MANDATORY MEDIATION

The party who wants to file a lawsuit has to complete the process called "mediation" before filing some lawsuits within the framework of the regulations introduced in our legislation since 01/01/2018. With the final report to be kept regarding these meetings, only if the process is completed negatively, the applicant party will be able to file a lawsuit.

From 01/01/2018 to the Labor Law; With the regulations introduced in the Commercial Code as of 01/01/2019, lawsuits are filed in "worker receivables and compensations and reemployment lawsuits" and "all lawsuits specified in Article 4 of the Turkish Commercial Code and other laws and the subject of which requires the payment of an amount of money". The party wishing to open a dispute must first resort to mediation. In addition, the Law No. 7251 on the Amendment of Civil Procedures and Certain Laws (“Law”), published in the Official Gazette on 28/07/2020, and the Law No. 6502 on the Protection of the Consumer (“Law on the Protection of the Consumer”), “Case requirement “Mediation as mediation” and “73/A” article were added. With this article, applying to a mediator before filing a lawsuit in consumer disputes, which is the monetary limit of 10,390 TL and above, has become a condition of lawsuit.

If the lawsuit to be filed by the plaintiff party is within the scope of mediation, he/she will apply to the mediation office in the court where the lawsuit will be filed first and fill out a form containing their demands. Subsequently, an independent mediator is appointed for the relevant application and he is notified.

After the mediator accepts the file assigned to him, he will call the parties to learn about the issue, determine the first session day and place and invite the parties. The mediator will try to bring the parties together on the meeting days determined throughout the process, to reveal their interests and to enable them to put forward their own solutions. At the point where it sees that the parties cannot produce a solution, it will be able to bring its own solution proposal. However, the mediator is not a judge and cannot decide on the dispute; it also cannot provide legal advice to the parties. The task of the mediator is only to bring the parties together, to provide a negotiation environment and to prepare the minutes containing all the demands of the parties and the points of agreement, if any.

If the parties come to an agreement as a result of mediation, 6% of the amount up to a certain amount will be paid equally by the parties unless otherwise agreed. However, in case of disagreement, the state will pay the first 2 hours' wage, and the parties pay the amount exceeding this hour equally, unless otherwise agreed.

If an agreement is reached as a result of mediation, the minutes signed jointly by the parties and/or their lawyers and the mediator have the force of a court decision. If the parties do not fulfill the terms of the agreement, they have the right to enforce this final report, provided that they apply to the court and obtain an annotation of enforceability.

The plaintiff may file a lawsuit if the condition of the lawsuit has gone to mediation, attended the meetings, and if a settlement has not been reached in the end, in this case. The plaintiff will file his case with the mediation final report, which includes the issue of disagreement. If the last minute is not added to the file while filing a lawsuit, the judge will give a definite period of one week. If the report is still not attached at the end of this period, the case will be dismissed procedural. However, if the plaintiff has never resorted to mediation, the judge will reject the case directly on the procedural basis and the case will be deemed not to have been filed.