Apply for legal aid

You must meet all the conditions to be eligible for the legal aid:

1. The legal matters must be in a field in which legal aid can be provided;
2. A test of financial eligibility. You must be financially eligible except in certain cases explained below.

• An income test - the applicant and their family's income level are examined.
• An individual or family of up to three members whose income level is up to 67 percent of the average wage (the current average wage is NIS 13,316). There is an additional six percent for every additional family member. Spouses’ incomes are not examined in matters of marital status.
• A property test that determines the applicant's property that can be used (such as savings or a car), or their property that can serve as collateral for a loan, does not exceed three times the average wage (NIS 39,948). This qualification does not apply to residential apartments or the spouse’s property.
• Financial eligibility is not examined for the following matters: The National Insurance Institute, Holocaust survivors, involuntary hospitalization, representation of parents in adoption proceedings, children and youth, collecting child support abroad, victims of human trafficking, victims of homicide (murder and manslaughter), victims of sexual offenses In criminal proceedings and in obtaining a restraining order on the return of the offender to the victim's surrounding, , victims of homicide (murder and manslaughter) s, victims of terrorism, bereaved families, medical matters, or the Legal Competency and Guardianship Law, or legal aid to people exposing acts of corruption at their workplaces (whistleblowers).

3. Examination of the legal chances of the procedure’s success. The legal chances of the procedure’s success are examined for every case (except exceptional cases, such as representation before psychiatric committees and representation of parents in adoption proceedings). The facts and legal aspects are examined together with the evidence, and the claims of the opposing party. A broader perspective will be used in borderline cases.

• The Procedure for Determining Financial Eligibility 2020
• Table of Financial Eligibility

• Legal aid application form.
  • In cases where the aid requested for cases dealing with the Law Enforcement and Collection Authority (the execution office), the National Insurance Institute, or the health services, you must fill out the waiver of confidentiality on the application form.
• A photocopy of the ID card of the person requesting the aid.
• Documents for the financial eligibility test:
  • Confirmation of the income of the applicant and/or the spouse’s income from any source for the past three months.
  • Confirmation of allowances received from the National Insurance Institute.
  • Printouts of bank statements, and a printout containing the bank balances.
  • Additional documents for determining financial eligibility, which you will be required to bring to the meeting with the legal aid attorney. Applicants will receive a list of the additional documents when they submit their application at the district office or in a telephone call to the applicant if the application is submitted by e-mail, fax, or the postal system.
• Any legal document regarding the matter in which the legal aid is being requested: a claim or petition filed in court, statement of defense, attachment order, copy of a summons to a meeting of information, acquaintance and coordination (preceding the mediation process for reaching a settlement out of court) or a summons to a trial, as well as any legal material connected to procedures taking places in courts of law, religious courts, or the execution office that have to do with the case.

The attorney’s fee is paid by the legal aid and not by the person applying for aid.

Those requesting aid must pay a fee for opening the legal aid application file with a pay stub at a branch of the Israel Postal Company. The pay stub will be given to the applicants when they arrive at the legal aid district office where their application is being handled.

The applicants must submit their application for legal aid at the closest legal aid district office to where they live. They may apply in the following ways:

1. By email.
2. By fax.
3. Applying in person, during office hours, at the legal aid district offices. We recommend making an appointment in advance in order to save time.
4. By post.

Locate a district.

• Once the application has been submitted and the file opened, the applicants will be invited to a meeting with an attorney at the legal aid district office where the application was submitted. In cases where the applicants live at a great distance from the district office, the applicants may meet with attorneys from the district in the welfare office bureaus of the local authorities close to their place of residence.
• Once the applicants have met with the attorney, and once they have submitted the required documents, the district office will decide whether to provide the aid, and if not, it will decide regarding which procedures the aid will be granted.
• If the district office decides that the applicants meet the criteria for receiving legal aid, the letter of appointment will be sent to private attorneys, who are appointed by the legal aid office: attorneys with private practices near the applicants’ places of residence. At the same time, the applicants will receive notification via SMS that attorneys have been appointed for them, together with the attorneys’ names, addresses, and contact information, in order to continue handling the case and set a meeting time.
• If a decision should be made not to provide legal aid (since one of the conditions has not been met), the applicant will receive, by post, a letter of explanation containing the reasons why legal aid was not granted.

Please note: Even if the district office should decide that there is a legal chance of the procedure’s success, there is no certainty of it. Only the court can render a verdict in the procedure.
 

The Legal Aid Law, 1972
Amendments to the Legal Aid Law, 1973

The legal aid district offices throughout Israel are prepared to provide urgent and immediate legal aid, particularly regarding matters such as domestic violence, issuing stay of exit orders, release from imprisonment due to debt, contact by the applicant close to the end of the period of submitting court documents and/or when the date of the hearing is imminent, and taking out restraining orders in urgent cases.

In urgent cases you can contact a district office by phone on one of the following numbers:

• The Tel Aviv District: 073-3923760
• Central District: 073-3921740
• The Haifa District: 073-3921150
• The Jerusalem District (including Ashdod and Eilat): 073-3926222
• The Northern District: 073-3921999
• The Southern District: 073-3922660

Operating hours:

• Sunday to Thursday, from 4pm to midnight.
• Friday and holiday eves, from midday until the start of the Sabbath or the holiday.
• From the end of the Sabbath or the holiday until midnight.