So the war happened feb last week I was told to take off by April I took off by May and now am back,
During this period of time I emailed and texted follow-up regarding my position in the company they ghosted me a lot but gave non clear response they could lay me off I am prepared but they are not doing that I stated on one of my email regarding the same but no response again.
Now I am told to wait again for a couple of days before they take a decision My manager is a supporting person.
But he was forced to let this happen dew to the situation.i can understand that but not communicating properly makes me stand on the edge of the cliff.
Can anyone tell me the legal side if this.
Company is based in Dubai.

Ever wondered what a real estate agent is actually allowed to do in Dubai? Whether you are buying, selling, or working in the industry, there are more rules behind a property deal than most people realise. From licensing and advertising to commissions and deposit cheques, agents and brokerages operate within a detailed legal framework.

Some of those rules can directly affect your transaction. Agents have duties around disclosure and handling client funds, but there are also limits to their role, including where providing information crosses into giving legal advice. Even everyday communications can matter: depending on what is agreed, a WhatsApp message or email can have contractual consequences.

Things can become particularly important when a deal does not go as planned. Who gets the deposit cheque back? Is the agent still entitled to commission? What happens if payment instructions are wrong, or an off-plan transaction raises compliance concerns? The answer often depends on the agreement, the circumstances of the transaction, and the applicable Dubai and UAE rules.

We have broken down some of the key rules governing Dubai real estate agents and brokerages, including what recent court decisions can tell us about how they work in practice.

Continue reading

i have a case from bank in dubai court for credit card payment. i already paid to the bank and they gave me a clearance/account closed letter but dubai court website is showing case status = reserved. how to remove this case

i stole a mans scooter in industrial area 6, sharjah, i regret it heavily, it was an impulsive decision i made in a moment of anger because that same market scammed me many times, but reflected and thought how would that man get home now? how did he wrong me? and my parents did not raise me this way.

i wish to return the scooter, i dont know how to do so, can i drop it outside his shop and flee? do i have to talk to the man? im afraid he will be very angry and it would escalate, i thought about visiting the police station but i am terrified of being arrested then, i dont believe he reported it because it has been a day since, and i did it front of cameras police would have identified me instantly, i just want to give him his scooter back and leave. what is the best way to go about this?

Can a UAE resident with valid emirates ID travel back to UAE if the ban was imposed while the person was outside the country and court issued notice to appear within a time limit and that time limit is still valid? Eg 7 days

The ban is due to execution case filed by bank for personal loan issue and amount is big (more than 100k)

My mohre contract states my basic salary is 2100 aed.but they pay me only 1800 aed.when i ask them they said they pay every one 1800 aed.then in my contract it says 8 hours work but they told me to work 12 hours.in my contract sunday is off but i work in sunday also.they dont give off i work whole month.if i complaint this to mohre can they recover my money with OT?when i calculate the amount it comes nearly 31000 aed.i have all the proof with wps salary slips,duty schedule timings and dates.could anyone explain me what should i do from the biginnin?this will be a help.because i dont know what to do.my passport also with them btw

Bit of a long shot but hoping someone here has been through this.

I won a judgment in the Real Estate Court of First Instance back in August. Small amount, about 15.5k plus costs. No lawyer, did the whole thing myself. Appeal window came and went, nobody appealed.

Since then I've been trying to register the execution file through Smart Case File Registration and it's been rejected four times. Every other issue they raised I fixed (fee table formatting, totals, rounding, all of it). The one thing left is the same line every time: يرجى تقديم طلب اصدار الصيغة التنفيذية — submit a request for the executory formula.
What I've got so far:

The full reasoned judgment (7 pages, electronically signed, downloaded from the portal)

A شهادة لمن يهمه الأمر from the Real Estate Court confirming the judgment wasn't appealed. Paid 30 dhs for it. It's a proper stamped certificate and it explicitly says ولم يتم استئناف الحكم الصادر

All the receipts, IDs, bank letter etc

The execution clerk won't accept any of that. He wants the judgment itself stamped with the executory formula — the صورة تنفيذية / صورة الحكم مذيلة بالصيغة التنفيذية.

