Recently, the court was required to remind that a person has a basic right to be present at the hearing of his case - and especially in civil law.
The issue did come up last week in a different context, but in the case before us it is about a young woman who had to remain in forced hospitalization because the members of the psychiatric committee refused to come to the ward, and were content with a diagnosis via Zoom.
Their reason: "In Israel, the corona virus is still raging, and there are old people in the committee."
The girl was forcibly hospitalized in a psychiatric hospital, and since it was claimed that she was dangerous and could run away, the members of the committee were supposed to come to the hospital to determine whether to continue hospitalization.
However, they refused to meet the young woman face-to-face, as mentioned, and as a result the court was asked to hear an appeal filed by attorney Roy Blasiano, from the legal aid unit of the Ministry of Justice, on behalf of the young woman.
were supposed to arrive at the ward where she was hospitalized (illustration),
Zoom meeting with the psychiatrist Dr. Assaf Caspi (photographers have nothing to do with what was said), photo: Yossi Zeliger
Basic intelligence
"My client was not known to the psychiatric system," asserted attorney Belciano, "and the committee had no authority to perform the examination when its members are sitting in the room and the patient is in the ward."
Judge Esperanza Alon accepted his arguments and harshly criticized the committee: "Having a hearing without the presence of the hospitalized person violates her right according to the 'Basic Law: Human Dignity and Freedom'," she stated, "she did not give her consent to the hearing in a visual panel, and therefore the committee was not allowed to hold it except with her consent or in her physical presence".
On performing the Zoom examination because "this is a patient with a very high level of risk to herself, and there is a reasonable fear that she will run away," the judge wrote in her decision: "A person wishes to be present at the procedure where his fate will be determined. If this is avoided, justice may be lacking due to the possible impairment of his ability to defend himself The legal procedure does not deal with missing details, but with present details."
Attorney Daniel Raz, the national commissioner in the field of involuntary hospitalization with legal aid, summarized the issue: "No party must ignore the basic right to appear at the hearing where your fate is determined, and the court did well to remind the wisdom of these fundamentals."
Court hall in Tel Aviv (archive),
were we wrong
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