Insurance company stalled, judge loses patience: ruling on compensation
Ayalon was ordered to pay special interest and legal expenses after failing to transfer 20,000 shekels to the plaintiff that it had already acknowledged. Despite its own expert confirming a 10% psychiatric disability following an accident, the company withheld payment. The result: an additional 12,500 shekels in interest.
The insurance company Ayalon will bear special interest at a rate six times the regular interest rate, after Magistrate Court Judge Keren Miller determined that its conduct regarding the payment of compensation to the plaintiff justifies the sanction imposed upon it.
Alongside the interest, the company was also ordered to pay legal expenses in the amount of 2,500 shekels. According to the calculation, the total interest accrued results in an additional payment of about 12,500 shekels.
At the center of the lawsuit is an American student who studied in Israel and was injured in 2019 in an accident at the Tomb of Samuel the Prophet. The student was covered by student insurance, and the dispute with the insurance company concerned the psychiatric disability that remained with him following the accident, beyond the orthopedic disability for which the insurance company had already paid.
In January 2025, Ayalon received an opinion from an expert it had appointed itself, which determined that the plaintiff was left with a 10% psychiatric disability. Despite this, the company did not transfer the opinion to the plaintiff and did not pay the undisputed amount of 20,000 shekels. The plaintiff, for his part, claimed that his disability stands at 30%.
According to the plaintiff, represented by attorneys Dr. Asaf Posner and Avia Eitan Epstein, the fact that he claims a higher disability does not justify delaying payment for the disability rate that the insurance company acknowledged through the expert it appointed. In other words, the dispute over the remainder of the disability is not supposed to prevent the transfer of the amount for which there was no longer a dispute.
Ayalon claimed in response that the plaintiff did not provide a bank account management certificate, but Judge Keren Miller rejected the claim and determined that the company's conduct justifies the ruling of special interest at a rate six times the stated interest. The lawsuit regarding the remaining amounts continues to be litigated.
