How Much a Publication Notice Costs in Dubai
There is no single sticker price for a publication notice in Dubai, because the cost is not one charge — it is a small stack of separate charges set by different bodies. A court fee fixed by Dubai legislation, a certified-translation fee set by the translation provider, and a publishing fee set by each newspaper together make up what you pay, and each one answers to a different authority. This guide breaks the cost into its components, shows who bears each part and how it is recovered in the judgment, and is honest about the one thing no service provider can control: the court and the newspapers set their own rates, not MANJAZ. It is general information to help you budget, not legal advice on your matter or a price quotation.
- The cost is a stack: a court fee, a certified-translation fee, and a per-newspaper publishing fee
- Court fees are fixed by Dubai law and newspaper rates by the publisher — neither is set by MANJAZ
- The claimant fronts the cost; the court may order the losing party to bear it in the judgment
- Publishing in two newspapers adds the second paper's fee — it does not automatically double everything
- Dubai-based, UAE-wide service
- Arabic & English
- Clear guidance on every document
- Direct request, no middlemen
What a publication notice costs, in one paragraph
The cost of a publication notice in Dubai is the sum of three things, not one figure: a court fee for handling the service-by-publication step, charged by Dubai Courts; a certified legal-translation fee, if the notice or the underlying document has to appear in Arabic and the source is in another language; and a publishing fee charged by the newspaper for running the notice, once per newspaper used. The claimant — the party asking the court to serve the other side — normally advances all three, and the court may then order the losing party to bear the litigation costs when it gives judgment. There is no fixed all-in price, because the court fee is set by Dubai legislation and the newspaper fee is set by the publisher; both move independently of any translation provider.
The practical takeaway is that you should budget for a range, not a price. Two of the three components — the court fee and the newspaper fee — are outside anyone's discretion but the authority that sets them, and they depend on the court involved and the newspaper chosen. The one component a translation provider quotes is the certified translation, and even that varies with the length and complexity of what has to be translated. Below, each component is separated out, priced by mechanism rather than by an invented number, and matched to who pays it and how it is recovered.
Why a publication notice carries a cost at all
Service by publication is not the ordinary way a defendant is notified; it is the fallback the law allows when the other side cannot be reached in person. Under the UAE Civil Procedure Law (Federal Decree-Law No. 42 of 2022), when a party has no known place of residence or work, the court may direct that notice be given by publishing it in a widely circulated daily newspaper — in Arabic, and in a foreign-language newspaper as well where the situation calls for it. The date of publication then counts as the date the party was notified. Because the step involves both the court and a commercial newspaper, it draws a fee from each.
So the cost is really the price of two separate services stitched together. The court is administering a formal procedural step — recording the request, issuing the direction, and treating the published date as valid service — and it charges a judicial fee for that, fixed by Dubai legislation. The newspaper is selling advertising space in a specific edition and charges its commercial rate for it. The certified translation, when needed, is a third service still: turning the notice or the document behind it into court-acceptable Arabic. None of the three is optional-by-preference — each is triggered by the procedure — but they are billed by three different hands.
This is also why the notice text matters to the cost. A newspaper generally charges by the space a notice occupies, so a long, densely worded notice can cost more to publish than a short, precise one. Getting the notice drafted tightly and correctly is therefore not only a compliance question; it has a direct bearing on the publishing fee.
