DOHA: Mainstream courts in the country such as the lower and upper civil and criminal courts and the courts of appeal are located in different areas of Doha.
The main court complex is in Al Dafna, while there is a court in Al Sadd and another complex near Hamad General Hospital.
Lawyers say they have long been demanding that all major courts be housed together in a single building complex so that those among them who have several cases to attend to in a day do not have to run around from one court to another.
“We waste a lot of time driving from one court building to another, especially as the distances are too much during peak hours when traffic snarls make driving time-consuming and challenging,” says prominent lawyer Mohsin Thiyab Al Suwaidi.
He cites the example of Kuwait and the UAE where the main courts are housed in a single complex. According to Al Suwaidi, court staff members also need to move files from one court to another during the course of a day, so they are inconvenienced, too, due to the different locations of the courts.
Al Suwaidi says Qatar needs to set up district courts across the country to lighten the burden of major courts. The district courts can, for instance, be given jurisdiction over cases in particular areas (areas they are located in).
Currently there are preliminary courts (or the courts of first stance), upper courts, the courts of appeal and the country’s highest court — the Court of Cassation.
Then, there are specialist courts — the ones (each) hearing bad cheque cases, traffic violations, family disputes (divorce and child custody), and violations committed by runaway workers and other workers who are to be repatriated having found violating the law (this court is at the Search and Follow-up section of the interior ministry), among others.
Legal expert Nizar Kochery says that what he likes the most about Qatar’s judicial system is that the court appoints experts in civil and other cases where expert opinion is required to decide a case, so the verdicts in such cases are flawless.
The Peninsula
