Small claims court in Israel

Only an individual can file a small claim.

• The claim is for a sum of money up to the ceiling, or for an order to replace or repair goods or to cancel a deal that is worth no more than the ceiling. The defendant can bring a counterclaim of the same kind.
• It cannot be a claim on a right that was transferred to the plaintiff, or a matter that only another court may hear.
• A company can be the defendant, but the plaintiff has to be an individual.
• The court can move a claim to the Magistrates' Court if it finds that a small claims hearing does not suit it, or if the plaintiff has already filed more than 5 claims that year in the same court.

The rules are in sections 59 to 61 of the Courts Law.

The most a small claim can ask for in 2026 is ₪39,900.

The law sets the ceiling at ₪30,000 in August 2008 shekels, and the price index moves it. From 1 January 2026 it is ₪39,900, after the Director of Courts updated it.

A claim above the ceiling can be cut to the ceiling or filed in the Magistrates' Court.

• To stay in the small claims court, claim no more than ₪39,900 and leave out the rest. A claim of ₪50,000 cut to ₪39,900 leaves out ₪10,100, and the fee is ₪400.
• To claim the whole sum, file in the Magistrates' Court, which hears money claims of up to ₪2,500,000. The law lets you file there instead of in the small claims court. The fee for ₪50,000 is ₪1,250, paid in two halves.
• A claim above ₪2,500,000 goes to the District Court.

See sections 60 and 61 and section 51 of the Courts Law.

The filing fee is 1% of the claim, at least ₪50, rounded up to a multiple of ₪5.

You pay the fee when you file. The fee in the Magistrates' Court is 2.5% of the claim, at least ₪893 in 2026, paid in two halves: the second at the latest 20 days before the first hearing, with linkage to the index.

Someone who cannot pay the fee can ask the court to exempt them, in the same filing, with a sworn statement of their property, their spouse's and, if they depend on them, their parents', and of their income in the six months before. An exemption from court fees is an exemption here too. The fee is set in the small claims regulations and the Magistrates' Court fee in the court fees regulations, as updated for 2026.

You file in the court where the defendant lives or works, or where the act happened.

• The claim goes to the court for the defendant's home or place of business, or for the place of the act or omission the claim is about. A clause in a contract that names another court does not change that.
• A claim about publishing or trading on the internet goes only to the court for the defendant's home or business, or for the plaintiff's own.
• With several defendants, the court that can hear the claim against one of them can hear it against all.
• A counterclaim goes to the court where the original claim was filed.
• Only a Magistrates' Court that the Minister of Justice has authorised sits as a small claims court.

See regulation 2 of the small claims regulations and section 67 of the Courts Law.

You file a statement of claim of up to 5 pages, with your documents.

1. Give the names and ID numbers of the plaintiff and the defendant (a company's registration number), their addresses, e-mail and mobile numbers, and the relief you ask for.
2. State the place of the act, the reasons for the claim, a list of your documents and of your witnesses, and how many small claims you filed in the last year.
3. Say whether you prefer a hearing by video or another technology, and whether you prefer a decision on the papers.
4. Attach the documents you rely on, and a declaration that what you wrote is true, or true to the best of your knowledge, with the source of that knowledge.
5. File on the courts' website, signing in with the government identification and paying the fee there by card, or file in the usual way at the court.

These details and the five-page limit are for claims opened from 11 April 2025.

The clerk sends the defendant the claim with a summons. The defendant has 30 days from service to file a defence, and without one the court gives judgment on the statement of claim alone, though it may still hear both sides. If the clerk has not served the claim 60 days before the hearing, the plaintiff serves it at least 40 days before.

The hearing is informal, and a lawyer takes part only with the court's leave.

• The court is not bound by the procedure of other courts. It acts in the way it finds most useful for a just and quick decision, and may admit evidence that another court would not.
• The judge sets the order of the evidence and the arguments, and takes an active part in clarifying the dispute.
• For a claim opened from 11 April 2025, a hearing may be held by video, and in a suitable case the court may decide on the papers.
• A lawyer can represent a side only with the court's leave, for special reasons that the court records. With leave, a side can also be represented by an organisation the Minister of Justice has designated, or by a person with a power of attorney who does not do it as a regular practice, in the ordinary course of business, or for payment.
• If neither side comes, the claim is struck. If only the plaintiff comes, the court gives judgment on the claim after the plaintiff declares that it is true. If only the defendant comes, the claim is dismissed.
• A side that missed the hearing can ask to cancel the decision within 30 days of receiving it.

See sections 62 and 63 of the Courts Law and regulations 10 to 13 of the small claims regulations.

The judge gives judgment at the end of the hearing, and the winner collects through the Execution Office.

• The judgment comes at the end of the hearing, or up to 7 days later. It gives short reasons, and it says how and by when to appeal.
• If the judgment sets a date for payment, a request to collect it can go to any Execution Office after that date. If it sets none, the request can go in 30 days after the judgment.
• The Execution Office serves the debtor a warning. The debtor has 20 days from service to pay, to ask for payments in instalments, or to comply with the judgment.
• The debt includes the linkage differences, the interest and the costs that the debtor owes under the judgment.

See regulation 15 of the small claims regulations and sections 6 and 7 of the Execution Law.

To appeal you need the District Court's leave, and you ask for it within 30 days.

• A small claims judgment can be appealed only if a judge of the District Court gives leave. A single judge hears the appeal.
• The request for leave goes in within 30 days of the judgment, or of the decision on a request to cancel one given in a side's absence. For a claim opened before 11 April 2025 it is 15 days. Days of the court recess count.
• The fee for the request is ₪588 in 2026. If leave is given, the request is treated as the appeal, and the appeal itself has no fee.

See section 64 of the Courts Law, regulation 16 of the small claims regulations and item 13 of the fee schedule.

These three pages answer what people ask next about pay and money in Israel.