The cost components — basis, who bears it, and how it is recovered
| Cost element | Basis of the rate | Who bears it initially | How it is recovered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Court fee for the service-by-publication step (application / handling) | Statutory — a judicial fee fixed by Dubai legislation (Law No. 21 of 2015 on Dubai Courts judicial fees, as amended). Not set by MANJAZ. | The claimant, as part of moving the case forward. | Included in the litigation costs the court may order the losing party to pay in the judgment. |
| Certified legal translation of the notice / underlying document into Arabic | Commercial — quoted by the translation provider by length and complexity; the profession is licensed, but the price is the provider's. | The claimant, when a foreign-language source must appear in Arabic. | Claimable as a litigation expense at the court's discretion. |
| Newspaper publishing fee — per newspaper | Commercial — set by the publisher, usually by the space the notice occupies. Not set by MANJAZ. | The claimant pays the newspaper directly or through the arrangement made. | Recoverable as part of costs if the court so orders. |
| Optional / directed second newspaper (e.g. a foreign-language paper) | Commercial — a further publisher's fee, only when a second paper is used or the court directs one. | The claimant, adding the second paper's fee on top. | Treated the same way — part of costs the court may allocate. |
MANJAZ does not set — or collect — court or newspaper fees
Two of the three cost components are outside any translation provider's control. The court fee is a statutory judicial charge fixed by Dubai legislation and paid to Dubai Courts; the publishing fee is a commercial rate fixed by the newspaper and paid to the publisher. MANJAZ neither sets nor collects either of them. The only element MANJAZ quotes is the certified legal translation of the notice or the document behind it — and that quote depends on length, language pair and complexity, not on the value of the claim.
For the current court fee, confirm it with Dubai Courts or through the case file; for the publishing fee, confirm it with the newspaper. Any figure quoted elsewhere as a single fixed price for "a publication notice" is, at best, an estimate that bundles charges from separate authorities.
Who pays — and how the cost comes back
In the first instance, the claimant pays. Service by publication is a step the claimant needs in order to move the case forward when the defendant cannot be found, so it is the claimant who advances the court fee, arranges and pays for the newspaper publication, and pays for any certified translation the notice requires. The defendant, who is by definition not reachable, plays no part in funding it.
What happens next is where the defendant can end up bearing it. Under the UAE Civil Procedure Law, when the court gives judgment it also decides how the litigation costs are allocated, and the general principle is that the losing party is ordered to bear the costs of the case — which can include the expenses of service, among them the publication cost. The court retains discretion: it may apportion costs between the parties, or depart from the default where the circumstances justify it. So the honest answer to "who pays" is: the claimant pays now, and the losing party may be ordered to reimburse it later — but reimbursement is a judicial decision, not a guarantee, and it is only as good as the ability to enforce the judgment afterwards.
Have a question about your case?
What makes one publication notice cost more than another
- The number of newspapers used — each additional paper is a separate publishing fee
- Whether a foreign-language newspaper is required as well as an Arabic one
- The length and wording of the notice — newspapers commonly charge by the space it occupies
- Whether a certified translation is needed, and the length and complexity of what must be translated
- The specific court and procedure — the statutory fee depends on the fee schedule that applies
- Whether the notice has to be re-published because the first attempt was defective
How the cost lands in common situations
The notice is published in a single Arabic newspaper and no translation is needed.
What is usually neededTwo components only: the court fee and one newspaper's publishing fee. This is the leanest case.
The court directs publication in an Arabic paper and a foreign-language paper.
What is usually neededThe court fee plus two publishing fees — one per newspaper. The second paper adds its own fee, it does not double the court fee.
The document behind the notice is in English and must appear in Arabic.
What is usually neededAdd a certified legal-translation fee to the court and newspaper fees; its size depends on length and complexity.
You win the case and want the publication cost back.
What is usually neededAsk the court to include it in the costs order; recovery is at the court's discretion and then depends on enforcing the judgment.
Mistakes that quietly raise the cost
The mistakeTreating a single quoted "publication price" as the whole cost, then being surprised by the court fee.
The fixBudget for all three components separately, and confirm the court fee and the newspaper fee with their own sources.
The mistakeA defect in the notice — wrong details, missing wording — forces a re-publication and a second set of fees.
The fixGet the notice drafted correctly and confirmed against the court's requirements before it runs, not after.
The mistakePadding the notice with unnecessary text, which increases the space it occupies and the publishing fee.
The fixKeep the notice as concise as the court's requirements allow — precise, complete, and no longer than it must be.
The mistakeAssuming a win automatically refunds the cost, and not asking for it in the costs order.
The fixClaim the expenses of service explicitly, and remember recovery still depends on the court's order and on enforcement.
