Ministry of Justice started to activate E-litigation

In line with  Saudi Vision 2030 and  In order to enhance  the services for the beneficiaries inside the Kingdom, the Ministry of Justice started to activate E-litigation by introducing a new service that enables users from lawsuit parties and lawyers to complete their  litigation requests through Nagiz platform where  the parties to the case dispense of visiting  judicial offices and it enable them to exchange notes and responses to the questions of the judicial department and due to Coved-19 the process of setting up  e-litigation speed up to ensure the continuity of remote work and developing the performance and raise the quality of litigation efficiency in the Kingdom The new commercial regulations set out  all the procedures of  e-litigation and remote pleading, which ensures rapid settlement of disputes, strengthening commercial environment  and contribute to attract new investment to the Kingdom.

The Launch of a Draft Amendment to the Advocacy Law

The Saudi Lawyers Authority has launched a draft within the project to amend the Advocacy Law, which discusses changes that include restricting pleading to lawyers, registering non-Saudi consultants, and licensing foreign law firms, where the Authority aims to develop the legal profession and enhance competition in it, as well as seeking to obtain the confidence of the foreign investor by enabling him to hire his foreign lawyer, and specifying the responsibilities of Saudi and foreign law firms in a way that is in line with the interest of the state and achieving its national goals. Therefore, it was proposed to add a fifth chapter that aims to regulate the licensing of foreign law firms to practice the legal profession, and the proposed section details the practice of foreign law firms, licensing terms and details, alliance agreements with Saudi law firms, and the obligations of the foreign law firm with the means of oversight and violations that apply to it. If the proposed draft succeeds, it will be subject to a final study to evaluate the project and supporting documents, and a formal amendment to the Saudi Advocacy Law will take place.

New formation for the Supreme Court &  Establishing two commercial courts

The Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) approved the new formation of the Supreme Court and the establishment of two commercial courts. The SJC decisions included the following:

• Restructuring the Supreme Court after the honorable approval of its support by judges recently,and the formation of new penal, human and circuit departments for the family, and naming the heads and judges of those departments under the judicial system.
• Establishing two commercial courts in Madinah and Abha and preparing the courts and commercial departments to activate the new commercial court system by flushing them with appellate circles to them and creating departments for urgent cases and requests.
•  The council also discussed a mechanism of administering the current and future phase of the courts, judges and cases in accordancewith the enhanced developments of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

A decision by the Minister of Human Resources regarding the labor relationship under COVID 19

The Ministry of Human Resources and Development issued a decision to regulate the contractual relationship between workers and employers, in order to control the repercussions of the new COVID 19 virus. Also, during the next six months, the Ministry provided precautionary measures to reduce work, in order to avoid aggravating situations or circumstances, including the description of force majeure, which may divert the fulfillment of the obligations contained in the labor system and its regulations. The employer may reach an agreement with the employee to reduce the employee’s wages in proportion to the actual working hours, or he may give the employee a paid leave which is counted as the employee’s annual leave or granting the employee an exceptional leave during the time of the pandemic. The employer will have no right to terminate the employment contract if it was proven that he was benefited from the compensation issued to face this pandemic. Companies were also allowed to benefit and take advantage of the temporary surplus of expat employees services through the “AJEER” online portal as an alternative to external recruitment in these difficult times.

A Royal Order covers 60% of Saudi wages as COVID-19 impacts private sectors

The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud  issued a royal decree exempts Saudis working in the affected private sector facilities from Articles 8 which relates to the acquittal or conciliation settlements arising during the work duration for the employee   article 10 which regulates the calculation of duration's according to the Hijri calendar,and article 14 which was deleted and merged with article 13 of the same regulation  which relates to the internal regulations of the companies of the private sector.  of the unemployment insurance (Sand) scheme. Employees going to be given a monthly compensation of 60% of the registered wage in social insurance for three months with a maximum of 9,000 SR monthly. The compensation is valued at 9 billion SAR, and the numbers of beneficiary of said compensation is estimated to be 1.2 million Saudi employees, where the compensation shall covers 100% of the number of Saudi workers in small establishments consisting of 5 workers or less, and it could reaches 70% in establishments where the number of employees exceeds 5 employees. The employers cannot force the employees to work during the compensation period.