The State Comptroller has found deficiencies in the Rabbinical Courts' treatment of 80% of their cases.
Investigating 71 cases in the Tel Aviv and Petach Tikvah District Rabbinical Courts, State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss found deficiencies in 83% of the former and 71% of the latter. The faults ranged in degree of importance, from not applying available solutions for women whose husbands refuse to give them a Jewish divorce, to judges not residing in the cities in which they serve.
The Comptroller also found that in 26% of the Tel Aviv cases, hearings were held in the presence of incomplete judicial panels, leading to months of delays. Some judges were found to leave work early without justification.
Other faults include the following: Court secretariat delays in arranging gets (Jewish divorces), lack of efficient tracking of cases, poorly handwritten court rulings, and mistakes in computer entries.
"The amount of time it takes between the opening of a file and the actual granting of a get," the Comptroller's report found, "is liable to take very long, causing unfair judicial duress."
Futhermore, the court secretariat does not keep track of rulings ordering a divorce to be issued; one side must often turn to the court to "remind" it that the other side has not fulfilled its obligation.
The Comptroller found several procedural faults, such as insufficient hiring of female employees.
The report found that those who must avail themselves of the rabbinical courts' services, "who in any event are in sensitive and difficult personal situations, are harmed by the courts' functioning. Children as well, whose personal status is dependent upon the courts' rulings, are also harmed."
Ex-Judge Lindenstrauss recommends that "all those who are involved, including the Justice Minister and the Director of the Rabbinical Courts, to take the necessary steps to improve the service and ease the burden of those who need the Courts' services."
Courts Management Responds
The Rabbinical Courts management responded: "96% of the divorce cases are closed within a year... [We have] been working for some time to provide supplementary services, but though we are willing to pay our share, the Ministry of Welfare refuses to allocate monies, leading to delays in the relevant legislation."
Regarding the disciplinary issues, the Courts stated, "Criticism regarding judges' attendance is under the exclusive authority of the Commissioner for Complaints Regarding Judges."
Regarding the "follow-up" problem, the management stated, "We will conduct a deliberation regarding the manner in which to implement the Comptroller's comments regarding the secretariat's follow-up of cases."