Chaim Zelichov

Chaim is the head of the medical malpractice and personal injury claims division in Kennedys Israel. He is highly involved in a great amount of medical malpractice claims, which the firm handles, representing hospitals, sick funds, private medical institutions, doctors and paramedical. Chaim qualified in 1974 and is fluent in Hebrew, English and Yiddish.

He is also involved in broad aspects of insurance legal fields such as personal injury, professional liability, employers’ liability, commercial and civil litigation.

Chaim lectured at both the Faculty of Medicine and the School of Dentistry at Tel Aviv University, the Faculty of Medicine and the School of Dentistry at Jerusalem University (Hadassah). Chaim also serves as a guest speaker in various legal conventions of the Israeli Bar Association as well as in of conferences of medical organisations.

He serves as an arbitrator and a certified mediator in business, insurance, and medico-legal disputes.

Chaim is the Former Deputy Chairman of Israel Bar Association and the former Chairman of the President’s Council of the World Association for Medical Law.

Being one of the senior attorneys in Israel in the medical malpractice and personal injury field, Chaim was involved in some of the main Supreme Court precedents in this legal arena including, inter-alia:

• CA 145/80 Vaknin v The Beit-Shemesh Local Council, a comprehensive judgment establishing the terms of conceptual liability and concrete liability, as well as analysing and setting up various rules regarding negligence, breach of statutory duty and other issues in the Israeli Tort Ordinance.
• PCA 305/80 Ratzkovsky v Shilo, the Supreme Court dealt with the rules when an insurance company wishes to refer a claimant to be examined by a medical expert on its behalf.
• CA 73/86 Levi Sternberg v The Municipality of Bnei-Brak, the Supreme Court dealt with the scope of liability of a municipality to take care and avoid accidents due to overflow of the sewage system, and also dealt with contributing negligence of the claimant under given circumstances.
• PCA 7731/04 The State of Israel – Ministry of Health v The estate of the late Avital Halperin and others, the Supreme Court permitted to submit as part of the evidence in a medical malpractice claim, a report issued by an examination commission which was appointed in accordance with the stipulations of the Doctors' Ordinance. The Supreme Court also decided that it is allowed to summon one of the State commission members as a witness in a claim.
• CA 1326/07 Lior Hamer v Prof. Ami Amit and others, judgment given by seven Supreme Court judges, abolishing the right of claim for ‘wrongful life’.
• CA 7313/09 Moti Levi v Leumit Sick Fund and Hadassah Hospital, judgment given by the Supreme Court establishing rules regarding limitation of claims and referring to the relations between the Torts Ordinance and the statutes of limitation.

Qualifications/education

• Qualified in 1974 and admitted to the Israeli Bar in 1975
• B from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, 1974