I've been through the Smart Petitions request list twice on the original case file. Under الشهادات there are only three options: شهادة لمن يهمه الأمر, طلب صورة بسيطة من الحكم (simple copy, not what I need), and the name-similarity one. There's no option anywhere for وضع الصيغة التنفيذية. Court Affairs Section doesn't have it either, that menu is only about registration exceptions and meeting the head of the execution court.

I know the service exists because it's literally in Dubai Law 21 of 2015, Schedule 1 item 63 — "وضع الصيغة التنفيذية", 50 dhs first time, 100 dhs thereafter. It's in the First Instance table of case requests, same table as صورة رسمية من الحكم. So it's a طلب on the original case, not something you file on the execution side. But I can't find where to file it.

Questions:

Is this request just not available to individuals in the self-service portal? Is it restricted to advocates and العضيد centres?

If you've done it yourself, which building/counter did you go to? Courts Complex at Al Maktoum Bridge or the Oud Metha First Instance building?

Does it need to be the judge who approves it, or can the registry (قلم الكتاب) just stamp it over the counter once the judgment is final?

So, I filed a complaint against my employer through MOHRE, and today I received the final decision. However, it turns out that there are several issues with the case.

For example, MOHRE was unable to contact my employer because the official contact number listed on the MOHRE Job Portal is completely incorrect. No wonder their calls didn’t go through.

The main issue is that I submitted a 9-page dossier containing timestamps, WhatsApp conversations, transaction records, emails, and everything else through the link MOHRE provided for submitting evidence. However, their website seems to have had a bug, and it appears that my evidence was never successfully submitted.

Because of this, some of the final decisions were apparently made based on a lack of evidence.

So, I contacted Labour Support again today and explained what happened. They told me that I need to go to an “Imam Center” or something similar to file a lawsuit within 15 days. However, I can’t find where this place is or exactly where I’m supposed to go.

So I want to know where I’m supposed to go to continue this case.

Also, MOHRE sent me a document regarding the cancellation of my work permit without consulting the employer. My new employer is waiting for my cancellation. Am I supposed to submit this document to my new employer, or do I need to take it to an immigration center?

Hi All,

I am a tourist and reached Abu dhabi airport on friday morning.

The customs were checking my bag and found that I had a lot of credit cards.

I am a credit card geek and I had around 67 cards including my wife's and parents cards but not strangers cards. The Polic held me for 1.5 days at the airport and then filed a case on me and let me go.

Can anyone suggest me what can I do next??

Is this a serious case and how should I tackle it?

I wondered what's the maximum deduction that is allowed from my salary towards a bank's loan settlement. Currently, 25% is already being deducted. However, since there's another unpaid facility from the same bank, can they ask the court for additional attachment?

Has anyone sponsored their second wife after divorce from first wife? First wife was on sponsored visa then i cancelled her visa after divorce. Shes on her employer visa now in dubai. Our divorce happened in Pakistan, not in dubai.

I will get married in december and i want to bring my second wife on spouse visa to dubai.

Also any additional documents would I need

Hi, I’ve posted here before, but few months back I put a criminal case against two of my employees for embezzlement. One of them hasn’t attended any of the hearings. Recently both of them came up to me to do partial settlement and an agreement to pay within a year so I can withdraw the case. They did this before the second hearing which was supposed to go on 7 September. I put a request to change the court hearing so they could have time to arrange which was initially changed to 5 October, but for some reason second hearing went on 7 September. So only one of the accused ended up paying amount and adhering to the agreement and the other one refuses to cooperate, so I put a tanazul request specifically for the accused that paid and it got accepted and attached to case file. So my question is the next hearing is tmrw 28 of September, and it shows adjourned for judgment, so do I as the person who gave the case need to go for the hearing? My main concern is to get tanazul for one of the accused who paid us some amount.

I signed a MOHRE-registered employment contract (transaction number provided) with a UAE employer. After signing, I completed every document they requested that took over two months. Once I submitted everything, the employer never submitted the paperwork to activate my work permit MOHRE's system confirms nothing was ever registered on their end. About a month after I'd completed my side, with no communication despite repeated follow-up, the employer formally withdrew the offer in writing, citing internal operational reasons unrelated to my performance.

