QATAR Law and Practice Contributed by: Hani Al Naddaf and Maysa Sleiman, Al Tamimi & Company
1. Identifying Assets in the Jurisdiction 1.1 Options to Identify Another Party’s Asset Position While Qatar does not operate the same breadth of open registries seen in some common law jurisdic - tions, several databases can be searched without the need for a court order, including the following. • The Commercial Register (Ministry of Commerce & Industry or MOCI) provides the company’s incorpo - ration details, authorised capital, paid-up capital, current shareholders, directors and registered address, and the status of the company (whether it is active, inactive, attached or under liquidation). • The Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) Public Register provides similar information for entities incorpo - rated in the QFC, including annual financial sum - maries, where filed. • Real Estate and Land Registration (Ministry of Justice) provides the title particulars for land and buildings. A property search can be performed with plot and title numbers, but owner-name searches are not open to the public and normally require either the owner’s consent or a court order. • The Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) provides lists of shareholdings exceeding the disclosure threshold (generally 5%), market capitalisation and trading history. In practical terms, public searches often provide a skeletal “starting map” of assets and counterparties. To obtain a more granular picture, a litigant will typi - cally move swiftly to court-ordered measures. For freezing assets orders, the new Judicial Enforce - ment Law No 4 of 2024 (JEL) equips the Enforcement Court with the following interim powers that can be invoked pre-action or during proceedings. • Precautionary attachment (ex parte or with notice) under Articles 36 and 31 of the JEL: the judge may order immediate attachment of movable or immovable property, bank accounts, receivables or shares. The order can be issued before the debtor is served where the creditor demonstrates urgency or a risk of dissipation. Once served, the debtor has ten working days to object or satisfy the debt.
• Asset freeze under insolvency-style powers under Article 49 of the JEL: where the debtor pleads insolvency, the court may prohibit all commercial activity and compel disclosure of assets from third parties. Because attachment orders require the enforcing officer (bailiff) to itemise property, they serve the dual purpose of preserving and identify - ing assets; bailiffs routinely write to banks, broker - age houses, the Qatar Central Bank, real estate registries and traffic authorities to confirm holdings and encumbrances. As for court-ordered asset disclosure, the law does not use “asset disclosure order” terminology, but a functional equivalent is available through several mechanisms, as follows. • Compulsory information requests by the enforce - ment judge under Articles 35, 36 and 49 of the JEL: the judge may, on the creditor’s application or ex officio, direct any public or private entity (banks, land registry, brokerage, insurers, utilities, govern - ment tender boards) to provide a statement of assets held for the debtor. • Discovery in main proceedings: although Qatar’s civil procedure does not provide for US-style discovery, a party may request the trial court to compel the production of specific documents “necessary for adjudication” (Article 202 of the Civil and Commercial Procedural Law, or CCP). Such targeted requests are commonly directed at audited financial statements, bank account records and real estate deeds.
2. Domestic Judgments 2.1 Types of Domestic Judgments
Qatari law recognises a range of domestic judgments that can be granted by the competent courts depend - ing on the stage of proceedings and the nature of the dispute. • Default judgments arise when one party fails to appear, submit a defence or otherwise participate in the litigation process. In such cases, the court may find in favour of the applicant party based on
379 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook