Hadef in the Courts: The merits of challenging an expert report

Authored by: Abdulrahman Juma, Rachel Hill and Rami Omar

Abdulrahman Juma, Deputy Managing Partner and Head of Dispute Resolution, Rachel Hill, Head of Employment along with Rami Omar, Senior Associate in Dispute Resolution were recently successful in a complex labour dispute before the Dubai Court of Cassation. The case related to a bonus claim raised against our client by an ex-employee.

The Court of First Instance and Court of Appeal awarded in favour of the employee relying on a flawed and uninformed expert report awarding the employee a sum of money that he was not legally entitled to and relying on an evidently fraudulent bonus letter and misunderstood audit reports.

Submission were made before the Court of Cassation arguing the flaw in the application of the law and the contents of the expert report. The Court of Cassation accepted our appeal and dismissed the claim in its entirety awarding costs to our client.

Historically the labour courts heavily rely on the findings of a court appointed accounting expert when determining commission and bonus claims and this result is a fine example of the merit in challenging the reports of court appointed experts -ultimately saving the employing entity a significant sum of money.

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