Scanned, photographed or handwritten originals are routine and do not slow this down. Larger bundles get a firm delivery date before we start.
Questions we hear
Can our firm’s in-house Arabic speaker translate the evidence?
For filing, the translation has to come from a legal translator approved by the Ministry of Justice. In-house drafts can still help us with context and terminology.
Do you translate the whole bundle or only the key pages?
That is the lawyer’s call. We can translate selected pages, but we will flag references to pages that the court may ask for later.
Is the work confidential?
Yes. Files are handled by our own team, not shared with third parties and not fed into public tools, and we can sign your NDA.
Send the filing
Send the document on WhatsApp to +971 54 588 5472 with the filing deadline, and we will confirm turnaround and cost within 10 minutes. Related: Court document translation · Corporate account for law firms · Document attestation