Of 546 complaints filed in the first half of 2008, mostly regarding delays in proceedings, only 45 were found to be meritorious.

Former Supreme Court Justice Tova Strassberg-Cohen, the Commissioner for Complaints Against Judges, has submitted her twice-yearly report to Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann and Supreme Court Chief Justice Dorit Beinish.  The report includes data on the complaints filed between January and June of this year, and includes specific examples - without naming names. 

In addition to this year's 546 complaints - an average of three a day - another 98 that were left over from last year were investigated, and another 173 were re-submitted this year for additional review.

Fewer Justified Complaints

Of the 546, decisions were made on all but three.  Just over 8%, 45 of them, were found to be justified - continuing the trend of fewer justified complaints in recent years. In addition, 186 were rejected outright, 195 were investigated and rebuffed, and 21 were found to be justified in and of themselves, though not regarding the judge now dealing with the case.  The others were put on hold.

Of the 45 justified complaints, 14 concerned prolonged proceedings and delays in handing down rulings.

One Judge Recommended for Dismissal

Only in one case did the Commissioner recommend that a judge be unseated, specifically, Rabbi Avraham Sherman of the Rabbinical Court.  He made headlines this past May when he invalidated all the conversions to Judaism performed by Conversion Authority head Rabbi Chaim Druckman's rabbinical courts within a 15-year period.  Rabbi Druckman filed a complaint against him, and Strassberg-Cohen concurred. She wrote that Rabbi Sherman did not have enough facts about the specific conversion that led to his blanket ruling, and that he unfairly attributed criminal activity to Rabbi Druckman - who was not a party to the case - without providing him an opportunity to explain his side.

New Commissioner

Strassberg-Cohen will step down, as required by law, at the end of next month at the end of her five-year term.  She will be replaced by former State Comptroller and ex-Supreme Court Justice Eliezer Goldberg.