I live abroad and I am a witness in an Israeli court case. Can I give evidence by video link instead of flying to Israel?

Often yes, and the request is granted far more readily than it was a decade ago, but it is a permission you apply for rather than a right you assert. Regulation 72 of the Civil Procedure Regulations 5779-2018 gives the court a discretion to hear a witness by visual conferencing, and the case law treats the listed conditions as a guide rather than a closed list. The four that matter are that attendance in person would be very difficult for the witness, that the witness consents, that the evidence goes to the questions actually in dispute, and, where the witness sits outside Israel, that nothing in the law of the foreign country prevents evidence being taken there. Ask late and you can find the hearing already fixed and the request refused as a delaying tactic.

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Detailed Answer

The 2018 Regulations, which took effect on 1 January 2021, changed the default posture of Israeli civil courts on this question. The old regime treated remote testimony as an exception requiring something close to impossibility of attendance. Regulation 72 replaced that with a workable discretion, and judges now weigh cost, distance, the age or health of the witness, and the practical reality that a party with a witness in Melbourne or Toronto should not have to buy an international ticket to prove a point that is barely contested. What the court will not do is let remote evidence damage the trial. If the witness is the central factual witness on a credibility question, if authenticity of documents will be tested during cross-examination, or if there is any suggestion the witness may be prompted off camera, expect resistance. Judges routinely condition permission on the witness sitting alone in a defined room, on documents being lodged with the court in advance, and sometimes on an Israeli lawyer or another officer being physically present at the far end to confirm who is in the room.

Two procedural traps catch non-residents. The first is timing. Witness lists run to a fixed calendar under the Regulations: the plaintiff files up to twenty days before the first pre-trial hearing and the defendant within fourteen days after that, and the pre-trial hearing is where the mode of evidence gets settled. A Regulation 72 motion filed after the trial dates are set invites the argument that you always knew where your witness lived. The second is the written statement. Israeli civil practice runs on witness statements sworn in advance, and a statement made abroad has to be sworn properly before it will be received, which for most countries means before an Israeli consul or before a local notary with an apostille. A statement drafted in English also has to be translated, and translation is charged by length rather than by document. Where the foreign state does object to evidence being taken on its territory, the fallback is the slower route of a letter of request, which our answer on obtaining evidence located in Israel for a foreign lawsuit describes from the mirror-image direction.

The technical arrangements are the part clients underestimate. Courts in Israel work to their own hours, and a witness in California may be asked to testify at four in the morning Israeli time or, more commonly, to accept a slot that falls in the small hours locally. The court will want a stable connection, a device with a camera that shows the room and not just a face, and a rehearsal or connection test before the hearing date. If the link fails during evidence, the judge can strike the testimony or adjourn, and adjournments cost money in a system where the losing party generally pays the winner's costs. Build in a fallback plan and tell your Israeli lawyer early, because the motion is far easier to draft when it can point to a concrete arrangement rather than a hope.

In Practice: Permission to testify remotely comes from Regulation 72 of the Civil Procedure Regulations 5779-2018, decided by the Magistrates or District Court hearing the claim, and is normally dealt with at the first pre-trial hearing, which the Regulations position after the plaintiff's witness list is filed up to 20 days beforehand and the defendant's within 14 days after. Budget for the sworn witness statement rather than the hearing itself: notarial translation into Hebrew is charged at NIS 251 for the first 100 words and NIS 197 per further 100 words under the Notaries Regulations (Service Fees) 5738-1978, so a 1,200-word statement runs to roughly NIS 2,400 before the apostille. Expect 4 to 8 weeks between filing the motion and a decision that the trial calendar can be built around.

When to Consult a Lawyer

• Your evidence is the decisive testimony on a credibility question, where the other side will oppose the motion and the court may prefer to hear you in person or to give your remote evidence reduced weight.
• The country you live in restricts the taking of evidence for foreign proceedings on its territory, in which case the motion has to be reframed around a letter of request under the Hague Evidence Convention before the trial date is fixed.
• You are a party rather than a bystander witness, since a non-resident claimant who cannot attend may also face an application for security for costs, and the two issues are better argued together than separately.

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Speak With an Israeli Attorney

An Israeli lawyer can file the Regulation 72 motion at the right point in the timetable, prepare and authenticate your witness statement abroad, and put the technical arrangements in front of the judge so the request reads as practical rather than speculative.

Contact us for a confidential initial consultation.