From a comment on another site:
I was once in miluim on the Lebanese border and received a message from my bank that a rather large check that I had deposited had been returned because of insufficient funds. After a short investigation, I discovered that the person who had given me the check was scheduled to leave Israel that very night. In Israel, giving someone a check without coverage is a felony and there is a government office called hotza’ah lapoal – which is an arm of the court system – which one can use to collect the debt. However, it was doubtful that I – or my lawyer – would be able to finish and submit the necessary paper work on time to be able to collect before my client left the country. My only option was to have the police issue a warrant preventing him from leaving the country until I could submit the paperwork to the court. To get the police to do so, I would have to personally appear at national police headquarters in Yerushalayim. I was unsure as to whether the entire procedure was tantamount to going to a secular court and whether I was allowed to do so without first attempting to take him before a beit din.
I told my commanding officer that I needed the rest of the day off as I had to immediately travel to Yerushalayim to ask Rav Elyashiv a question. He could not understand why I needed to ask him – aren’t there any rabbis who live closer – but I convinced him that there was no point in explaining as he would never understand why I had to go to a rabbi before going to the police. He let me go and by hitchhiking, I got to Rechov Chanan in Meah Shearim at exactly 7:05 P.M. Trouble was, in those years, Rav Elyashiv only received the public until 7:00 and the door was closed. I knocked and the rebbitzen opened the door and sweetly explained that I would have to return the next afternoon. I was standing there in an Israeli army uniform. I explained to the rebbitzen that I was in miluim in Lebanon and could not return the next day and I needed to ask the rav a question.
She told me to wait at the door and went into the room to ask him if he would see me. She returned a moment later and said that the I should accompany the rav to ma’ariv. You can just imagine the scene, walking through the Meah Shearim shuk with the rav while dressed in a rather unkempt uniform with an M16 on my shoulder.
Oblivious to the stares of the passers by who were watching the strange scene, Rav Elyashiv asked me what was on my mind. I told him that I had a shayla in Choshen Mishpat, whereupon he looked at me with a big smile and said: “Choshen Mishpat! When did that become part of Shulchan Aruch. Very few people have questions about Choshen Mishpat. They ask about Orech Chaim, Yoreh Deah and sometimes about Even ha-Ezer. But Choshen Mishpat they’re quite content to pasken on their own.” I laughed and asked the question as to whether I could go to the police and then later to hotza’ah lapoal without getting permission from a beit din. He responded that there was no reason not to use the police and the court as a collection agency. As we walked up the stairs to Tifferet Bachurim, the shul above the Meah Shearim shtieblach where he davened and learned, he turned to me and said: “You must be a tzaddik if you came all the way from Lebanon to ask a shaylah in Choshen Mishpat. I’ll give you a berachah that you should be matzliach and collect the debt without delay.”