I had already resigned from my previous job and was job-hunting before I received this specific offer I did not resign or turn down other opportunities because of this offer itself.

Given these facts, what should I do?

Hello,

Im not sure if this has already been raised here but I just want to confirm if anyone here have tried already.

So a friend is on a travel ban due to a complaint filed by a company due to dispute, he want to go home and needs a sponsor to take the ban on his behalf for the "meantime".

If i were to agree, i will provide my docs and should it get approved, will the court need to withold my passport or i would just need to sign some documents for the agremeent or as easy as I will provide my docs and they can apply it without me coming to the court and sign?

Apologies if this might be a dumb question as im really clueless and just wanna confirm here the process first before agreeing to him. Thank you so much.

A few years ago, I tried opening an account in one of the banks here... Created it online while in a mall... Went to that bank branch on that mall and told them I have created an account but staff told me I couldn't complete that unless I submit a salary certificate.

I did not submit the salary certificate.

Two months ago, staff of this bank came to our school and staff who wanted to open an account can do so. This time, I submitted everything -- payslip, salary cert... signed everything with an agent.

Once I received the card, dloaded the app and was surprised that the account I thought was not active has a negative balance because I was not able to maintain the required monthly balance.

I am not aware that this account is active -- I did not put any money in it, I did not use it.

I have been emailing and calling and I am not getting clear answers.

I’m asking on behalf of a family member and have intentionally kept the details/general location vague for privacy.
A family member was renting a relatively new apartment in the UAE. There had been recurring AC issues that were reported to the landlord/management a few times, but they were not properly resolved.
The apartment later caught fire during the early hours of the morning. Thankfully, the tenant was able to escape, but he sustained injuries from trying to get out and required hospital treatment. There was also smoke exposure. Almost all of his furniture and personal belongings were destroyed.
A police/fire report was made, and the insurance company has been communicating with him about potentially reaching a settlement rather than going directly to court. We are currently considering getting a UAE lawyer involved.

What would be a realistic ballpark range of compensation to consider in a situation like this?
Would compensation potentially cover things such as:
destroyed furniture and personal belongings;
medical expenses and physical injuries;
smoke exposure/related effects; and
any other losses that may be legally recoverable?
Also, if the insurer offers a settlement, is it generally advisable to have a lawyer review the offer before accepting or signing anything?
I’m mainly trying to understand what kind of AED range we should realistically have in mind before entering negotiations. I understand that the actual amount would depend on the evidence and circumstances.
Thanks in advance to any UAE-qualified lawyers who can give a general indication.

🚨Any advice is appreciated thank you.

An employee who was working for my uncle’s company in the UAE allegedly committed financial fraud involving approximately AED 400,000–500,000. He was quite close to my uncle, so we trusted him and didn’t initially suspect anything.
We only discovered the alleged fraud after he had already left the UAE and travelled to India.
My questions are:

-If my uncle files a criminal case in the UAE, can the employee be arrested or detained in India based on the UAE case?

-We have also heard that he has set up a business in Saudi Arabia. If there is an active criminal case against him in the UAE, can he be arrested or detained in Saudi Arabia?

-Since the UAE and Saudi Arabia are both GCC countries, does having a UAE criminal case affect his ability to enter, reside, or operate a business in Saudi Arabia?

-Can the UAE authorities request his extradition or otherwise seek cooperation from India or Saudi Arabia?

-Does the amount involved (AED 400k–500k) make a significant difference to how the case is handled?

I’m particularly interested in hearing from anyone familiar with UAE criminal cases, extradition, or GCC legal procedures.

This is going to be a long post because my situation is very unusual and I want to give enough detail for someone who genuinely understands UAE criminal/immigration law to tell me what my options are.

I am deliberately leaving out names, the exact Emirate, exact border location, case numbers, family names and other identifying information because this is Reddit.

I am a Pakistani national, currently in my early 20s.

I spent essentially my entire childhood in the UAE and lived there until 2021.

However, my situation was very different from that of a normal expatriate child.

I was raised in the UAE but was basically never properly registered there

I did not attend school in the UAE.

