Israel has two judicial forums, the Family Court and the Rabbinical Court, with parallel jurisdiction over a number of divorce matters. The question of where to turn when you want a divorce carries real weight in how the process ends, so before you begin it is worth consulting attorney Avital Horef, an experienced family law attorney serving clients in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
In this article we take up the question of where to turn when you want a divorce, introduce several key concepts, and try to work out who should approach the Rabbinical Court, who should approach the Family Court, and when.
Where to turn when you want a divorce – 5 concepts you must know
Before you decide which forum to approach, it is worth knowing the following concepts: the jurisdiction race, resource balancing, the Property Relations Law, the sharing rule, and career assets.
The jurisdiction race – as noted, Israel has two forums with parallel jurisdiction over divorce, and the two cannot hear the same issue at the same time. The forum where the claim is filed first is the one that acquires jurisdiction over it. The different approaches of the two forums are what create the race.
Resource balancing – in resource balancing, all accumulated property is divided in half unless the court orders a different division.
The Property Relations Law – this law governs the equal division of joint property between spouses, by way of resource balancing.
The sharing rule – the sharing rule holds that when dividing the property of spouses who lived together and ran a joint household, the property accumulated during their life together is joint property to be divided between them in equal parts, even if it is registered in the name of only one of them.
Career assets – career assets describe the future earning capacity of one of the spouses, earning capacity built on intangible assets such as personal reputation reflected in financial success as an employee or as a self-employed person, a professional license, a university degree, and the like.
Where to turn when you want a divorce – 2 things you need to know
The Rabbinical Court and the Family Court share parallel jurisdiction over these matters: division of property, parental responsibility and custody, and child support expenses. If you want one of these forums to hear your claim on a matter of parallel jurisdiction, you must “win” the jurisdiction race.
In addition, each forum has exclusive powers:
The Rabbinical Court has exclusive authority over the granting of the get itself and over ketubah claims.
The Family Court has authority over child support, unless the parties agree otherwise.
Where to turn when you want a divorce – when should you approach the Rabbinical Court?
When property is registered in one spouse’s name, the Rabbinical Court will generally not divide it, unlike the Family Court, which divides property under the Property Relations Law or the sharing rule. So when the dispute concerns the division of property in a divorce and the property is registered in your name, the Rabbinical Court may serve you better.
The Rabbinical Court can also serve a woman who wants to remain in the home where she lives. She can file a shalom bayit claim, a claim for marital reconciliation, with the Rabbinical Court and ask within it for an order securing her right to stay in the home. Until that order is lifted, no one can remove her from the house. To obtain the order, the woman must show that the man has no sufficient grounds to remove her, or that he is the one who left the home.
A ketubah claim – a man who can prove a ground that denies his wife the ketubah payment, or a woman who can prove a ground that entitles her to it, should turn to the Rabbinical Court, since the authority to hear a ketubah claim within divorce proceedings rests with the Rabbinical Court alone. The grounds that can deny the ketubah payment are religious in nature: infidelity, improper conduct, refusal of marital relations, offenses against religion, or the woman leaving the home. Note that when it is the man who leaves the home, the woman does not lose her right to the ketubah.
A claim for spousal support – a woman who can prove grounds entitling her to spousal support, as distinct from child support, is well advised to approach the Rabbinical Court. In principle, the man is obligated to pay spousal support throughout the marriage, until the get is given. The grounds that entitle a woman to spousal support, or deny it, are similar to those of the ketubah claim: infidelity, improper conduct, a man who left the home, refusal of marital relations, violations of religious precepts, and more.
Where to turn when you want a divorce – when should you approach the Family Court?
When there are large gaps in monthly income between husband and wife, the Family Court recognizes career assets accumulated by one of the parties during the marriage. The Rabbinical Court does not recognize career assets. So when the wife or the husband claims a share of the spouse’s career assets, on the ground that while those assets were being built the claimant gave up chances to improve his or her own earning capacity, the Family Court is the right address.
Women are also well advised to turn to the Family Court for child support claims, since in most cases the Family Courts award higher child support than the Rabbinical Court.
So where do you turn when you want a divorce? There is no absolute answer
The answer to where you should turn when you want a divorce is not clear-cut, and it depends on several factors. When property is registered in one party’s name, for example, that party will usually do better in the Rabbinical Court. A woman seeking spousal support should turn to the Rabbinical Court, but a woman seeking a share of her husband’s career assets should turn to the Family Court.
