Some of the plaintiffs are fed up with conducting their cases by appearing before courts regularly, while others see some sort of sadism in harming their defendants by resorting to filing cases one after another. The legal experts stressed the need for bringing down the number of cases by combining cases similar in nature and involving the same litigants, as well as by achieving reconciliation between litigants, according to a report in Al-Riyadh newspaper.
Muhammad, a young Saudi man, is a typical example of a victim of prolonged litigation. Muhammad said that there are at least 24 cases in which he is either a plaintiff or defendant. “All these cases originate from a dispute with my in-laws following my separation from my wife. The relatives of my ex later filed several cases against me one after another,” he said.
Speaking to the newspaper, Muhammad recounted his bitter experience: “In the first year of marriage, there was a quarrel with my wife and this prompted her to leave for her home. Then, her father invited me to their house apparently to broker a reconciliation.” He alleged this was part of a conspiracy to rob him of his wealth and implicate him in criminal cases. “Upon arrival at their house, they detained me and snatched away the key of my house. They then stormed into my house and stole all my personal property and furniture. At the same time, my mother-in-law approached a court with a petition accusing me of slandering them,” he said, adding the court rejected the case.
“However, his father-in-law filed a similar petition with the court in which he was sentenced to 15 lashes. But later the appeal court quashed the verdict,” he said.
Muhammad said that his divorce unleashed a series of cases and petitions against him in various courts and government offices. “Just before our divorce, my estranged wife approached the Civil Rights Office alleging that she was driven out of our home by me. But the office rejected her petition,” he said.
According to Muhammad, her father is the mastermind behind the legal battle against him. “This was supported by his private driver who admitted before the court that the woman’s father forced him to file a case against me alleging that I had made arrangements with him to spy on their family. The court sentenced the driver to flogging for raising false charges against me,” he said.
Then his former mother-in-law filed a second case asking the court to overrule an earlier verdict that allowed him to see his three-year-old son. “However, the court rejected her claim that I used to physically assault my son,” Muhammad said.
The young man shared his harrowing experience of how he has become a victim of torture from his ex-in-laws. “I have been in case after case, from one court to another. I have been not left alone even for a single month without being called in either by police or the Prosecution and Investigation Commission (PIC) or various courts,” he said.
According to Muhammad, these cases have continued to haunt him all through his life in recent years. “These developments have affected my social status terribly. I have even lost my focus on my job. Due to my preoccupation with tackling a pile up of cases and spending most time at court, I was not entitled to get a promotion or pay rise,” he said.
Such cases, like that of Muhammad, happen not to ordinary people alone. There are a number of lawyers who are conducting cases to secure their outstanding fees from their clients. Speaking to the newspaper, a legal consultant who preferred to be unidentified explained his ordeal after fighting a case for a citizen. “After winning the case following a tough legal battle, my client refused to pay the outstanding fee. This forced me to file a petition against him. I have been waging a legal battle against him since 2007 and that consumed a lot of my time and money,” he said.
According to the lawyer, he has already spent thousands of riyals in pursuing the cases, numbering at least 10. “Whenever I file a case against him, the defendant retaliates with a counter petition with an objective of prolonging court proceedings,” he said, adding he was not sure when the cases would come to an end. “Perhaps it could take at least 10 to 20 years,” he said.
Reacting to such cases, Sheikh Ibrahim bin Saleh Al-Salama, head of the summary court in Jeddah, said disputes between couples, especially after a divorce, bring forth a multitude of cases that prolong for several years. “Such disputes involve numerous questions such as maintenance, custody of children, visiting children and the like. Many parties, including relatives of the divorcee, as well as brothers, parents and even children of husbands, involve themselves in such cases and thus complicate them further,” he said, noting that sometimes these cases transcend the periphery of civil and private rights and develop into those involving criminal and public rights.
According to Al-Salama, such cases originate from an exchange of accusations and then develop into slandering and threatening behavior. He said such a multitude of cases that emanate from a single dispute would have a negative impact on both parties for various reasons.
Al-Salama stressed the need for working out proposals and solutions to bring down the number of related cases involving the same parties to a minimum, as well as to bring them to a single court instead of a number of them.
“For this, it is essential to collect all details of litigants and their cases pending before various courts. It is imperative to combine such cases and refer to a judge in a single court,” he said, while underlining the need for enhanced cooperation among police, PIC, courts and the local authorities to achieve this.
Highlighting the significance of activating the role of reconciliation committees at various courts, Al-Salama also called for taking stringent punitive action against those who pursue excess litigation.
Echoing the same view, noted lawyer Suleiman Al-Jomaie called on authorities to enact stringent punitive measures, including jail terms and fines, against those who are keen only to harm others through legal action.