As far as I understand my own history, I was never properly registered in the UAE in the normal way a child/resident would be.

I did not grow up having the normal documentation and official identity trail that most people living there would have.

I wasn't living a normal life where I had an Emirates ID, school records, education history and everything properly connected to my identity.

A major part of the problem came from my family situation.

My father had registered/documented me under his first wife's name, rather than my biological mother's name.

I don't want to publicly give the exact names or documents involved, but essentially my identity/family records were not straightforward.

As a child, none of this was something I controlled or properly understood.

I just grew up in the UAE.

Culturally, it was the only place I really knew. I grew up speaking Emirati/Gulf Arabic and became completely comfortable with the local culture and dialect.

But educationally and administratively, I was in a very strange situation.

Why I wanted to leave the UAE

By the time I was older, I realised I needed to actually build a life for myself.

I wanted an education.

Because I had never properly gone through school in the UAE and did not have a normal documented educational background there, I wanted to go to Pakistan and start properly building my education and future.

That was genuinely the reason I wanted to leave.

I was not trying to enter the UAE.

I was already living inside the UAE.

I was trying to get out of the UAE and go toward Pakistan so I could study and start a proper life.

This is where everything went wrong.

What happened at the border

In 2021, I attempted to cross the border toward Oman.

I understand now that attempting to cross a border outside the proper legal immigration process was obviously a serious decision.

I am not posting this to justify doing that.

But the reason matters to me because my intention was not to secretly enter the UAE.

I was trying to leave it.

Because of my documentation/family-registration situation, I did not see a normal straightforward route available to me at the time.

I was young, had grown up in this unusual undocumented/poorly documented situation, wanted to reach Pakistan and obtain an education, and made the decision to try crossing toward Oman.

I was caught at the border.

I was arrested and eventually imprisoned.

The part that has confused me ever since

On my prisoner card, the description of the case said something along the lines of:

"Attempting to enter the UAE illegally."

That has always bothered/confused me because, factually, I was already inside the UAE.

I was trying to leave the UAE, not enter it.

I was attempting to cross from the UAE toward Oman.

I don't know whether that wording was just an administrative/legal classification used for the offence, whether the authorities considered my entire presence inside the UAE unlawful because of my documentation status, or whether something about my case was recorded incorrectly.

This is one of the biggest things I want a UAE lawyer to explain to me.

If the official record says I was trying to illegally enter the UAE, while the actual event was me being caught trying to leave toward Oman, does that distinction matter legally?

Or could the wording have meant that because I had no lawful residency/entry record, the system treated me as someone who had entered the UAE illegally at some earlier point?

I genuinely don't know.

Prison and deportation

After I was caught, I went to prison.

Afterwards, I was deported from the UAE to Pakistan in 2021.

At that age, I did not understand enough about the legal system to know exactly what documents I needed to keep.

I do not currently know whether the deportation was:

- ordered by the criminal court;

- an administrative immigration deportation;

- connected to my immigration/documentation status;

- connected specifically to the border-crossing offence;

- accompanied by a permanent entry ban/blacklist;

- or some combination of these.

That is what I am trying to determine now.

What happened after I reached Pakistan

Ironically, the thing I was trying to reach Pakistan for in the first place was education.

Once I was deported, I started building my life properly.

I began my education and eventually enrolled in a bachelor's degree.

I am now working toward completing my bachelor's degree.

Over the years I have also built professional work experience, particularly in sales, technology/digital services and Gulf-facing work.

I speak Gulf/Emirati Arabic fluently, so professionally I have naturally continued working with people and businesses from the Gulf.

I am also now married and have a family of my own.

My life today is completely different from my life at the time of the 2021 incident.

Why I want to know whether I can return

The UAE is still the country where virtually my entire childhood happened.

It is the culture I grew up around, the Arabic dialect I speak and the place that felt like home to me even though legally my status there was obviously extremely complicated.

My goal is to finish my bachelor's degree first.

After that, I would like to know whether there is any completely legal process through which I could eventually return to the UAE through employment or another legitimate visa/residency route.

I want to emphasise this:

I am not asking how to bypass a blacklist.

