Five minutes with…Tarish Eid Al Mansouri, director general, Dubai Courts

1. Could you please list down some of the smart services provided by Dubai Courts to its customers?

Dubai Courts is fully committed to continuously align its efforts towards propelling Dubai into becoming the world’s smartest city as envisioned by H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai. Among government entities and judicial bodies in the world, we are the first to launch a portfolio of 110 ‘smart’ services, most notable of which are our ‘Notification by e-publishing;’ ‘Salfah Remote Case Registration;’ and ‘Smart Seize,’ a first-of-its-kind in the region that replaces traditional processes and paper forms with smart applications using smart tablets.

In line with our 100 per cent smart transformation target, we aim to further increase our innovative bundle of smart services from its current number to 210 by the end of this year. Our ultimate goal is to facilitate and speed up the litigation process and customer transactions as well as save time and effort to ensure the happiness of our people and well-being of our society.

2. For Dubai Courts, why is it important to attain and measure customer satisfaction using the Happiness Index? What is the Happiness Index in Dubai Courts?

The happiness of our customers is fundamental to us at Dubai Courts. It drives us to consistently innovate and develop highly efficient and reliable judicial services. A high customer satisfaction is the first indication of success in the government’s efforts.

Responding to the directives of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed, we implemented the ‘Happiness Index’ initiative in which we distribute daily questionnaires to measure the happiness level of our customers. The initiative also demonstrates our commitment to faithfully fulfill our responsibilities. The results have been very positive so far, with both confidence and happiness levels growing to 69 and 58 per cent, respectively, over the past year.

Dubai Courts’ ‘Smart Application,’ which won the ‘Smart Government Shield’ award, is contributing to our initiative’s positive results. By giving our customers fast and easy access to our legal services round the clock through our interactive platform, their satisfaction rate goes up. Our success drives us to double our efforts in making all our services ‘smart’ in the coming months. This is also our way of extending our full support to the goals of Dubai Plan 2021 in terms of building a proactive and innovative smart government.

3. What are some of the usual complaints you receive from your customers and how do you address these issues?

One challenge that we are trying to address is the lack of parking space. Some customers cannot find a parking lot near our building, hindering them from completing their transactions with us. We have been collaborating with concerned authorities from the Dubai Government for quick deployment of appropriate solutions and measures. We have also opened our new branches in Al Barsha Mall and Hatta where our customers may visit to conduct their transactions without going to courts.

An extensive study shows that expanding the scope of our smart services to afford our customers the convenience they deserve is the best solution. Our smart services also do away with the need for them to visit the courts to conduct their business, thereby directly contributing to our efforts to minimize the number of customers coming to us by 80 per cent in 2018 as aspired by our leaders. We believe that are moving to the right direction.

4. What are the initiatives undertaken by the Dubai Courts to reduce the presence of the customer in the courts’ premises?

Our smart services are mainly helping us in this regard. Through our modern services, we are able to provide effective solutions to complete many judicial transactions quickly and easily and with high efficiency and reliability anywhere, anytime. The ‘Smart Seize’ has successfully saved time and effort for customers and enforcement officers alike.

Other services include the ‘Salfah’ program, which has been designed for the implementation of electronic transactions; ‘Notification by e-publishing,’ which aims to facilitate the publishing of notices electronically in local newspapers; and ‘Private Notary,’ which provides many options for documenting and authenticating contracts through private notaries operating in Dubai.