How to Choose the Best Lawyer: A UAE Guide
Choosing the best lawyer in the UAE comes down to five checks: whether they are an advocate or a legal
An insolvency lawyer in Dubai helps you when the debts have grown larger than the money coming in, whether you are a business trying to survive, a director worried about personal liability, or a creditor trying to get paid. UAE law now treats business failure as something to manage rather than punish, and the tools to rescue a company only work if you use them early. Company insolvency is governed by the Financial Restructuring and Bankruptcy Law, Federal Decree-Law No. 51 of 2023, which came into force in May 2024 and created a dedicated Bankruptcy Court. At Hessa Al Hammadi Advocates & Legal Consultants, we advise on this work through our corporate law, commercial law, and litigation practices, and we are licensed before the Dubai Courts, DIFC Courts, and ADGM Courts. An insolvency lawyer in Dubai gives you options while you still have them.
This sounds like a simple question, and it decides which law applies to you, which court hears your case, and what protection you get. Many people head down the wrong road for months before finding out.
Companies, traders, and licensed professional civil companies come under the Financial Restructuring and Bankruptcy Law, Federal Decree-Law No. 51 of 2023, and go through the specialised Bankruptcy Court. An ordinary person who is not a trader, for example a salaried employee buried in credit cards and a car loan, comes under an entirely separate law, Federal Decree-Law No. 19 of 2019 on Insolvency, and applies to a different court.
There is a third possibility that catches out free zone businesses. The federal bankruptcy law does not extend to the DIFC and ADGM, which run their own insolvency regimes and their own courts. Our advocates appear before both, as well as the onshore courts. Establishing which regime you fall under is the first real decision in any insolvency matter.
If there is one fact on this page worth remembering, it is this one. The most powerful rescue tool in UAE law has a deadline attached to it, and almost no business owner knows about it until it has passed.
To qualify for a preventive settlement, the strongest and least invasive option, a debtor must not have stopped paying its due debts for more than 60 consecutive days. Inside that window, the company can reach a court-supervised deal with its creditors while the owners stay in control of the business. Outside it, that door closes, and the remaining routes are heavier, slower, and far more disruptive. Most struggling businesses spend those 60 days hoping the problem will fix itself. If your business has started missing payments, the clock is already running.
UAE law now offers a ladder rather than a cliff. Where you sit on that ladder depends almost entirely on how early you act.
The whole system is run through a dedicated Bankruptcy Court, with a trustee appointed to manage the process, and the law also created a Bankruptcy Register, the first of its kind in the UAE. That register matters, because insolvency applications are now visible in a way they never were before. Rescue is realistic at the top of this ladder and almost impossible at the bottom.
This is the question that keeps business owners awake, and the honest answer is yes, in certain circumstances. The 2023 law widened management liability rather than narrowing it.
Where directors or managers continue trading recklessly, prefer certain creditors unfairly, or act in ways that damage the general body of creditors, the court can look through the company to the people running it. More seriously, the law creates criminal penalties for conduct such as concealing assets with the intention of harming creditors, which moves the matter into our criminal law territory rather than staying a commercial problem. Directors who take proper legal advice, document their decisions, and act early are in a very different position from those who trade on in silence and hope. Getting advice early protects the business and the people running it.
Insolvency is not only a debtor’s problem. If a customer or partner collapses owing you money, the first creditor to act properly is usually the one who recovers something.
We help creditors prove and file their claims, take part in the process, and where appropriate start proceedings against a debtor. Two points are worth knowing. First, secured creditors can, with the Bankruptcy Court’s permission, enforce against the assets securing their debt even after proceedings have begun. Second, outside insolvency, recovery is faster than most businesses realise: under the Commercial Transactions Law, a cheque that bounces for insufficient funds is a direct writ of execution, so you can go straight to the Execution Court rather than running a full lawsuit first. You can read our guide on how to recover debt in the UAE, and we act for creditors through our civil law practice. In insolvency, speed and paperwork beat outrage every time.
Business owners often ask this before they ask about themselves, and the law gives a reassuring answer. Staff are not left at the back of the queue.
The bankruptcy law treats employee entitlements, including unpaid wages and end-of-service benefits, as priority claims, and they are not simply frozen while a settlement or restructuring runs. That means a company going through a rescue process is generally expected to keep paying its people, which is deliberate: the workforce is usually what makes the business worth saving. Employees who are not being paid also retain their normal route to MOHRE, and our labor law team can advise on how to file a labour complaint in the UAE. Protecting staff entitlements is built into the rescue process, not bolted on afterwards.
For a person drowning in personal debt, the fear is usually prison. That fear is largely out of date, and it stops people getting help that exists.
Under the 2019 Insolvency Law, an honest individual who genuinely cannot pay is not imprisoned for the debt itself, although fraud, hiding assets, and bad faith towards creditors remain criminal offences. The law also builds in a route back. A person is generally restored to normal financial standing three years after the insolvency proceedings end, and that period shortens to two years if half the debts have been repaid, and to one year if three-quarters have been. Repaying all the accepted debts restores you immediately. There is a legal way out of personal insolvency, and it starts with advice rather than avoidance.
The best insolvency lawyer is judged on where they can appear and what they have proved, not on what they promise.
Our advocates work in both English and Arabic, and business clients can read more about our approach in our guide to corporate law firms in Dubai or learn more about Hessa Al Hammadi Advocates. Court reach and certification are worth more than reassurance.
A trusted insolvency lawyer in Dubai tells you honestly whether your business can be saved, protects you personally as a director, and acts inside the deadlines that decide your options. The 60-day window for preventive settlement is the clearest example of why waiting costs you choices.
Whether you are a business under pressure, a director worried about exposure, or a creditor chasing a failing debtor, we will give you a straight assessment. Our fees are set out clearly at the outset through our legal consultation service.
Struggling with debt? Contact Hessa Al Hammadi Advocates on +971 50 211 6931 or email info@nhalhammadi.com to book your 45-minute initial consultation with an insolvency lawyer in Dubai.
They advise businesses and individuals who cannot pay their debts, guiding them through preventive settlement, restructuring, or bankruptcy, protecting directors from personal liability, and helping creditors recover what they are owed.
To qualify for a preventive settlement, the strongest rescue tool, a debtor must not have stopped paying its due debts for more than 60 consecutive days. Miss that window and the remaining options are heavier and more disruptive.
They can. The 2023 law widened management liability, and conduct such as concealing assets to harm creditors carries criminal penalties. Early legal advice and documented decisions are the best protection.
Under the insolvency law, an honest individual who genuinely cannot pay is not imprisoned for the debt itself. Fraud, hiding assets, and bad faith towards creditors remain criminal offences.
Call +971 50 211 6931 or email info@nhalhammadi.com to book a 45-minute initial consultation. We will review your contract or dispute, explain your options, and set out all costs clearly at the outset.
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