February 25, 2011

INDIVIDUAL PAPER SUBMISSION

2011 Kobe, 16th World Congress, International Society for Criminology

INVALID CASE MANAGEMENT AND PUBLIC ACCESS SYSTEM

IMPLEMENTED IN THE ISRAELI COURT, UNDERMINING
HUMAN RIGHTS
Joseph Zernik, PhD
Human Rights Alert (NGO)
Jz12345@earthlink.net
English
The courts of the State of Israel have recently completed the implementation of a new
case management and public access system – Net Ha-Mishpat.
Upon review it was found that the system:
• Fails to include a valid Index of All Cases, as required by the law of the State of
Israel.
• Fails to permit any public access to dockets, minutes, or valid calendars.
• Fails to permit public access to papers filed by parties.
• Permits the posting of rulings and decisions with no certification by a judge and no
attestation by a clerk.
• Fails to list the Detainees Courts or permit access to any of their records, effectively
establishing these courts as secretive tribunals.
Attempts to access court records, to inspect and to copy, in the offices of the clerks have
been denied. Public access is effectively permitted today only through Net Ha-Mishpat.
In August 2010 request for clarification was filed with the Courts Authority and
Ombudsman of the State of Israel. Response by the Authority was inadequate, and the
Ombudsman failed to respond.
In February 2011 report was published by the Haaretz daily: “Court issues ruling, with
quotes, from nonexistent hearing”. The false ruling reflected a court hearing that never
took place in a Detainees Court. Spokesperson for the Department of Justice called the
report a ‘tempest in a teapot’ and a secretarial error in data entry in the system.
Case management systems in the courts are often implemented with insufficient public
oversight. Invalid case management systems undermine the fundamental Human Rights
for Fair Hearings and public access to court records, to inspect and to copy.
The public at large, the press, and computing experts, in particular, should exercise their
right to access court records, and perform their civic duties in examining the validity and
integrity of court records and case management systems in nations, where the courts
transition to digital administration.