Q: Our Dubai mainland LLC company stopped business due to financial hardships. There is a silent partner who invested AED 400k against a 25% stake in the company. The partnership is via a share holder's agreement and not a named partnership. Q1: Can he file a commercial dispute against the managing partner to make him personally liable? Q2: Can the managing partner compel the investing partner to contribute to the pending dues and expenses to close the company? Q3: Are any of the cases or judgments criminal in nature? that is, requiring bail or imprisonment?

Q: I have co-founded a UAQ FZ this year and I am in a dispute with my co-founder. We had several discussions on discontinuing the partnership after our license expires. I had an uneven share of responsibilities and have voiced this for a while, even to our advisor during mediation sessions. We built our community, social media, and email database together. I said we should leave with the partners we brought in and go our separate ways once our license expired. All costs for the business have been paid equally. With few months left of our license, my partner blocked me from my email and access to our database. The domain and email are in his name, and he is holding these as a hostage even though I am 49% owner. I understand he is 51% owner and manager, but does he has the right to do this and hold the company domain and email under his account? He is abusing his role as a manager and domain owner, and I wanted to know what my legal rights are here as co-owner.

Q: We have a founders' disagreement and need a third-party expert opinion to resolve the issue. Founder A (Founder & CEO) - Holds 51% equity in the company. Founder B (Co-Founder & Chief Business Officer) - Holds 39% equity in the company. The rest of the equity is split with angel investors. The disagreement is between the founders. Founder B is responsible for business development and sales. After clearly raising several times that Founder B is not brining revenue, not having proper sales pipeline to estimate our growth factor, justify current and onboarding investors, Founder A wants to change the role of Founder B. Since we have 4 years vesting, Founder A is asking justification to Founder B's role and wants to bring in a new person by stopping equity vesting for the future for Founder B. However, Founder B is not willing to agree with this and is asking for both parties' equity dilute; not justifying to Founder A why Founder B is failing in the role.

Companies can be wound up by Voluntary Liquidation. This shall proceed as initiated by shareholders or creditors of a company by passing a valid shareholder’s resolution. When a company’s financial mechanism fails, and the company is in financial distress and/ or becomes insolvent whereby it is unable to pay off its debts, the company may file a petition for winding up to the court.

An interview-format article covering the topic of shareholder disputes in the UAE and pre-emptive measure to be considered. This is from the legal podcast of lawyer Ludmila Yamalova, the founder of Lawgical with LYLAW.

The provisions of this Law apply to the commercial companies established in the UAE and the foreign companies that have established in the UAE a base to conduct any activity therein or established a branch or representative office. The Law abrogates Federal Law No. (8) of 1984 Concerning Commercial Companies.

The law promulgates UAE Civil Procedures Code (Civil Procedure Law) which governs civil procedures in the United Arab Emirates, including the prosecution before the courts, litigation and execution.