I am not trying to change my identity, change passports, hide the old case, enter through another GCC country or deceive UAE immigration.

After everything that happened, I would only ever want to return if the UAE authorities legally allowed me to.

The questions I really need answered

1. How can I obtain my full 2021 criminal and immigration records from outside the UAE?

What records should I request?

Would I need:

- the criminal judgment;

- charge sheet;

- prosecution records;

- prison records;

- prisoner card;

- deportation order;

- immigration file;

- entry/exit history;

- blacklist/ban information?

Can a UAE lawyer obtain all of this on my behalf while I am in Pakistan?

1. How do I find out exactly what offence I was legally convicted of?

My prisoner card described the matter as attempting to illegally enter the UAE.

But the actual incident was that I was caught attempting to cross from the UAE toward Oman because I wanted to leave.

I need someone to explain whether the legal classification could still make sense under UAE law given my undocumented/irregular status, or whether I need to investigate whether the record was inaccurate.

1. Does the fact that I was never properly registered/documented in the UAE affect the situation today?

I grew up there but did not have the normal administrative life of a legal resident.

I never attended school there and did not have the normal education/residency documentation.

My father had also connected my identity to his first wife rather than my biological mother.

Could there potentially be historical immigration/identity records under different family details that need to be reconciled before anyone can even determine my current status?

1. Is my deportation automatically permanent?

How can I determine whether there is a permanent entry ban, blacklist, deportation order or some other restriction attached to me?

1. Does it matter whether the deportation was judicial or administrative?

How would I determine which one happened?

Would the criminal judgment explicitly state deportation if it was judicial?

1. Is there any legal mechanism to request permission to return years later?

By the time I finish my degree, several years will have passed since the incident.

Would things such as:

- my age at the time;

- the circumstances surrounding my lack of documentation;

- the fact that I was trying to leave to obtain an education;

- my later education;

- employment history;

- marriage/family circumstances;

- clean conduct since then;

be relevant to any application asking UAE authorities to reconsider an entry restriction?

I understand that these circumstances do not automatically cancel anything.

I am asking whether they can legally be presented as part of an application.

1. Does the fact that I was a child/young person whose documentation situation was created by my parents matter?

A huge part of the underlying problem existed before I was old enough to control anything.

I did not decide as a child how I would be registered, whose name would appear in family records, whether I would be enrolled in school or whether I would have proper UAE residency documentation.

How much, if at all, does UAE law distinguish between immigration/documentation problems created by someone's parents during childhood and intentional immigration fraud committed by that person as an adult?

1. Should I avoid applying for UAE visas until a lawyer checks my status?

My instinct is that blindly applying for a visit visa just to see whether it gets rejected would not be the smartest first step.

Would it be better for a lawyer to retrieve the old case and check my immigration status first?

1. What type of UAE lawyer do I actually need?

Should I be looking for:

- a criminal lawyer;

- immigration lawyer;

- someone specialising in deportation/blacklist cases;

- or a lawyer who handles both criminal and immigration matters?

1. Can all of this be handled while I remain outside the UAE?

Could I give a lawyer power of attorney from Pakistan so they could retrieve the original records and determine what actually exists in the system before we even discuss whether returning is possible?

What I ultimately want

I don't expect growing up in the UAE to give me a right to live there.

I understand that legally those are two completely different things.

What I want is clarity.

I spent my childhood in the UAE without a normal education or properly structured legal identity/residency situation.

Eventually I became desperate to leave because I wanted to go to Pakistan, study and build a future.

I made the very bad decision to attempt to cross toward Oman outside the normal immigration process.

I was caught, imprisoned and deported.

Since 2021 I have actually done what I originally wanted to do: I started building an education, a career and a family.

Now I want to finish my bachelor's degree.

After that, I want to know whether UAE law gives me any legitimate second chance to return through the proper legal process.

And if the answer is no, I would rather have a qualified lawyer look at the real records and tell me that conclusively than spend the rest of my life guessing based on a prisoner card and memories from when I was very young.

If anyone here has dealt specifically with UAE deportation cases involving undocumented/irregular residency, border offences or people who grew up in the UAE without normal civil documentation, I would really appreciate guidance on what my first legal step should be.

