RIYADH — Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman has issued a supreme order to all government entities to coordinate with the Ministry of Justice to enumerate all their needs for settlement certifications.

The ministry explained that the order called for the establishment of a mechanism, which is expected to be implemented within 90 days, instead of filing settlement applications.

“The supreme order stipulated that the new methodology for settlement certifications should be applied to stem the influx of cases and disputes coming to courts. A study prepared by a special committee revealed the large number of settlement applications received by courts from government entities for reasons that had become unnecessary with the technical development and digital connectivity between departments,” the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry pointed out that the order strove to realize the initiative of “stemming lawsuit influx,” in line with the National Transformation Program 2020 and Saudi Vision 2030. The initiative included recommendations on the influx of settlement applications from government departments, aiming to establish a methodology for addressing the matter and achieving the objectives.

Dr. Waleed Al-Sama’ani, justice minister and chairman of the Supreme Judicial Council, appreciated the supreme order, stressing that it would help in solving the issue where governmental entities filed settlement applications to courts whose original jurisdiction was rather handling disputes.

“Some settlements can be determined out of courts in an easy manner to realize the goals of the government departments,” he added.

The ministry noted that courts received over 20 types of settlement applications from nearly 30 government entities without prior coordination with the ministry.

It stressed that the order to government departments aimed at reconsidering the judicial decisions regarding settlements and improving the performance of such departments so that they verified facts and made appropriate decisions.

In addition, it aims to stop such entities from filing settlement applications before coordinating first with the ministry, so that it could study the application and have the necessary meetings to explore the issues, develop solutions, and formulate memorandums of understanding in this regard, the statement said. — SG