The Federal Decree-Law No. 27/20 (‘Decree Law’) has amended many provisions of the Law of Evidence in civil and commercial matters promulgated by Federal Law No. 10 of 1992 and its amendments (‘Civil transactions law’). The new changes have been brought about to include changes facilitating the provision of services to customers and to achieve UAE’s vision for smart digital transformation of government services. Changes have seen introduction of remote communication technologies in evidence-related procedures, adoption of digital signatures and documents etc. The amendments stipulate that e-signatures and e-documents will be approved and treated as official documents.
The text of Article 11 was replaced by virtue of the decree-law as:
Article 11
1- A customary document is deemed to emanate from the person who signed it unless he formally contests the writing, signature, seal, or fingerprint alleged to be his. His heirs or successors are not required to contest the same but may only declare on oath that they do not know that the writing, signature, seal, or fingerprint has been issued by the person from whom he received this right.
2- Nevertheless, the one who discusses the subject matter of the document or fails to express his defense in its regard may neither contest the handwriting, signature, seal, or fingerprint attributed to him nor uphold his lack of knowledge that such a thing has been issued by the person from whom he received the right.
Further, pursuant to Article 17 bis,
Electronic signature, writings, correspondence, registers, and documents having the same binding force prescribed by this Law to signature, writings, correspondence, registers and official and customary documents, whenever it fulfills the conditions and provisions set forth in the laws in force.
Provisions as to expert hearings have also been amended by virtue of Article 82, with new provisions introduced for expert meetings by means of remote communication. Further, specific amendments have been made by virtue of Article 82(3) introducing access to electronic documents in expert proceedings. Article 82(3), states, ‘No government agency or any other entity may refrain, without legal justification, from enabling the expert to access books, registers, documents, or papers in its possession, in implementation of the judgment or the decision assigning the expert, even if they are in an electronic form’.
The new changes also impact the notary public services in the UAE, with new measures that require documents to be both created and saved electronically. The electronic documents would be maintained confidentially and will not be circulated, copied or deleted from the electronic system without receiving permission from the ministry. The cabinet’s legislation will facilitate the provision of services to customers and achieve the country’s vision to complete the smart digital transformation of government services by adopting the e-government versions of litigation and notary public services while ensuring confidentiality, speed and flexibility, in line with national information security regulations and policies, both at federal and local levels.
