For about two months, the courts operated in an emergency format due to the war, partly because the lawyers recruited to reserve duty under Order 8 are still in Gaza and on the northern border.
Now it turns out that the Bar Association, unlike many bureaus and bodies, continues to collect membership fees from reservists who have not worked for more than two months.
Each lawyer is required to pay a membership fee to the Bar in order to continue maintaining his or her Bar License.
Israel Bar Association, photo: Flash 90
However, many independent lawyers who were drafted into the reserves under Order 8 of October 7 have run into serious financial problems because they are not working. When they approached the bureau to see if they would at least be reimbursed for the months they spent in the reserves, they were told they had to continue paying the member's taxes.
No back for friends
One of them, who preferred to remain anonymous, said: "While all the professional guilds have pitched in for the benefit of their fellow servants, the Bar treats its members as a deep pocket, and it is in fact the only one that can and does not give any backing to its members, except by applying for an exemption from a discount to which proof of financial difficulty must be attached - a practice that is, regardless of the war, humiliating and inconvenient."
The bureau said in response: "The bureau will not enforce payment from an attorney who is in reserve duty and is unable to pay. If later and upon the end of the fighting there is a financial problem to pay, the exemptions and discounts committee will help. In addition, the Bureau provides a grant fund and loans for the benefit of lawyers who have encountered financial problems."
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