Financial disputes accounted for the largest volume of lawsuits cases handled by Saudi courts over the past year, with claims related to issues of “sales value” making up highest percentage of cases in the tribunal courts in Riyadh and Dammam. Other claims related to issues of “ownership documents” which rank the highest in Makkah courts, while divorce-related cases are above the list in Jeddah.

According to judicial sources, the General Court in Riyadh reviewed the highest number of cases among Saudi courts with 37,722 lawsuits last year. Most of the claims filed at the Riyadh courts related to sales value (4,790 cases), followed by about 4,500 fiscal cases, and 3,500 financial suits claiming SR20,000 or less. A total of 950 divorce suits were filed versus 1,870 lawsuits dealing with loan issues, said the sources. Over 1,732 lawsuits were filed by divorced women demanding alimony and 1603 lawsuits for rights issues, among other judicial matters.

The vast number of legal cases reviewed by the General Court in Jeddah also include cases related to custody, rent, children’s visits, and property ownership disputes.

The General Court in Makkah reviewed 14,529 lawsuits in the past year, including 2,560 related to ownership documentation, 2,482 cases dealing with sales value, 1,122 divorce cases, hundreds of custody lawsuits and over five hundred divorce cases.

According to the latest statistics released by the Ministry of Justice, the General Court in Dammam assessed 5,873 similar cases in the past year, whereas the overall number of cases reviewed by the public tribunals in Al-Shawak and Al-Serar were only 40 and 32 cases, respectively.