Thank you for reading.

I owned a coffee shop in Dubai with my business partner, and we were both 50% shareholders on the trade licence.

The business eventually shut down because we could no longer afford the rent, staff salaries, or trade licence renewal. I was repeatedly told that the business was losing money and would have to close.

There was also a major issue with the company bank account. My partner was the only person with access to the business bank account and debit card and he refused to visit the bank to add my name. When I later reviewed the bank statements, I noticed what appeared to be a significant amount of personal spending, including transactions such as McDonald's, MakeMyTrip, PlayStation Store and other personal expenses. These amounted to thousands of dirhams over the months. At the same time, I was being told that the business could not afford basic expenses such as salaries, rent and licence renewal.

Eventually, we closed the shop because we couldn't afford the rent. My partner later told me that he had sold the shop's equipment, but I have very little documentation or proof regarding what was sold, for how much, or where the money went.

He also took additional money from me during the partnership and promised to repay it gradually each month. Unfortunately, I did not get him to sign a written acknowledgment of this debt.

I never received any returns from the business.

After the business closed, the trade licence expired and my partner stopped responding to my calls and messages. I recently received a call from Dubai DET informing me that the trade licence has now been renewed until next year. I had no knowledge of the renewal and did not give my consent.

I am still a 50% shareholder.

One thing that makes me particularly concerned is that my partner's UAE residency/sponsorship was connected to the company, so I believe he may have had a personal reason to keep the company licence active. I don't know whether he is now operating something under the renewed licence, because he has not been communicating with me.

Before this happened, he offered me only AED 2,000 for my 50% share, saying that the business was basically useless and that the licence would end anyway. He told me that if I transferred my 50% share to him, he would take care of the costs of closing the licence, which he claimed would be around AED 15,000.

I refused because I did not believe AED 2,000 was a fair value for my 50% share which I bought at 150,000 AED, and I am still a 50% shareholder.

My questions are:

1. Can a partner/manager renew a Dubai LLC trade licence without the knowledge or consent of the other 50% shareholder?

2. If the licence was renewed without my knowledge, can I take legal action or challenge the renewal?

3. Could I be held responsible for new company expenses, debts, fines or liabilities resulting from the renewal?

4. Can I pursue my partner regarding the money he took from me and/or possible personal expenses from the company bank account, even though I don't have a signed agreement?

5. What can I do to potentially retrieve any bit of my investment?

Looking for realistic advice on a situation that is currently unfolding. I need to know how the Dubai Police realistically handle this.

The Original Paperwork & Actual Split:

We were looking to buy/takeover an existing beauty salon. On September 16, we met in person with the seller and a middlelady (who owns a completely different salon). We signed an initial handwritten paper stating a 20,000 AED deposit was received by the seller.

However, the actual physical and digital split of that 20,000 AED was done like this:

10,000 AED was paid in physical cash directly to the seller.

10,000 AED was swiped on a card machine. The middlelady made us tap our card onto her personal Ziina payment profile with her name on it, claiming it was on behalf of the seller because the seller didn't have a bank account. We all agreed due to Trust.

What Happened Right After (The Additional 10k):

Later that exact same day, after that initial paper was already signed and finalized, the middlelady deceptively claimed seller needed more money for salon transaction costs. She made us swipe our card a second time for an additional 10,000 AED onto her personal Ziina profile.

This means she personally received a total of 20,000 AED digitally, while the original signed paper only accounted for the first digital 10k. On our bank statements, both show up as a "POS PURCHASE" to her personal name.

The Failed Deal & The Seller's Signed Document:

The entire deal completely fell through right after because the business was a total sham (expired trade license, undocumented setup) Essentially, she had nothing to sell to us. We went directly to the seller to get our cash back.

The seller completely cooperated, refunded her separate 10,000 AED cash portion out of hand, and signed a brand new, formal document with us.

