Guide
Police Cases in Dubai, Step by Step
If you have had a call from a police station, or you have just found out that someone has filed a complaint against you, the useful thing to know is what happens next and in what order.
In short
A criminal matter here moves through three bodies in sequence: the police, the Public Prosecution, then the courts. Each can end the case, and most files never reach the third stage. Knowing which of the three holds yours tells you what can be done today and what cannot.
This guide follows that sequence from the beginning, for people who have never dealt with the system before. It gives no deadlines, no detention periods and no figures, because those are the details most often quoted wrongly online, and one wrong number is worse than none.
If you are reading this today
Before the explanation, the short version.
- Go if you are called. Not attending does not make a complaint disappear and it makes your position worse.
- Do not sign anything you have not understood. This is the most damaging thing people do on the first day.
- Do not contact the complainant to argue, to apologise in writing or to offer money.
- Do not delete anything. Messages, call logs, emails, account records. Deletion is visible and it looks like what it looks like.
- Do not post about it anywhere, including private groups.
- Do not book travel until you know whether a ban exists.
- Write down your own account now, with dates, amounts and the names of anyone present.
- Tell one person you trust, so somebody outside can instruct a lawyer if you cannot.
Step one: the complaint is made
Almost every criminal file in the UAE starts with a complaint rather than with the police acting on their own.
Who files and where
The complaint is made by the person who says they were wronged, at a police station or through an official police channel. They give their account, their identification and whatever documents they hold. Nothing has been decided and nobody has been charged. A complaint is an allegation that has been recorded.
What happens immediately
The police open a file and give it a case number. Obtain that number if you can, because it identifies the file at every stage that follows. They normally take a statement from the complainant first, then from the person complained about.
How you find out
Most people find out in one of four ways: a call from the station, a written summons, a visit, or at the airport when they try to travel. The airport route is the worst of the four, because by then you have no time to prepare. If someone tells you informally that a complaint exists, treat it as real. Waiting for official contact wastes the part of the process where a defence is easiest to build.
Step two: being called to a police station
Go, and prepare before you go
Take your Emirates ID and passport, a copy of any summons, and the case number if you have it. Take the documents behind the underlying dispute, because a file with your contract, your transfers or your messages in it from day one is a very different file from one where they arrive months later. Tell a lawyer before you attend if there is any time at all. Knowing the station, the case number and the allegation changes the advice completely.
What happens when you arrive
You will be asked to give an account, and the officer records it into the file. This is an investigation, not a trial, and nobody there is deciding guilt. What they are building is the version of events the Public Prosecution will read.
Whether a lawyer can be with you
You are entitled to legal representation and you should ask for a lawyer to act for you. Whether that lawyer may be physically present during questioning, and the point at which the entitlement attaches, is worth a current answer rather than a remembered one.
If you are held rather than sent home
Ask for the case number and the name of the station, and use any call you are allowed to tell one person who can instruct a lawyer for you. Families usually reach us at this point because they cannot find out where someone is held or what the allegation is, and locating the file is the first practical step. How long a person may be held before the file moves on is set by law, and we state no period here.
Step three: your statement, and why signing matters
This is the part people underestimate, and the part hardest to undo.
What you sign becomes the file
Your statement is not a conversation someone summarises later. It is the document the prosecutor reads, the document the court reads, and the document you will be held to if you say something different in three months. A sentence that seemed harmless when you said it can read as an admission once it is in writing without the context around it.
The language problem
The file is in Arabic. If you gave your account in English or another language, what is recorded is a rendering of it. Do not sign a document in a language you cannot read because somebody has told you what it says. Ask for it to be read back, and if what is written does not match what you meant, say so before you sign. Part of what a lawyer does here is making sure the record says what you actually said.
Correcting it later
A statement can be supplemented and explained later, but that is repair work, and it is always weaker than getting it right the first time, because the other side will ask why the account changed.
Step four: referral to the Public Prosecution
When the police have finished, the file goes to the Public Prosecution. This is where the case becomes serious in a different way, and where a great deal of useful defence work happens.
What changes there
The prosecutor is not the police. They decide whether a case is brought at all. They can re-interview both sides, order further investigation, request documents and expert reports, and take a view on whether there is anything to put before a court.
What the prosecutor can decide
There are three broad outcomes. The file can be closed. It can stay open while more is gathered. Or it can be referred to the criminal court. A file closed here never becomes a court case, which is why written submissions to the prosecutor matter more than most people expect. A defence memorandum in Arabic, with the supporting documents attached and organised, is the main tool at this stage. Nobody can honestly say how a particular file will end, but this is the stage at which the most is still available to be done.
