Okaz/Saudi Gazette JEDDAH — The Ministry of Justice offers free consultation sessions to women involved in cases of divorce, custody, alimony and others. An employee at a women's office under the Ministry of Justice said the Personal and Family Status Court offers free consultation sessions to women, especially to senior women who are ignorant of their rights. "A lot of women would also say that they cannot afford to hire a lawyer. We noticed that some court cases take a long time due to the ignorance of the plaintiffs of their rights. My job in this office is to offer legal support and answer all legal inquiries presented to me by the women visiting the court," said the employee. She added the ministry is cooperating with the not-for-profit sector to provide a free of charge service to visitors of the court. An elderly woman walked into the court saying she is 63 years old, has been married for 43 years and would like to divorce her husband. She was inquiring about the process and needed conditions. Most of the women coming to the office are involved in custody, alimony and children's rights cases. A businesswoman came into the office once inquiring about the roles of the Personal Status Court, the Penal Court and the Public Court. She claimed that she would like to take her rightful inheritance which is valued at SR250,000. She claimed that her own brothers were refusing to grant her the rightful inheritance. Jeddah Governorate witnessed a 50 percent increase in family lawsuits in 2017 in comparison to 2016. There were 22,000 family lawsuits during the past eight months. The Personal Status Court in Jeddah settled 19,243 cases in 2017 which is an increase of 50 percent in comparison to 2016. The court also issued 6,961 marriage contracts to Saudis within the current year, while the number of marriage contracts issued between foreigners or between Saudis and foreigners within the current year reached 11,182.
