Criminal Case Legal Assistance in Dubai

If you are American and arrested in Dubai, the US consulate can visit and check on you, but it cannot represent you or get you out. That job falls to a UAE licensed advocate, and the first 48 hours are what count. After an arrest or a complaint, the police usually have that long to send the file to public prosecution, and what you say or sign in that window sets the course. Do not give statements. Do not sign an Arabic document you cannot read. Talking your way out of it almost always makes things worse. We move early, before the charge hardens. We read the complaint, test how the evidence was gathered, and put your account to the prosecutor while the outcome can still change. The cases run wide: a bounced cheque, a fraud allegation, an assault claim, a business dispute that became a police report. Each one is decided on detail, and detail is won by preparation, not panic. Stay silent until you have advice. Then let us speak for you. Calm, early action is what keeps a bad night in Dubai from turning into a record that follows you back to the States.

Interpol Red Notice and Extradition

A Red Notice is a request, not a warrant. It is one country asking another to find and hold you, and the UAE courts, not the country that filed it, decide whether you are handed over. That distinction is where your defence begins. If a notice names you, the risk is immediate: arrest at Dubai airport, a passport held, and months of extradition proceedings. American nationals often face notices that grew from a business dispute recast as fraud, or from a foreign process they believe was unfair. We work two fronts at once. Inside the UAE, we challenge the extradition request in the Dubai courts. We test whether a valid treaty applies, we argue dual criminality, meaning the act must be a crime in both countries, and we show where a charge is political or abusive, which bars extradition. At the same time, we petition the Commission for the Control of Interpol's Files in Lyon to delete the notice at its source, and we coordinate with your US counsel where a case runs across both systems. If you think a notice may name you, do not travel first and ask later. Take advice and let us prepare before it goes active.

Divorce

Divorce problems do not improve while you wait. For non-Muslim residents, the UAE now offers a civil personal status route with a no-fault divorce, and in some cases you can ask for the law of your home state to apply instead. The right choice is rarely obvious. It turns on your assets, your children, and whether those assets sit in Dubai, in the United States, or across both. A Dubai order only helps if it can be enforced where your property actually is, and US courts do not automatically recognise a foreign decree. An American couple with a home in the States and accounts in the UAE needs a plan that works in both places, not a fast filing here that unravels later. A prenuptial agreement, if you have one, changes the picture and needs reviewing against UAE law. We start by mapping the full picture: what you own, where it sits, and what matters most to protect. Then we tell you the filing strategy that serves you, not the one that is easiest to file. Where children are involved, we act fast on protective steps before positions harden. We tell you the honest likely outcome from the first meeting.

Investment

A return that looks good on paper is not the same as one that is secured. Before you commit money to a fund, a company, or a Dubai project, the terms have to be checked against UAE law and against what you were actually promised. The gap between the two is where investors lose money. We read the structure, the exit, and the protections. We tell you plainly whether your capital is genuinely secured, what happens if the other side underperforms or disappears, and where the paperwork leaves you exposed. If the return rests on a promise that was never written down, it is not an investment, it is a bet. American investors also carry reporting duties back home, and a UAE holding can trigger US filing obligations. We flag where a structure needs review with your US tax counsel, so a good deal here does not become a problem there. If a deal has already turned, move while the trail is warm. We work to recover what can be recovered, trace where the money went, and press the claim through the Dubai courts or the right authority. Check it before you fund it.

Business

The structure you choose on day one is the one you live with for years. Mainland or free zone, who holds ownership, and how control and profit are split are set at the start and costly to unwind later. Take advice before you commit, not after. The United States and the UAE do heavy business together, and many American companies use Dubai as their base for the wider region. If you are building here, the structure has to match how you actually operate, not a template pulled off the internet, and it should sit cleanly alongside your US reporting. A weak contract is where most trouble begins. A partner who stops paying, a supplier who breaks terms, an agreement drafted for US law that a UAE court will not enforce cleanly. We review and draft your contracts so they hold up here, and when a dispute is live, we send the formal notice, pursue the claim in the right forum, and move to freeze assets or stop the other side leaving before they pay. Acting early usually leaves you stronger than waiting, and we tell you honestly whether a fight is worth having before you start it.

Real Estate

In Dubai property, the risk is rarely the building. It is the contract. Most purchases close cleanly, but the trouble hides in the detail: a developer who slips the handover date, a clause that shifts cost onto you, a joint purchase where nobody set down who owns what. American buyers are active across Dubai's off-plan and secondary market, drawn by yields they do not see at home. The excitement sits in the viewing, the exposure sits in the paperwork nobody read line by line. We check the contract before you sign, confirm the title and the developer, and make sure the terms protect you before any money moves. When a deal turns, we step in. A delayed handover, a fight over a deposit, a seller who will not complete. We pursue the developer or the other side through the right forum and push to protect your money rather than let it sit exposed. If you are buying to invest, we also look at how the property is held and what happens on resale or inheritance, since ownership here does not pass the way it does at home, and US estate rules may still reach it. Have it checked before you sign.

Frequently Asked Questions