If you are in custody
Applications about release are dealt with here. Release before trial is generally arranged through a guarantee of some kind, set case by case. We publish no figures and no forms for it, because any number on a web page would be wrong for most readers. Our page on bail applications in Dubai covers how this is approached.
Travel restrictions arising from a case
A travel ban is how many people discover a case exists at all.
Why it appears
A ban can arise from a criminal file, from a civil judgment or from an enforcement action, and the route to lifting it depends on which of the three it is. Whether one is entered automatically when a complaint is filed, or only on an order, is worth confirming for your own case.
Checking
There are official channels for checking, and what is available depends on the emirate and the type of ban. The practical advice is simple: if you know a complaint exists, do not book a flight and find out at immigration.
A ban tied to a criminal file normally comes off when that file is resolved, withdrawn or closed. A ban tied to a debt usually needs the debt settled or secured. Our page on travel ban removal and absconding cases sets out both routes.
If the complainant wants to withdraw
This is the most misunderstood point in UAE criminal practice, and it costs people money every year.
In some categories of case, a withdrawal or a settlement by the complainant ends the matter. In others it does not, and the prosecution continues whatever the complainant now wants, because the case belongs to the state rather than to the person who filed it.
Find out which category your case falls into before anyone pays or signs anything. People regularly settle privately, believe the matter is over, and then receive a court date. There may also be a point beyond which a withdrawal no longer has the same effect. If settlement is the sensible route, have it documented and recorded in the file rather than agreed over the phone.
Step five: the move to court
If the prosecution refers the file, it goes to the criminal court at first instance.
What a hearing is actually like
Less dramatic than most people expect. Hearings are short. Adjournments are normal and are not a sign something has gone wrong; a case is commonly put off for a document, a translation, an expert report or a witness. Much of the argument is on paper, in pleadings filed in Arabic, rather than delivered aloud.
What the defence does there
Filing the defence pleadings, challenging evidence that was obtained improperly or does not prove what it is said to prove, putting forward witnesses, and asking for an expert where the case turns on accounts, signatures or technical material.
After judgment
A first instance judgment can be appealed, and an appeal decision can in defined circumstances go to cassation, where the review is on points of law rather than a fresh hearing of the facts. Appeal periods are short and run from a specific date, which is not necessarily the day you heard about the judgment. We state no deadline here. Ask for yours immediately, because this is the one date on which a good case can be lost for a reason that has nothing to do with its merits. If a judgment was given while you were out of the country or not present, there is a separate route for reopening it.
What a lawyer does at each stage
The work changes as the file moves, which is why establishing the stage comes first.
How we handle criminal work is set out on our criminal lawyers in Dubai page, and how charges are structured on our legal fees page. Ask any practice for the basis of charging in writing before you instruct it.
- At the police station. Finding out what the allegation actually is, making sure the statement records what you meant, and getting your documents into the file at the start.
- Before the Public Prosecution. Filing a written defence in Arabic with the evidence attached, asking for specific enquiries, and dealing with release if you are in custody.
- In court. Pleadings, evidence, witnesses, expert applications and submissions.
- After judgment. Advising honestly on whether an appeal has a real basis, and lodging it in time.
- For a complainant. Not everyone with a police case is the accused, and a complaint badly drafted at the start is a common reason a file goes nowhere.
Questions people ask on the first day
Do I need a lawyer if I have not been charged with anything?
The investigation stage is when advice is most useful, because a file closed by the prosecution never reaches a court, and the material that persuades a prosecutor is usually available at the beginning.
Can I just explain it to the police myself?
You can, and many people do. The difficulty is that a statement given without advice is hard to correct afterwards, particularly where it concedes something you did not intend to concede.
How long will this take?
It depends on the category of case and how much evidence has to be gathered or translated. We would rather give you a range after seeing the file than a figure on a web page.
A case has been filed and I am not in the UAE. What now?
A case can proceed in your absence, and people often learn of one only when they try to return. Matters in this position can frequently be dealt with without you being here, at least at first.
Will this show on a police clearance certificate?
What appears depends on how the file ended and on the type of certificate requested.
Can I be deported over this?
Residency consequences depend on the offence and the outcome, and it is not the same answer in every case. Ask about it specifically rather than assuming either way.
Speak to someone before you give a statement
If there is a case against you or against someone in your family, the useful step today is finding out what the file says and what stage it has reached. We can start that.
Call or message us on +971 50 747 9570, or email help@lawyerindubai.ae. You can also use the form on our contact page. Our other plain explanations are listed in our legal guides.
What this guide does not cover
It does not tell you what will happen in your case, because that depends on facts this page cannot know. It is general information about UAE law and not advice on your own situation.
Still not sure where you stand?
A guide can only go so far. Ten minutes on the phone will tell you whether your situation is the ordinary version or not.