I have a judgment against someone in Israel. How do I find out what they actually own?

American creditors ask for an asset search, expecting something like a US judgment-debtor examination run by their own lawyer. Israel does not work that way and, for once, the difference favours the creditor. You do not have to prove what the debtor owns. Once the file is open, the statute puts the burden on the debtor to prove what they do not.

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Detailed Answer

Enforcement in Israel runs through the Execution Office (Hotzaa LaPoal), an administrative body attached to the courts, and the investigative machinery only switches on once a file is opened there. Section 7A of the Execution Law 5727-1967 is the provision that matters most: the debtor bears the burden of proving their ability to pay and of providing the registrar with the information and documents required, and a debtor who does not do so without reasonable explanation is presumed to be a debtor with ability who is evading payment. That presumption is what unlocks the coercive measures. The mechanism through which the information is actually extracted is the examination of ability (חקירת יכולת) under Section 67, at which the debtor attends the office in person, answers questions about income, employment, property, vehicles and accounts, completes the prescribed declaration form, and signs a waiver of confidentiality under Section 7A(a)(2) that opens their banking and financial records to the registrar. From there the registrar can make a payment order, and where the debtor has the means but is evading, impose restrictions that in practice do more collection work than any search does: a driving licence restriction, a restriction on holding a bank account or using cheques, a block on obtaining a passport, and an order preventing departure from Israel.

For a creditor in the United States the sequencing is what to get right. An American judgment is not directly enforceable; it must first be recognised in an Israeli court under the Foreign Judgments Enforcement Law 5718-1958, and only the resulting Israeli judgment opens an Execution Office file. Everything after that is conducted by an Israeli lawyer under a power of attorney signed before an Israeli consular officer or notarised and apostilled where you live, and you do not attend. Three practical points recur. Preliminary attachments are worth more than information, so where you already know of an account or a property, an attachment application filed with the file opening preserves the asset while the examination process grinds forward. Timing is regulated: where the debtor appears to be outside Israel and collection measures cannot be taken, the registrar may order the Population and Immigration Authority to report on the debtor's entries into the country, but only once 45 days have passed since the warning was served and the debtor is treated as having ability and evading payment. And a debtor who simply ignores the summons is not a dead end, because non-appearance is itself the trigger for the Section 7A presumption and for the restriction orders that follow it.

In Practice: Under Section 7A of the Execution Law 5727-1967 the Israeli debtor, not the creditor, carries the burden of proving inability to pay and must supply the registrar with the required information and documents, and Section 67 provides for an examination of ability at which the debtor declares assets and income on the prescribed form and signs a confidentiality waiver opening their banking records. Opening an Execution Office file costs the creditor about NIS 1,141. Where the debtor appears to be abroad, the registrar may order the Population and Immigration Authority to report entries into Israel once 45 days have passed since the warning was served. A US creditor must first have the American judgment recognised under the Foreign Judgments Enforcement Law 5718-1958, which commonly takes 4 to 8 months before the Execution Office file can even be opened.

When to Consult a Lawyer

• You already know of a specific asset. Filing for attachment at the same time as the file opening is what stops an account being emptied or a flat being sold during the months the examination process takes.
• The debtor is an Israeli company rather than an individual. The examination of ability is aimed at individuals, and reaching a corporate debtor's assets uses a different set of tools, including proceedings against officers where the company has been stripped. See our answer on enforcing a US judgment against an Israeli company.
• The debtor is living outside Israel too. Collection stalls quickly when both sides are abroad, and the realistic question becomes whether an Israeli file is worth opening at all or whether enforcement belongs in the debtor's own country.

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Speak With an Israeli Attorney

The Israeli system will investigate the debtor for you, but only once the file is properly open and the recognition step is behind you, and the assets worth catching tend to move in exactly that interval.

Contact us for a confidential initial consultation.