I'm being sued in Israel but someone else is really responsible. Can I bring them into the case?

The classic version reaches me from a landlord in Toronto or a flat owner in Lyon. A claim arrives over a water leak, a botched renovation, an unpaid management fee or a deal that collapsed, and the person who actually caused it is the Israeli contractor, agent or property manager who was running things while the owner was six thousand kilometres away. Suing them separately afterwards is the expensive way. Pulling them into the existing case is the cheap one, and the window for it is very short.

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Detailed Answer

Regulation 22 of the Civil Procedure Regulations 5779-2018 lets a defendant serve a notice on a third party in two situations: where the defendant is entitled to contribution, indemnity or performance from that person in respect of the relief sought against them, and where there is a shared factual or legal connection between the defendant and the third party, bound up with the subject matter of the claim, which it is appropriate to examine jointly. The second limb is broader than an indemnity clause and it is the one most non-resident defendants rely on, because the contractor or manager rarely signed anything promising to indemnify anybody. Regulation 23 sets the machinery. The rules on serving claims and defences apply to the notice, and the notice must be filed within the time allowed for the defence under Regulation 9(b), which is the trap: the right to bring in the third party expires with your own defence deadline, not at some later procedural stage. A third party who has been served takes the status of a defendant for all purposes, with the single exception that they cannot bring a counterclaim, and they have 60 days from service to file a defence if they wish to dispute either the notice against them or the claim against you. The court then directs when and how the third-party notice is heard, and it can order it tried separately where joining it would slow the main claim down.

The reason this matters more to a defendant abroad than to an Israeli one is that you are the party least able to run a second case later. A separate action against the Israeli contractor means a fresh claim, a fresh court fee, fresh service, and a real risk of inconsistent findings, since the first court may decide you were liable on a basis the second court declines to pass on. Bringing the third party in now puts one judge in charge of the whole story. The countervailing difficulty is time. Your defence deadline is already running against a background of translating the statement of claim, appointing Israeli counsel, and getting a power of attorney notarised and apostilled or signed at an Israeli consulate, and the third-party decision has to be made inside that same period, before disclosure has told you anything. Where the intended third party is itself outside Israel the position is harder again, because service abroad needs the court's leave under Regulations 166 and 167 and adds months. In practice, the correct first instruction to Israeli counsel is not "file a defence" but "file a defence and tell me by return whether anyone else should be in this case", because the two decisions share a deadline.

In Practice: Under Regulation 22 of the Civil Procedure Regulations 5779-2018 a defendant in an Israeli court may serve a third-party notice on anyone owing contribution or indemnity in respect of the relief claimed, or sharing a factual or legal connection with the subject matter, and Regulation 23(b) requires that notice within the time fixed for the defence under Regulation 9(b). The third party ranks as a defendant in all respects but may not counterclaim, and has 60 days from service to file a defence. Where the third party is outside Israel, service requires the court's leave under Regulations 166 and 167. The economics favour the notice heavily: a fresh District Court claim against the same person later carries its own court fee at 2.5% of the sum claimed under the Courts Regulations (Fees) 5767-2007, on top of duplicated legal costs.

When to Consult a Lawyer

• Your defence deadline is close. The third-party right dies with it, and a non-resident who spends the window arranging an apostilled power of attorney frequently loses the option without ever being told it existed.
• The person you want to bring in is abroad as well. Leave to serve outside Israel under Regulations 166 and 167 must be sought, and the timetable it adds may make a separate action in that person's own country the better commercial choice.
• The claim against you is partly your own responsibility. A third-party notice apportions rather than transfers liability, and framing it as though the contractor is solely to blame when the documents show shared fault damages your main defence. See our answer on being served with an Israeli lawsuit while living abroad.

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Speak With an Israeli Attorney

Deciding who else belongs in an Israeli claim is a decision taken in the same few weeks as the defence itself, and it is far cheaper made once than corrected by a second lawsuit.

Contact us for a confidential initial consultation.