Public Complaints Commissioner for Judges Asher Kula has rejected a complaint against Judge Michael Krashen over signing a decision on Saturday, while sharply criticizing a wave of nearly identical complaints filed by public petitioners based only on media reports. He said the complaints were sent in parallel to the press, and warned that duplicate complaints publicized before any inquiry undermine due process. In the same decision, he said such complainants should be guided by good faith, and set out two conditions for future complaints of this kind, public importance and prior contact with the directly affected person, if there is one. He also said only one complaint in this case, the one accompanied by the affected person's position, was considered, while the rest were dismissed outright.
The complaint against Krashen centered on the claim that signing a decision during Shabbat violated the sanctity of the day. A lawyer who observes Shabbat told the commissioner, at the request of the complaints office, that while on reserve duty he was required to keep his phone on, and that when an alert from the Net HaMishpat system came in on Saturday he opened the device thinking it was an operational matter, only to find a routine court decision. He said the incident hurt his religious feelings, but stressed he had no personal complaint against the judge and wanted lessons learned.
Krashen replied that he does not observe Shabbat and sometimes works on Saturdays because of heavy workload. He said the decision was technical and had been signed without realizing Shabbat had not yet ended. He expressed regret that the lawyer received the alert during Shabbat and suggested a systemic solution to prevent non-urgent decisions from being sent on Saturdays. Kula said the judge should have considered that observant lawyers might receive such alerts, but accepted that the act was unintentional. He concluded that the complaint should be rejected, while reaffirming that non-essential judicial decisions should not be issued on Shabbat and recommending that the Courts Administration renew instructions to judges not to sign decisions on Saturdays except when necessary.
Kula also rejected a separate complaint against Judge Yifat Mishiory over a political conference held at her home, after a report on Channel 14 triggered the complaint. He accepted her explanation that the event was not political, had no political symbols, and involved no political figures. Still, he said a political conference in a judge's home is generally improper and advised judges to avoid hosting such events even if they are not present and did not organize them.