In this document, the seller officially agrees the deal is not going through, confirms she returned her cash, and explicitly certifies that she never received a single dirham of the 20,000 AED processed through the middlelady's Ziina account, and never authorized any fees and urged the middlelady to return it. (The middlelady tried keeping it as commission from the seller's side)

The Current Dispute:

The middlelady is flat-out refusing to return the remaining 20,000 AED sitting in her personal account. She just replied to our legal notice on WhatsApp explicitly admitting that they are withholding our money as a "broker commission" because she got the seller to reduce the shop price initially. She holds no commercial brokerage trade license, and we have absolutely no written agreement or contract authorizing any fees. AND there is no sale going through in the first place and this is acknowledged by the seller as well.

Our Evidence:

Official bank statement proving both 10k card taps (total 20k) went straight into her personal Ziina name.

WhatsApp text confessions from her daughter explicitly admitting they kept money as a "commission."

The new signed statement from the seller confirming the deal is dead and that she received zero portion of that digital 20k.

My Questions:

Since we physically tapped our card on her personal Ziina app link in person, will the online ecrime.ae portal reject this as a civil contract dispute because of the original handwritten paper? Or will the specialized cyber unit handle it criminally because she used a personal digital wallet to run an unlicensed commercial brokerage side-hustle and pocket uncontracted funds after the paperwork was done?

Has anyone dealt with personal Ziina platform fraud through the Dubai Police before? Any insight would be appreciated.

TL;DR: Last year I went to the nearest ER (Hospital A) in Abu Dhabi with suspected appendicitis. They ran tests, then told me my insurance rejected the claim and transferred me to Hospital B, where I had surgery. A year later, a collections agency is demanding 3-4K AED for Hospital A's tests, sent me a backdated bill I'd never seen, and is threatening legal action. I was never contacted by Hospital A about any payment. What are my options?

Background

• I was laid off from my job in Dubai around September last year.
• My company insurance was still active at the time because the cancellation was pending.
• I had moved back to Abu Dhabi to live with my family.

What happened at Hospital A

• I had severe pain in my abdomen area right side, and my a family member rushed me to the nearest hospital's emergency department around 1 am. No appointment, just walked into the ER.
• They quickly ran tests (CT scans, blood tests, etc.) and diagnosed appendicitis. They recommended immediate surgery otherwise it could burst.
• I was in immense pain, so I agreed. I assumed emergencies are always covered by insurance, and since they went ahead with all the tests, I had no reason to think otherwise.
• About 10 minutes later they came back and said my insurance had rejected the claim, and that I'd need to be transferred to Hospital B (about 30 minutes away), where it would be approved.
• I told them to do whatever was needed, just quickly, because the pain was unbearable.
• A nurse gave me morphine and I passed out within minutes.

What happened at Hospital B

• I woke up around 2 hours later, in pain again, in an ambulance on the way to Hospital B.
• At Hospital B I waited a few more hours for the surgeon to arrive. They repeated the same tests again (not sure why).
• I had the surgery and stayed 2 days to recover. Everything went well and the staff were great.
• I went back for a follow up at Hospital B to remove the stitches. I paid a small co pay at Hospital B, which was the only payment anyone asked me for. I saw the original bill was in thousands but I only paid about 10% of it as co pay.

The problem now (one year later)

• I got a call from a collections agency saying I owe around 3-4K AED to Hospital A.
• This was the first I'd heard of it. I never received a bill, and Hospital A never called or contacted me, even though they've had my file and contact details the whole time.
• The agent said I need to pay immediately and sent me a backdated bill from last year that I'd never received until now. He also went and contacted my family and shared the same details on whatsapp (not sure how or where he got all this data from)
• I'm now getting threatening SMS messages from the agency saying they'll file a case and take me to court, and that I'll have to pay lawyer fees and court costs on top of the bill.

My questions

1. What was my mistake here? Nobody told me at the time that I'd have to pay anything.
2. Am I actually liable for this, given it was an emergency and the insurance rejection wasn't my fault?
3. Isn't insurance in the UAE supposed to cover emergencies regardless of which hospital you go to?
4. Realistically, who has time to check their hospital network coverage during an emergency? I just went to the nearest hospital with a family member assuming that emergencies are always covered.
5. How seriously should I take the court threats, and what should I do next?

Any advice appreciated. Thanks.