Information Privacy
Bankruptcy: Israel's Supreme Court rejects a bankrupt's request to ban publication of his case, and finds no grounds to depart from the principle of open courts
Bankruptcy and open courts: Israel's Supreme Court again rejected a bankrupt's request to ban publication of his case and ordered NIS 2,000 in costs.
In brief
- Israel's Supreme Court, in a panel of Justices Daphna Barak-Erez, David Mintz and Ofer Grosskopf, rejected a request by an appellant declared bankrupt to ban publication of his case, Bizportal reported on November 3, 2026.
- The appellant argued that the case documents include personal information that could embarrass him and harm his financial rehabilitation.
- The justices held that the appellant had not pointed to any ground to depart from the rule that court proceedings are public, and ordered him to pay NIS 2,000 in costs.
- The published judgment contains no personal details, and the case documents themselves are subject to the court file inspection regulations.
What the appellant asked for
According to the report, a judgment was given in the appellant's insolvency case about six years ago. He asked for a sweeping publication ban on the case, arguing that the documents and appendices contain information protected as private, and that even if the judgment itself contains no personal details, the case as a whole contains embarrassing information (Bizportal).
According to the Official Receiver, a similar request was already rejected in March 2020. The justices then made clear that if the appellant wanted a publication ban, he had to file a clear and detailed request. He filed another request, and it too was rejected.
The parties' positions and the ruling
The Official Receiver argued that only the decisions in the proceeding are disclosed to the public anyway, not the pleadings and appendices, so there was no justification for removing the appellant's name from the decisions. The trustee joined this position and argued, according to the report, that the appellant has clients among state and particularly sensitive bodies, and that it matters that they learn of the bankruptcy proceeding.
The justices held that the 2020 conclusion stands, and noted that public inspection of the case documents is subject to the Courts and Labor Tribunals (Inspection of Files) Regulations, so the documents are not exposed to the public. They added that the appellant would do well to stop filing repeated requests of this kind (Bizportal).
What this means for background checks
The decision reinforces a familiar principle: decisions in insolvency proceedings are public information, even when the person concerned would prefer they were not. By contrast, the pleadings and appendices are not open to everyone. Anyone checking a business partner, vendor or potential client can use the published decisions, but should read them carefully and in context, and not draw more from them than what they actually decided.
Sources: Bizportal, 03.11.2026. The source is in Hebrew.
Further reading: Background check before a deal, Due diligence: what it is and when you need it, and Business intelligence and due diligence service.
The information in this section is general and is not legal advice. This item is based on a Bizportal report, and the appellant's name is not published here.
