The Ministry of Justice has called on judges to deal with lawsuits involving commercial papers and other financial instruments, even if these documents do not have the prescribed information on it.

The ministry said these cases must be referred to executive judges so that plaintiffs can get paid out what was promised to them. There are cases worth SR6 billion, including fraudulently issued checks, currently before the nation’s courts.

The ministry recently issued directives to all executive judges to inform citizens seeking legal redress that they should file their cases with the courts, regardless of the state of their documentation, according to a report in a local publication.

Commercial papers (CP) are short-term, unsecured promissory notes issued by corporations typically used for short-term financing needs, including bills of exchange, checks, and other promissory notes.

Judges dealing with these documents want certain information provided. For example, a promissory note has to be identified as such, with the promise to pay a sum of money, the date of maturity, place of maturity, name of the lender, date of issue, signatures of issuer and receiver, and other information.

Bills of exchange must have the wording “bill of exchange, or negotiable instrument” written on it, with a guarantee to pay a specific amount of money, either on demand, or at a set time, with the payer named, and other related information.

Courts have the same requirements for checks, which order a bank to pay a specific amount of money from a person’s account to the person in whose name the check has been issued.

Courts reject cases if the documents brought by plaintiffs do not have one or more of the above information on them.