Can I see or get a copy of an Israeli court file if I am not a party and I live abroad?

Someone abroad hears that a case involving a relative, a company or a piece of family land went through an Israeli court, and wants to read it. The instinct is to ask the court for the file. Israeli courts do release material to strangers, and rather more of it than most common law systems, but the openness is calibrated: decisions are public, the paperwork behind them is not.

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Detailed Answer

The governing instrument is the Courts Regulations (Inspection of Files) 5763-2003. Regulation 2(b) states the open part of the rule plainly: any person may inspect judicial decisions that are not prohibited from publication by law. That single provision does most of the work for people abroad, because a judgment, a procedural ruling or a reasoned decision is normally what they actually need, and it can be obtained without explaining why. Publication bans change the picture. Where a court has ordered a name suppressed or a hearing closed, the decision either does not appear or appears in redacted form, and the ban binds you as much as it binds an Israeli journalist. Beyond decisions, the rest of the file is a different matter. Statements of claim and defence, affidavits, exhibits, valuations and expert opinions are accessible only on a reasoned request made on the form prescribed by the regulations, and the court will generally give the parties an opportunity to state their position before a judge or registrar rules. The application has to say who you are and why you want it. A concrete interest, an inheritance claim, a property you are buying, an enforcement question, is treated very differently from curiosity.

Two categories are effectively closed. Family court proceedings are heard behind closed doors, and their files are not opened to strangers except in narrow circumstances with a specific justification, which matters for anyone hoping to read a divorce or maintenance case involving a relative. Inheritance files are a separate system altogether, held by the Inheritance Registrar rather than the courts, with its own access rules, and the question of whether a relative left a will is answered through that channel rather than through the court regulations, as we explain in our note on finding out whether a relative deposited a will in Israel. Mechanically, requests today are made through Net HaMishpat, the courts' electronic system, and that is the practical obstacle for a non-resident. Filing electronically requires credentials that a person abroad does not hold, so the request goes in through an Israeli lawyer, who can also read the file on the screen and tell you within a day whether it contains anything worth copying. Copies come out in Hebrew, and if the material is destined for a foreign court or a foreign bank it will need a certified translation, and often an apostille on the court's certification of the copy, which is a separate exercise with its own timetable.

In Practice: Regulation 2(b) of the Courts Regulations (Inspection of Files) 5763-2003 opens judicial decisions to any person absent a publication ban, while access to the remainder of a file runs through the reasoned application on the prescribed form under Regulation 4, decided by a judge or registrar after the parties are heard. Requests are filed through the courts' Net HaMishpat system, which in practice means through Israeli counsel. Expect a decision in two to six weeks on a contested request, NIS 1,500 to NIS 4,000 in Israeli fees to prepare and file it, and a further NIS 90 to NIS 150 per page for certified translation of anything you intend to use abroad.

When to Consult a Lawyer

• The file relates to a property you are buying or inheriting. What matters is usually the exhibits rather than the judgment, and those are the part that needs the reasoned application.
• A publication ban is in force. Asking for material covered by a ban is not merely futile; a foreign requester can attract an order against them, and the request has to be framed around what the ban actually covers.
• You need the document for a court, bank or land registry outside Israel. A screenshot is worthless there, and the chain of a certified court copy, translation and apostille has to be built in the right order.

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Speak With an Israeli Attorney

We locate the case, read the file through Net HaMishpat, make the reasoned inspection application where the papers rather than the judgment are what you need, and produce certified translated copies for use abroad.

Contact us for a confidential initial consultation.