New bill targets court abuse with stricter contempt guidelines

Court abuse includes filing false claims to delay criminal proceedings.

Filing fictitious claims to delay criminal proceedings, along with other serious court abuses, may soon be regarded as contempt of court in Singapore.

Other cases that may be considered contempt of court include filing civil suits for financial damages despite knowing the claim is baseless, harassing the defendant, and repeatedly starting actions or applications that are clearly groundless.

According to the Ministry of Law, the Administration of Justice (Protection) (Amendment) Bill 2024 won’t cover civil cases dismissed for simply having no merit or those that can be handled by strike-outs and cost orders.

It also exempts litigants and lawyers who act carefully and in good faith.

The court will still assess each case to determine if it amounts to contempt.

Follow the link for more news on

Ministry of Law

Reaching the people who run Asia's businesses is harder than it used to be.

Inboxes are crowded. Attention is short. The executives you most want to reach — the founders, CFOs, and operators who actually move budgets — are the hardest to find through the usual channels. If you're building a company, a category, or a reputation, you already know this.

We've spent twenty years building the room they read. Singapore Business Review is where senior decision makers in Singapore and across Southeast Asia come for business coverage they can't get elsewhere — in print, online, and in person at the summits and roundtables we host across seven markets.

If you have something these readers should know about — a point of view worth publishing, a product worth their attention, an event worth their time — we'd like to hear what you're trying to do.

Book a meeting

| Or download the media kit (PDF)

240,000 senior readers quarterly in print Top 1,700 Singapore companies reached

7 markets across Southeast Asia