Personal Injury Lawyer
in Israel

No. The Road Accident Victims Compensation Law places the duty to compensate on the user of the vehicle regardless of fault, and that is the main difference from an ordinary tort claim, where negligence has to be proved. Road Accident Victims Compensation Law, 5735-1975, section 2

Yes. The fund for compensating road accident victims acts as a paying party in the situations defined in the statute, including where the driver is unknown, where there was no insurance, or where the insurer is in liquidation. The compensation is at the level that would have been payable by an insurer. ibid., sections 10 and 12

As a rule, time runs from the day the injury occurred. Where the injury was not discovered on that day, time runs from the day of discovery, but the claim is barred in any event ten years after the injury occurred. Different rules apply to minors and to certain other situations, so it is better to check the deadlines early rather than late. Civil Wrongs Ordinance [New Version], section 89(2)

A difficult outcome is not negligence in itself. The question is whether there was a departure from the standard of skill and care required in those circumstances, and whether there is a causal link between that departure and the injury. Both questions are examined on the medical record and an expert opinion, not on impression. Civil Wrongs Ordinance [New Version], sections 35 and 36

The statute requires the practitioner to give the patient, before treatment, the medical information needed in order to decide. That includes the diagnosis and prognosis, the nature of the treatment, its purpose and its expected benefit, the risks involved including side effects, and the prospects and risks of alternative treatments or of no treatment at all. Signing a form does not in itself show that the information was given. Patient’s Rights Law, 5756-1996, section 13

Usually both, in parallel rather than one instead of the other. Before the National Insurance Institute the question is recognition of the injury and the degree of disability, and in parallel a tort cause of action against the employer or a third party is examined. The two tracks affect each other, so it is better to run them together from the outset.

The first step is documentation: keeping the publication itself, the date, the extent of exposure and the responses. There is then a practical tool that comes before a claim and sometimes removes the need for one, namely a written demand to publish a correction or a denial. Where the publication was made in the media and no correction is published within a reasonable time, in the same prominence and place as the original, the good-faith defence falls away from the editor and from whoever decided on the publication. In the claim itself compensation may be awarded without proof of damage up to the statutory ceiling, and double that ceiling where intent to harm is proved. On the other hand, not every damaging publication gives rise to a cause of action: the defendant has the defence of truth in publication, where what was published was true and there was public interest in it, and the defence of good faith across its twelve circumstances. Prohibition of Defamation Law, 5725-1965, sections 7A, 14, 15 and 17

With a short call to the firm, in which we establish what happened, the nature of the injury and when it occurred. That call determines whether a consultation meeting is appropriate and what should be brought to it. The firm works in Hebrew, English and Arabic.