Rishon LeZion Magistrate’s Court last week rejected a lawsuit against Amos Gavrieli, one of Israel’s senior mediators, and ordered the plaintiffs, attorney Yossi Rapaport and his wife, Raheli Rapaport, to pay him 75,000 shekels in legal costs. The suit, filed four years ago, alleged that a mediation agreement Gavrieli drafted conflicted with an earlier judgment on the division of land in Yehud and blocked the couple from using their property rights.
In a broader ruling, Judge Avigail Frier defined, for the first time in Israel, when a mediator can be sued in tort for negligence. She wrote that a mediator who acts outside expected standards may face a negligence claim, but set a very high threshold, saying only conduct approaching bad faith could justify liability. The court said the law and regulations do not directly address mediator liability, yet the general duty of good faith applies. Frier warned that too low a negligence threshold could chill mediation by making mediators fear personal liability for creative problem-solving.
The decision said a mediator may be liable only if he acted in negligence bordering on intent, that hindsight review must be done cautiously, and that responsibility can also extend to harm to third parties affected by mediation. But the court found that Gavrieli did not breach his duty of care in this case. The mediation concerned an internal family dispute and was conducted with awareness of the earlier settlement, while all sides at the time believed the family conflict would not affect the plaintiffs’ rights.
The Rapaports claimed the 2002 judgment had ended the ownership dispute, but later mediation led to a second judgment that, they said, contradicted the first and prevented permits for six years, causing 2.1 million shekels in damage. The court said they failed to prove a causal link between the mediation judgment and the permit delays, noting additional planning and property obstacles and local committee objections. It also said their damage estimate was unproven. Rapaport said he will appeal, and if needed seek permission to appeal to the Supreme Court, insisting Gavrieli acted “very seriously negligently” and that the mediation was done “behind our backs.”
