OMAN Law and Practice Contributed by: Mohammed Al Khalili, Jenna Al Bakry, Joud Lashko and Abdullah Al Raiisi, Al Khalili, Al Ghailani & Co LLP
not reached, the Disputes Committee must submit a report to the competent authority within seven days from the failure to reach an amicable settle- ment. • Once the matter has been referred to the Collec- tive Arbitration Committee, the chairperson of the Collective Arbitration Committee will schedule a hearing to consider the dispute, which must take place within 15 days of receiving the request for arbitration. • The Collective Arbitration Committee must rule on the dispute within one month from the date of the hearing in which the dispute was considered. • The Collective Arbitration Committee must notify the parties to the dispute and provide a copy of its award via registered mail within three days follow- ing the date on which the award was issued.. 3.8 Mechanisms for Changes to Length/ Timetable/Disposal of Proceedings Following on from the timeline mentioned in 3.7 Length and Timetable for Proceedings , there are some con- siderations related to procedural matters and court decisions that may affect the length of proceedings. • As stated in 3.7 Length and Timetable for Pro- ceedings , accelerated claims may be made at the discretion of the court and based on the jurisdic- tion. Article 28 of the SLP Law states: “The time limit of the appeal shall be 15 days from the date of pronouncement of the judgment if it was in pro- pria persona, deemed to be in propria persona, or issued with regard to an objection; from the date of it becoming non-objectionable if it was made in absentia with regard to the convict, the claimant of the civil right, and the person responsible for it; and 30 days for the public prosecution. The president of the court shall specify a hearing to consider the appeal within a period not exceeding ten days from the date of the declaration of the appeal, and the date of the hearing specified to consider it shall be recorded in this declaration. This shall be deemed an announcement of it, even if the declaration is from a prosecutor. The public prosecutor shall order the other litigants to attend the specified hearing. The court of appeal shall issue its judg- ment on the appeal within the dates stipulated in Article 23 of this law.” As such, the appeal duration
is reduced based on the jurisdiction and based on the court’s discretion. • As stated in Article 10 of the SLP Law, the set time- lines imposed by the court may extend the dura- tion as per its discretion. The court may extend the 30-day period once for another 30 days only if the lawsuit is not valid for adjudication. For disputes arising from construction contracts and for com- mercial disputes involving foreign capital invest- ment, the aforementioned deadline can be further extended, provided that the extension period does not exceed four months. • As for issuing the judgment, Article 28 of the Court of Investment Law allows the court of jurisdiction to extend the judgment period by another 45 days for any serious reasons, as determined by the court. • For cases that have a court-assigned expert, the expert may delay the submission of their report by 15 days for serious reasons. The same benefit is provided to both parties in submitting their objec- tions towards the report submitted, as per Article 31 of the Court of Investment Law. As such, even though the above-mentioned matters do not relate directly to collective redress and class actions, they may be implemented in such cases depending on the circumstances, and shall be taken into consideration when estimating the entire length of proceedings. 3.9 Funding and Costs The allocation of costs in Oman is governed by the CCPL. The general principle is that costs follow the event ‒ that is, the unsuccessful party bears the judi- cial fees, expenses, and reasonable attorney’s fees of the prevailing party, unless the court determines otherwise in equity. Under Article 65 of the CCPL, the claimant must ‒ upon filing the statement of claim – “pay the full pre- scribed court fee and attach the necessary copies of the supporting document”. Fees are assessed under Article 73 of the CCPL, which imposes a 2% charge on the value of the claim (subject to a minimum of OMR30 and a maximum of OMR3,000 for commer- cial suits). Accordingly, where multiple claimants file a collective or joined action under Articles 60–61 of the
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