Your Friendly Local Customer Service Representative… Your Judge

More interesting news from Dubai about the opening up of their common-law courts in the Dubai International Financial Center free  zone to small businesses elsewhere.

The registrar sounds excited:

This is the first time these companies have had an English-language, dispute-resolution option available to them in Dubai.

And so do the small businesses (since disputes are usually settled in only three weeks, without any lawyers or legal fees):

Judging from the hundreds of inquiries received by the DIFC Courts since October, we are forecasting a … 100 per cent increase in the SCT’s caseload in the year ahead.

However the truly fascinating quote is an off-the-cuff remark early in the interview:

It was nice to finish the year having tested the new jurisdiction and so send a clear message to the business community that we are here and ready to resolve problems with a continued commitment to customer and community service.

When was the last time you thought of a court as having a ‘commitment to customer service’?