Criminal Case Legal Assistance in Dubai

A Canadian passport does not soften how Dubai handles a criminal case. The system treats a complaint seriously from the first hour, and the police usually have around 48 hours to move the file to public prosecution. Whatever you say or sign in that time tends to define the case, so hold back. Do not put your name to an Arabic document that has not been translated by someone you trust. Canadian consular staff can visit and pass messages to your family, but they cannot represent you, argue your case, or arrange bail. That work belongs to a UAE licensed advocate, and we are with you at the police station, before the prosecutor, and in court. We get involved before the charge is locked in. We read the complaint closely, question how the evidence was collected, and put your account to the prosecutor while the outcome is still open. The usual triggers are a bounced cheque, a dispute at work, an online comment, a night out that went wrong. None of that improves on its own. Get advice before you speak, then let us carry it. The first forty-eight hours decide far more than most people realise until it is too late.

Interpol Red Notice and Extradition

A Red Notice can surface years after you thought a matter was closed. It is not a warrant. It is a request through Interpol asking member states to find and detain you, and the UAE makes its own decision on whether to act. That decision is the ground on which a defence is built. The immediate risk is blunt: held at the border, passport taken, and an extradition file that can drag on for months. For Canadian clients, the notices we see often grow out of a business quarrel repackaged as fraud, or a foreign case that would not hold up under fair scrutiny. We work two channels at once. In the Dubai courts, we oppose the extradition request, test whether a treaty applies, argue dual criminality, and expose any political or bad-faith motive, which blocks surrender. Alongside that, we petition the Commission for the Control of Interpol's Files in Lyon to have the notice erased at source. If you suspect your name sits on a notice, do not fly to confirm it. Speak to us first, and let us check discreetly and prepare before the notice can be used against you at a border.

Divorce

The hardest part of a Canadian divorce in Dubai is not the split itself. It is deciding which country's rules govern it. For non-Muslim residents, the UAE now runs a civil personal status system with a no-fault route, and in some cases you can ask for the law of your home province to apply instead. That choice shapes support, property, and time with the children. Canadian families often straddle both places: a house in Toronto or Vancouver, registered savings at home, and accounts or property in Dubai. A Dubai order does not automatically bind a Canadian court, and provincial family law differs across the country, so a settlement has to be engineered to work on both sides. We start by laying out the whole picture, what you own, where it sits, and what you most need to secure. Then we advise where filing puts you in the strongest position, and we say so plainly when the strongest option is not the quickest. Where children are involved, we act early on travel bans and account freezes before anyone moves assets. And we give you an honest read on the likely outcome from the first meeting.

Investment

Canadians tend to trust a signed document. In Dubai, a document only helps you if it holds up under UAE law, and that is where careful investors and careless ones part ways. Before you commit to a fund, a company, or an off-plan project, the terms need checking against local law and against what you were actually promised in the pitch. We go line by line through the structure, the exit terms, and what actually secures your money. We tell you whether your capital is genuinely protected, what happens if the operator stumbles or disappears, and where the fine print shifts the risk onto you. A guaranteed yield that exists only on a slide is not a guarantee. There is a tax side too. A UAE holding can still create reporting duties with the CRA, and a structure that looks clean here can cause problems on your Canadian return. We flag where you should align it with your accountant at home before you sign. If a deal has already turned, move quickly. We trace the funds, protect what can be protected, and bring the claim through the Dubai courts or the relevant regulator. Check it before you fund it, not after the money is gone.

Business

Canada and the UAE trade in energy, education, and food, and a good share of it clears through Dubai. If you are setting up here, the structure you choose at the outset will shape your options for years. Mainland or free zone, who holds ownership, how control and profit are split, these are easy to get wrong and expensive to correct once you are running. The structure has to fit how you actually operate and sit cleanly alongside your Canadian reporting, not simply follow whatever a free-zone agent is selling that week. A template built for someone else's business is a liability dressed as a shortcut. Most disputes begin with a thin contract. A client who stops paying, a partner who leaves with the client list, a supplier who breaks terms, an agreement written for Canadian law that a UAE court will read differently. We draft and review your contracts to stand up here, and when a matter turns, we issue the formal notice, take it to the right forum, and move to secure assets or impose a travel ban before funds disappear. Acting early usually pays. And we will tell you honestly when a claim is not worth the fight.

Real Estate

Canadian buyers come to Dubai for yields their home market stopped offering, and most purchases go through cleanly. The trouble, when it comes, is almost never the building. It is the contract: a handover that slips by a year, a payment plan that quietly shifts risk to you, a joint purchase where ownership was never properly set down. We examine the contract before you commit, verify the developer and the title deed, and make sure the terms hold before your deposit moves. On a resale, we check what you are really buying and which liabilities come attached. When a purchase falls apart, we step in fast. A developer who will not complete, a broker who vanished with a reservation fee, a landlord withholding a deposit over invented damage. We take it to the right forum, RERA, the rental committee, or the courts, and press to recover your money instead of leaving it frozen. If you are buying to hold or rent, we also look at how the property passes on death, because UAE succession does not follow a Canadian will by default, and an unplanned estate here can lock the asset up for your family. Have it checked before you sign.

Frequently Asked Questions