AMMAN--The Ministry of Justice in cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme launches today the Small Claims initiative which aims to reduce the litigation period in small financial cases from years to a matter of days.

The Ministry, with the support of UNDP, has engaged since February 2019 in exploring opportunities for further improving the performance of the justice system in handling Small Claims.

A “Small Claims Committee” was established in February 2019 with the mandate of developing a model applicable in Jordan to handle small claims, which are defined as “small-value monetary disputes” over civil or commercial matters.

The Committee is composed of 12 members and chaired by Mr. Walid Kanakiriyah, Judge of the Court of Appeal of Amman. Over the period February – August 2019, a total number of 9 Committee working sessions were held in the premises of the Ministry of Justice and in June the members of the Committee attended a two-day retreat at the Dead Sea. The Committee concluded its work in August and identified a general framework and specific solutions to handle small claims in Jordan.

Prior to launching the implementation phase, a bilateral dialogue session has been conducted between the Judicial Council and the Ministry of Justice to discuss the identified model for Small Claims in Jordan as well as the implementation plan.

For this reason, Small Claims pilot project will take place in Amman five courts including; South, West, North, and East Amman, as well as Irbid court, to measure the results of courts backlog, and ease access to justice for beneficiaries who fall under Small Claims, in order to see how the identified model of Small Claims will work in other governorates for different type of disputes.

The overall output of the launch event is to ensure that lawyers, judges, civilians who have Small Claims have a common understanding of the Small Claim model that will be implemented to ensure effective and prompt implementation. The pilot plan will take place in 5 courts in Amman and one court in Irbid that will support how a large-scale project might work in the future.