Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) methods, which have been spreading all over the world, has become prevalent during the recent years in Turkey. Accordingly, Turkish legislation allows for certain disputes to be resolved through arbitration and mediation, in addition to the litigation. Beyond, prior to file a lawsuit it is mandatory to apply to mediation with respect to the disputes arising from the employment relationship and for the commercial cases.
On the other hand, resolving the disputes through litigation still consist the main solution method in Turkey, although it is costly and takes a relatively long time. It should be noted that it takes 2-3 years on average to resolve disputes through litigation.
Application fees, judgement and writ fees, litigation expenses (such as notification fees, expert fees and witness fees) and official attorney fees are the main costs of civil court proceedings. In principle, litigation costs should be paid by the plaintiff who initiates the proceedings. However, the court may also decide the party requesting a procedural transaction should bear the relevant expenses.
Litigation costs and official attorney fees determined as per the Minimum Attorney Fee Tariff are to be borne by the losing party. If both parties partially succeed, costs will be divided proportionally between the parties. It is noteworthy that the professional fee agreed between a party and its attorney is not reimbursable under Turkish Law.
With regard to costs budgeting, most of the litigation costs are determined by the Code of Fees and Charges and also the secondary tariffs.
With respect to the litigation fees, there are two types of fees exist in Turkish judicial system, one of which is paid for the application to the court and the other one is paid in order for the court to give its decision. Pursuant to the Judicial Fees Tariff 2020, the application and judgement and writ fees are as follows:
| Fixed application fee | TRY 54,40 (or TRY 25,00 for the civil and criminal courts of peace and courts of enforcements)
|
| Proportional application fee | 0,002% of the total amount of the claim |
| Fixed judgement and writ fee | TRY 54,50
|
| Proportional Judgement and writ fee | 0,068% of the total amount of the claim (0,011% for suits of partition and suits for alimony, 0,004% for partition of the immovable) |
| *The amount of both the application fee and the judgement and writ fee depend on the type and/or the total amount of the case. | |
| **Additional application fees and judgement and writ fees shall bear in the case that the decision of the first instance court has been appealed. | |
Regarding the proceeding method, the main method in Turkey is written judgement procedure. In other words, plaintiff and defendant, each have the right to submit two petitions (lawsuit petition, reply petition, replicate, duplicate) during the process of petition exchanging. Following the completion of this process, the trial process begins and during the trial process, it is forbidden to expand the claims and defences. However, plaintiffs have right to adjust their claim for once only during the trial process.
Once the trial process is completed and the first instance court have decided on the case, each party of the case have the right to appeal depending on the type and/or total amount of the case, and demand the file to be examined by the regional courts of appeals and the Turkish Supreme Court of Appeals.