For court proceedings abroad
Israeli financial documents for a divorce or family court abroad
A foreign court hearing a divorce, a maintenance claim or a property division wants to see what each side earns, holds and owes — and the documents that answer it are in Hebrew. This page sets out which Israeli document answers which question, what the court is likely to want the translation to look like, and how ours is prepared and certified.
What the court is actually asking
Financial disclosure in a family case comes down to three questions: income, assets, liabilities. Israeli paperwork answers all three — but in documents a foreign court has never seen before: a numbered employer's certificate, a bank's year-end confirmation of everything held there, a report from the central bank's credit register.
The translation's job is to let the court read those as evidence. That means the same structure, the same figures and the same order as the Hebrew, so anyone can lay the two side by side and see that nothing moved. It also means nothing is summarized away: a court weighing a disclosure obligation is entitled to the document, not a digest of it.
We have prepared document sets of exactly this kind for court proceedings abroad, delivered with signed certificates of accuracy.
The documents, and what each one proves
Most family-court files draw on a subset of the list below. Your lawyer's disclosure list governs — this is what each document can carry.
Form 106 — the employer's annual certificate
One page stating last year's gross pay by category, tax and National Insurance withheld, and pension, severance and study-fund contributions. The nearest foreign equivalents are the W-2 and the P60.
Payslips
The month-by-month picture, and each one also carries cumulative totals for the tax year to date. Courts usually name a period; consecutive months read better than a selection.
Bank statements
A transaction ledger with a running balance. This is where spending patterns and transfers become visible, which is why an extract is rarely accepted.
Annual balance confirmation
The bank's own year-end statement of everything held: shekel and foreign-currency balances, deposits, and the securities portfolio with its composition.
Credit data report
What is owed and to whom, including transactions where one party stands as a guarantor for someone else — a liability that shows up nowhere on a payslip.
Tax assessment and annual returns
For a self-employed party, the documents that carry the year's declared income where there is no employer to certify it.
Pension, provident and study-fund statements
Retirement and savings assets, which in Israel sit in instruments with no exact foreign counterpart — named accurately rather than mapped onto the nearest local product.
Municipal and property documents
Municipal property-tax notices and similar documents, where occupancy or a property interest is in question.
Translate the whole document, not the useful page
The single most common reason a translated financial document is queried is that it is a summary. The clearest statement of the principle in writing comes from US immigration practice, where the Policy Manual says outright that a summary of a document prepared by a translator is unacceptable — but courts apply the same logic for their own reasons. Opposing counsel who receives a partial confirmation will ask what was on the pages that were left out, and the answer costs a hearing.
It matters most on documents that total up across pages. A balance confirmation carries figures forward from section to section; a bank statement's balance is cumulative from the opening line. Handed part of either, a reader cannot verify the part they were given.
Certification — and where our responsibility ends
What we provide is a certified translation: the complete document in English, with a signed certificate of translation accuracy naming the translator, dated, and tied to the exact documents it certifies by a unique serial number recorded in our register. Receiving institutions are welcome to contact us to confirm a serial.
Courts differ, and their rules of procedure differ by country and by state. Some accept the translator's signed certificate as it stands; some require the translator's signature to be notarized; some ask for an apostille on the original Hebrew document, which is a separate errand and one only you can run. Confirming what your court requires rests with you or your attorney — we do not advise on it and we do not guess. Where a notary is needed, we are glad to refer you to one and to supply the translator's declaration a notary will ask for.
How the work is done
Every figure is recomputed and reconciled against the original. On machine-readable documents, identity and account numbers are additionally read a second time by an independent method, and the two readings must agree. On fixed-layout documents the layout is compared against the original by measurement rather than by eye; on flowing documents the comparison is made page by page. And a reviewer who took no part in producing the translation reads it before it goes out.
Turnaround is quoted per order, before you commit. Recent single-document orders have been delivered within 24 hours; if you are working to a filing deadline, say so when you write and we will tell you honestly whether it is achievable.
Common questions
Does the court need a notarized translation?
That depends on the court, and it is a question for your attorney or the clerk's office — not for us. Many recipients accept a translation certified by the translator; some require a notary to certify the translator's signature. We provide the certified translation, and where a notary is required we can refer you to one and supply the translator's declaration they will ask for.
Can we translate only the pages relevant to the case?
Ask the party who will receive it before deciding. Documents whose figures total up across pages — balance confirmations, statements — cannot be verified from an extract, and a partial translation invites the question of what was omitted. Where a recipient has confirmed that a defined part is enough, we translate that part and state clearly on the delivery which part of the document it is.
Both spouses' names appear on the documents. How are they spelled in English?
As they are spelled in the passport or in the court filing — we ask you for the spellings rather than transliterating names ourselves, and we use the same spelling consistently across every document in the file. A name spelled two ways across two exhibits is an avoidable question.
The documents are for the other side's disclosure, not ours. Does that change anything?
No. The work is the same and the standard is the same: the English mirrors the Hebrew, and any figure the source itself gets wrong is preserved faithfully and flagged to you at delivery rather than silently corrected.
What if part of a document is illegible?
We tell you — which field, why the reading is uncertain, and what the alternative readings were. We do not guess at a figure, and we never invent one.
Documents due to a court abroad?
Print-ready PDF · handled in confidence · a few days for most jobs