The Judicial Costs Law (نظام التكاليف القضائية), enacted by Royal Decree No. M/16 together with its Executive Regulations, introduced a calculated, tiered fee structure for litigation in Saudi Arabia. Its stated aims are to shift the financial burden of litigation to the losing party, relieve the state budget, and incentivize alternative dispute resolution such as mediation and arbitration. As part of the Najiz guides on Hala Law, this page presents the financial-claim brackets, the fixed fees, appellate and execution fees, settlement incentives, and the exemptions, as documented by the Judicial Costs Portal and the Law. For an estimate on specific inputs, the court fees calculator on Hala Law applies these rules.

Financial claim brackets: regressive rates, SAR 1,000,000 cap

For claims with a quantified monetary value, the cost is a percentage of the claim value, and the percentage decreases as the value rises. The base is the monetary amount the plaintiff requests, or in real estate disputes the value of the disputed asset per historical Ministry of Justice data.

| Claim value bracket | Applied percentage | Cap | | --- | --- | --- | | Less than SAR 100,000 | 5 percent of the claim value | None | | SAR 100,000 to 499,999 | 4 percent of the claim value | None | | SAR 500,000 to 999,999 | 3 percent of the claim value | None | | SAR 1,000,000 and above | 2 percent of the claim value | SAR 1,000,000 |

The absolute maximum fee for any single lawsuit is SAR 1,000,000. The regressive design is deliberate: the higher 5 percent rate on small claims pushes minor disputes toward out-of-court settlement, while the 2 percent rate and the cap keep costs from becoming a barrier in large-scale litigation.

Worked example: an SME files a commercial lawsuit against a vendor for SAR 200,000. The value falls in the 100,000–499,999 bracket, so 4 percent applies: 200,000 times 0.04 equals SAR 8,000. If the plaintiff wins entirely, this cost is ultimately borne by the losing defendant.

Fixed fees for unquantified claims

Lawsuits with an indeterminate or non-monetary value carry fixed flat fees by court or case type:

| Court / lawsuit type | Fixed cost (SAR) | | --- | --- | | Private criminal cases | 10,000 | | Commercial courts and circuits | 5,000 | | General courts | 3,000 | | Urgent lawsuits (any jurisdiction) | 3,000 | | Labor disputes (non-exempt parties) | 2,000 |

Appellate motions and incidental requests

Costs for procedural requests and appeals are assessed independently of the core lawsuit fee, to curb unfounded delays and frivolous challenges. The maximum cumulative fee for judicial applications is SAR 10,000.

| Request | Cost (SAR) | | --- | --- | | Petition for reconsideration | 10,000 | | Motion for cassation before the Supreme Court | 7,000 | | Motion for appeal | 5,000 | | Incidental requests or cross-claims during trial | 1,000 | | Entry of adversaries, judge recusal, stay of execution, judgment correction | 2,000 | | Certified copies of case files or documents | 100 | | Viewing electronic or paper records | 50 |

To protect the finality of arbitration, an action seeking to annul an arbitral award is charged 1 percent of the awarded amount if the nullity claim is denied, up to the SAR 1,000,000 cap. Example: a construction firm loses a SAR 150,000,000 arbitration and files a nullity action that is denied; the raw calculation is SAR 1,500,000, which exceeds the cap, so exactly SAR 1,000,000 is payable.

Execution court fees

The enforcement phase has its own schedule:

  • Execution disputes: a flat fee of SAR 3,000 for disputes arising during the execution phase.
  • Direct execution requests for non-monetary compliance: SAR 500.
  • Financial execution requests: 2 percent of the demanded amount, with a minimum of SAR 500 and a maximum of SAR 10,000.

Worked example: a business wins a final judgment for SAR 400,000 and files an execution request. 400,000 times 0.02 equals SAR 8,000, within the 500–10,000 band, and this cost adds to the debtor's ultimate liability.

Settlement incentives and the reinstatement penalty

The framework rewards amicable resolution and penalizes procedural neglect:

  • Settlement before the first hearing: judicial costs are waived entirely.
  • Settlement after the first hearing but before judgment: costs are reduced to 25 percent of the calculated amount — a 75 percent discount.
  • Case reinstatement (Article 4): if a case is struck out for improper formatting or dismissed for lack of prosecution and the plaintiff asks to reinstate it, a supplementary fee equal to 25 percent of the original cost applies, borne by the plaintiff alone regardless of the eventual outcome.

Statutory exemptions

The general rule is that the defeated party bears the judicial costs, but the Law sets express exemptions preserving access to justice:

| Category or case type | Scope of exemption | | --- | --- | | Workers subject to the Labor Law, those exempted from it, and their beneficiaries | Full exemption in claims arising from the employment contract | | Personal status cases | Exempt from filing costs, except cassation (SAR 7,000) and reconsideration (SAR 10,000) | | Bankruptcy Law proceedings | Exempt from judicial filing fees | | Prisoners and detainees at the time fees become due | Exempt in non-criminal financial cases, as plaintiff or defendant | | Ministries and official government bodies | Exempt from judicial costs | | Public criminal and disciplinary cases | Outside the scope of the fee system entirely |

Note that a worker's exemption does not erase the cost for the other side: if an exempt worker wins against a non-exempt employer, the losing employer remains obligated to pay the applicable costs to the state. Example: an expatriate engineer files a claim for SAR 150,000 in end-of-service benefits and withheld salaries; the upfront cost to the employee is SAR 0, and if the company loses it is invoiced the cost calculated on the claim (150,000 times 4 percent equals SAR 6,000).

Before filing: estimate the figure first

Because the cost shifts with the bracket, court type, exemptions, and settlement timing, estimating the figure in advance is a natural part of any litigation decision. The court fees calculator on Hala Law applies the brackets and limits above to your inputs, and the official reference for the schedule is the Ministry of Justice Judicial Costs Portal cited in the sources.

When do you need a licensed lawyer?

The information here is a general presentation of the fee schedule as published by official sources, not an assessment of any specific case. A matter moves closer to needing a licensed professional when:

  • A single case mixes monetary and non-monetary claims and each request's classification affects the cost.
  • The choice between proceeding and settling turns on how the cost changes with settlement timing.
  • The matter involves an arbitral-award nullity action or a time-bound challenge where the step carries a significant cost.
  • An exemption may apply and its scope needs careful reading against the facts.

In these situations, the outcome depends on the facts and classification of each case — matters assessed case by case.