A sensible way to budget for the publication cost
Start by fixing the two components you do not control. Confirm the court fee for the service-by-publication step with Dubai Courts or through your case file, and get the publishing rate from the newspaper the court accepts, based on the actual length of the notice you intend to run. Those two numbers, together, are the floor of your budget, and neither is something a translation provider can quote for you.
Then add the one component that can be quoted. If the notice or the document behind it has to appear in Arabic and the source is in another language, ask for a certified legal-translation quote based on the exact text — its length, its language pair and its complexity — rather than a round number. Doing the notice once, correctly, is the single biggest cost saving available to you: a clean notice that the court accepts on the first run avoids a re-publication, and a re-publication means paying the newspaper fee, and sometimes the court fee, a second time. Where MANJAZ helps is on that translation component and on getting the Arabic wording right so the notice is not sent back — not on the court or newspaper charges, which are never ours to set.
If you need the Arabic text of a publication notice — or the document behind it — translated and certified correctly the first time, tell us the document, the language direction and the court it is going to.
Learn about publication noticesQuestions about the cost of a publication notice in Dubai
There is no single fixed price, because the cost is made up of separate charges from different bodies: a court fee for the service-by-publication step, a per-newspaper publishing fee, and — where needed — a certified legal-translation fee. The court fee is fixed by Dubai legislation and the newspaper fee by the publisher, so the total depends on the court, the newspaper, the length of the notice and whether a translation is required. Confirm the court fee with Dubai Courts and the publishing rate with the newspaper; the translation is the only part a provider quotes.
The claimant pays initially. Because service by publication is a step the claimant needs to advance the case, it is the claimant who fronts the court fee, the newspaper fee and any translation. When the court gives judgment it allocates the litigation costs, and the general principle is that the losing party is ordered to bear them — which can include the publication expense. So the defendant may ultimately reimburse it, but only if the court so orders and only to the extent the judgment can be enforced.
Yes — completely. The court fee is a statutory judicial charge fixed by Dubai legislation and paid to Dubai Courts for handling the procedure. The newspaper fee is a commercial charge for advertising space, fixed by the publisher and paid to the newspaper. They are set by different bodies, priced on different bases, and paid to different recipients. Neither is set by MANJAZ.
It can be, but it is not automatic. Under the UAE Civil Procedure Law, the court allocates the litigation costs in its judgment, and the losing party is generally ordered to bear them — which can include the expenses of service such as publication. But the court has discretion to apportion costs, and recovery in practice still depends on the costs order actually covering it and on your ability to enforce the judgment. Claim the expense expressly rather than assuming it is included.
No — it adds the second newspaper's publishing fee, it does not double everything. The court fee is charged for the procedure, not per newspaper, so a second paper adds only its own commercial fee. If the court directs both an Arabic and a foreign-language paper, expect two publishing fees on top of one court fee, plus any translation the foreign-language notice needs.
It is a separate component that arises only when the notice or the document behind it must appear in Arabic and the source is in another language. It is quoted by the translation provider on the basis of length, language pair and complexity — not as a percentage of the claim, and not by the court or the newspaper. It is the one part of the overall cost that a provider like MANJAZ can quote; the court fee and the newspaper fee are not ours to set.
Official sources
- Government of Dubai — Law No. 21 of 2015 Concerning Judicial Fees of the Dubai Courts (the statutory basis for court fees)
- Government of Dubai — Law No. 2 of 2019 amending the Dubai Courts judicial-fees law
- UAE Legislation portal — Federal Decree-Law No. 42 of 2022 promulgating the Civil Procedure Law (service by publication; allocation of costs)
- UAE Ministry of Justice — main federal legislation (Civil Procedure Law)
- Dubai Courts — public notices and court services
This content is for general awareness and is based on the official sources available at the time of the last update. Publication-notice requirements and steps differ by the type and stage of the case and the direction of the competent court or authority. It is not legal advice. MANJAZ is a service provider that helps prepare and coordinate publication-notice requirements — it is not a court, does not decide whether a case qualifies for service by publication, and does not issue judicial notices.
Have a publication-notice matter in Dubai?
Send your case details and the documents you have, and MANJAZ will help identify and coordinate the right publication-notice steps for your matter.