RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Justice has issued new classifications of judicial cases and assigned them to different courts such as general courts, personal status courts, labor and criminal courts etc. Earlier, judicial cases were divided into 1,300 categories, which have now been reduced to 300 with clearly defined guidelines stating which court will handle what case. The move is part of the ministry’s efforts to streamline judicial procedures to avoid unnecessary delays. The ministry has taken several steps to modernize the Kingdom’s judicial system. It has introduced 120 digital services that can be accessed through its portal najiz.sa. During the past five years, the number of average users of the portal was about 70,000 per day. Electronic services include filing initial pleading, queries about the dates of hearings, following up on formalities and the date of completion, and digitally applying for permits for notaries, etc.