Recent Law No.191 of 2020 dated 5th of September 2020 (“the Law”) establishes a new rule of law concerning the jurisdiction of courts of first instance, and more precisely it modifies the value criteria that divides the jurisdiction between different courts of first instance: the primary courts and the district courts.
It is worth mentioning that this amendment comes among a long road of amendments concerning the cases’ value criteria in civil and commercial procedure Law in its original text promulgated on the 7th of May 1968.
The following note highlights the application, consequences and the effects of this Law.
According to this Law a new value criteria has been established and will replace the ancient criteria starting from the 1st of October 2020.This will lead to a new balance between the jurisdiction of both primary and district courts.
Three main rules have been modified by this Law according to its article:
The jurisdiction of: | was | becomes |
1- The district courts | Cases whose value does not exceed 40 000 pounds. | Cases whose value does not exceed 100 000 pounds. |
2- The primary courts | Cases whose value is equal or exceeds 40 000 pounds. | Cases whose value is equal or exceeds 100 000 pounds. |
Concerning the district courts, its decision shall be final i.e not entitled to right of appeal in the cases whose value does not exceed 15 000 pounds, replacing the previous rule “whose value does not exceed 5 000 pounds”.
Concerning the primary courts, the original value criteria rule has been replaced by a new one entitling the right of appeal to only decisions in cases exceeding the amount of 100 000 pounds, decisions in cases not exceeding the mentioned amount shall be final.
This Law applies to all civil and commercial cases ruled before the common courts of first instance after its entry into force. Only 2 categories are excluded from the scope of application:
It is worth mentioning that the two above mentioned categories exempted from the scope of application remain subject to the rules regulating the methods of appeal in force at the date of their issuance.
According to art. 4 of the Law, this amendment shall be enforced as of the first of October following its publication, i.e 1st of October 2020.
It is worth mentioning that this amendment comes after a series of amendment in civil and commercial procedure law issued in its original text in May 1968 and modified in 1980, 1992, 1999 and 2007 in order to pursue the same objective of following the currency value evolution.
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