Minister Ohana, following Israel's exposure today: "Rush is a long-standing phenomenon that accompanies ministers" • Judiciary: "Work on developing tools for improvement"

• Thousands of cases, one judge. Court // Photo: Oren Ben Hakun

Many comments were made in the Israeli legal system following yesterday's publication in Israel Today, which revealed the complete data of the case load on the judges in the various Israeli courts.

According to the data, published following the Freedom of Information request filed by the B'Tselem organization for the administration of the courts, an average judge in Israel faces an inventory of about 530 cases in his handling. This is the first time that a complete list of judges in the system and the inventory of cases each has is published.

More on:

• One judge, thousands of cases: The burden on the judicial system has been exposed

• Minister Ohana: "The State Attorney's Office is not the private yard of civil servants"

• The Court has withdrawn its opposition to the appointment of Attorney Eldad to the State Attorney General's Office

Justice Minister Amir Ohana said in response to the publication that "the burden on the courts and the judges is a long-standing phenomenon that accompanies justice ministers throughout their generations." He said the phenomenon "could cause torture and distortion of law and lead many to set foot in the courts when they can."

"Over the years, they have always tried to solve the problem by adding standards, judges and courtrooms," Ohana said, explaining that "my perception is different, and I have already made some moves in that direction: constantly raising what is going on in court and robbing the precious resource that is judicial time . The stories of disputes in the things that come before some of the judges require us to make changes, which will make better use of this valuable resource and help the judges to address the key issues, not the most sidelined. "

Former Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked said: "Israel's judges are one of the busiest judges in the world. In my time, I made sure there were no missing standards. I convened committees and sorted and filled out the standards." However, she says, the deep solution is not only "in increasing the number of judges, but also in reducing demand."

Shaked enumerated the actions it took to reduce the burden on the courts: "I have implemented mediator regulations so that cases can be issued for mediators, and I have also promoted the overseas project that transfers cases to mediation before trial. I imposed fees that cut 20 percent of class actions, and the insolvency reform also puts administrative procedures aside and reduces court loads. "

The judiciary responded to the publication, claiming that "the Israeli judicial system is one of the world's busiest judges, and the cases in the courts differ in their weight and complexity. The system is constantly working on developing advanced tools in the organizational infrastructure - improving the working environment for judges and improving the ratio between the number of cases that open and the closed ones. ".

Bar Association chairman Avi Haimi believes that "the main solution is to appoint additional judges, because an average judge discusses dozens of cases a day."