How can my US lawyer obtain documents or witness testimony located in Israel?

A subpoena issued by a court in Chicago has no force in Herzliya. American litigators know this in principle and are still regularly caught out by it, usually late in discovery, when the only person who can authenticate a contract turns out to live in Israel and has no interest in helping. Israel is a party to the Hague Evidence Convention, which gives you a route, but it is a court-to-court route and it runs on someone else's calendar.

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Detailed Answer

Israel implements the Convention through the Legal Assistance Among States Law 5758-1998, and the Central Authority that receives incoming requests is the Directorate of Courts, Hanhalat Batei HaMishpat, at 22 Kanfei Nesharim Street, Jerusalem. The single formality that defeats most first attempts is signature. A letter of request must be signed by a judicial officer, which means the US judge or magistrate judge, and a request signed by counsel is returned without being processed. Draft it, get it issued by the court, and only then send it on. The Directorate accepts requests in English and does not require a Hebrew translation, which saves both cost and several weeks. Israel also made no declaration under Article 23 of the Convention and has enacted no blocking statute, which puts it in a much friendlier position than France or Germany: pre-trial requests for the production of documents are entertained rather than rejected on principle. Once the request is accepted, an Israeli court takes the evidence. It can compel an unwilling witness to attend, and under the 1998 law it can appoint a private Israeli lawyer as a commissioner to conduct the examination, which is how American-style questioning is usually accommodated in practice.

Timing is where expectations need managing from the start. The Directorate's own guidance is that at least six weeks pass between receipt of a signed letter and the summoning of witnesses, and a realistic end-to-end estimate for a contested request with documents attached is three to six months. Build that into the discovery schedule before you agree to it, because a motion to extend after the fact is a harder conversation than a request for time in advance. There is a faster alternative worth weighing: a voluntary deposition. Where the Israeli witness is genuinely willing, the evidence can be taken by agreement without engaging the Convention at all, which since the 2021 reform of Israeli civil procedure sits comfortably within local practice. The trade-off is obvious, in that nothing can be compelled and the witness can stop at any point. Israeli witnesses retain their own protections in either route. They may be represented by counsel, may object to particular questions, and privileges recognised in Israeli law apply to the examination, so a fishing expedition dressed up as a letter of request tends to be trimmed by the Israeli judge rather than granted whole. The reverse situation, being on the receiving end of Israeli proceedings while living in the United States, follows an entirely different set of rules that we deal with separately in our note on being served with an Israeli lawsuit while living in the United States.

In Practice: The Legal Assistance Among States Law 5758-1998 gives effect to the Hague Evidence Convention, and Israel's Central Authority is the Directorate of Courts, 22 Kanfei Nesharim Street, Jerusalem. The letter must carry a judge's signature, English is accepted without translation, and Israel filed no Article 23 declaration, so pre-trial document requests are considered on their merits. Allow six weeks minimum to the summoning of a witness and three to six months end to end. Israeli counsel to prepare, file and attend the examination typically costs NIS 15,000 to NIS 35,000 depending on the volume of documents.

When to Consult a Lawyer

• The witness is an Israeli bank, hospital or government body. Confidentiality duties under Israeli law will be raised in answer to the request, and the letter has to be drafted narrowly enough to survive that objection.
• Your discovery deadline is inside four months. The Convention route will not meet it without either an agreed extension or a parallel attempt at a voluntary deposition, and both decisions need to be taken now rather than later.
• The evidence sits with an individual who is also a potential defendant. Compelling testimony from someone you may later sue in Israel raises tactical questions that a purely procedural approach will miss.

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Speak With an Israeli Attorney

We review the draft letter of request before your judge signs it, shepherd it through the Directorate of Courts, and appear at the Israeli examination so the record you take back is admissible where it matters.

Contact us for a confidential initial consultation.