The significance of establishing Pre-Trial procedures in Saudi civil judicial proceedings : using U.S. federal law as an example

Abstract EN

In the wake of the April 25, 2016 announce¬ment of Saudi Arabian Vision 2030, which, among other goals, presented the country’s 15- year plan to attract high-quality investors from major international companies, some ques¬tions have arisen about the legal environment in the Kingdom, especially the effectiveness of pre-trial court procedures, which will be the focus of this study.

From a practical stand¬point, the judgment procedures are lengthy.

A major reason for this is the absence of an initial conference, which is one of the first significant steps in a civil case in the U.S.

federal court system.

This absence leads to significant draw¬backs, such as the extension of a trial’s length due to exchanges of memoranda between the parties, each of which does not know what the other will be presenting as evidence or even what the main issues are.

Several hearings could be required because a party can request additional hearing to prepare its answers.

The time between hearings can be two to three months, if not longer.

In Saudi courts, parties often discover that the court is not competent to hear the case, or that a party should not con¬tinue in the case because most of the evidence is against him or for other reasons.

The amount of time taken up by court procedures could be shortened by establishing a pre-trial procedure such as an initial conference, similar to that in the U.S.

legal system, to make the trial itself run more smoothly and quickly.