The five things you actually pay for
A Turkish matter is quoted as one number and paid as five. Separating them is the single most useful thing you can do before signing anything.
| Component | Who sets it | Paid to |
|---|---|---|
| Court fees (harç) | Statute — Law of Fees No. 492; largely proportional to the value claimed | The state |
| Expense advance (gider avansı) | The annual tariff issued under the Code of Civil Procedure No. 6100 | The court file |
| Expert and discovery costs | The court, when it appoints an expert (bilirkişi) or orders a site visit | The court file |
| Documents: translation, apostille, notary | Third parties and official tariffs | Translator, notary, foreign authority |
| The lawyer's fee | Agreed in writing, above the Bar's minimum tariff | Your lawyer |
The lawyer's fee: what the law fixes, and what is negotiable
Turkish law does not leave legal fees entirely to the market, and knowing where the boundaries sit protects you in both directions.
- There is a floor, not a ceiling. Under the Attorneys' Act No. 1136, a fee below the Minimum Attorney Fee Tariff cannot be agreed. The tariff is prepared each year by the Union of Turkish Bar Associations, approved by the Ministry of Justice and published in the Official Gazette. A firm quoting below it is not offering you a bargain; it is offering you something the Act does not permit.
- A percentage fee is allowed, up to a limit. The Act permits a fee agreed as a percentage of the value of the case or of the sum awarded, not exceeding 25%. It also forbids agreeing that part of the disputed property or rights themselves — as opposed to money — will pass to the lawyer.
- Put it in writing. The Act contemplates a fee agreement that identifies the specific legal service and its amount or value. An unwritten agreement is not void, but it has to be proved under the general rules — which is a problem you do not want on top of your actual case.
- The fee your opponent is ordered to pay is a different number. When you win, the court awards attorney's costs against the losing side calculated from the tariff. That award belongs to the fee relationship set out in the Act; it is not a refund of what you agreed to pay your own lawyer, and it is rarely the same figure.
Court fees are calculated from your claim, not from the work
This is the part foreign clients most often misjudge. In a monetary claim the fees are proportional: an application fee, an advance portion of the decision fee paid when the case is filed, and the balance of the decision fee at the end. Raise the amount you claim and the fee rises with it. Two consequences follow, and both are practical rather than legal:
- Claiming an optimistic figure is not free. It is paid for at the front, in proportional fees you may not recover.
- Where the law allows a claim to be filed for part of the amount first, the up-front fee is smaller — but that choice has its own consequences and belongs in the strategy conversation, not the invoice conversation.
Alongside the fees, the expense advance covers service of documents, notifications, witness and expert costs. It is paid into the file, spent by the court as the case runs, and topped up when it is exhausted. Money left over at the end is returned.
What a foreigner pays that a Turkish party does not
Four costs attach to the fact that you, your documents or your judgment come from outside Türkiye.
| Cost | When it applies |
|---|---|
| Security for costs (teminat) | Under the Private International Law Act No. 5718, a foreign natural or legal person who brings a case, joins one, or starts enforcement proceedings in Türkiye must post security fixed by the court for the costs and for the other side's possible damages. The court exempts you where reciprocity applies — which is why the treaty position between Türkiye and your country is a cost question, not only a procedural one. |
| Sworn translation | Every foreign-language document filed with a Turkish court or registry needs a sworn translation, in most cases notarised. This is charged per page and adds up quickly on a document-heavy file. |
| Apostille or consular legalisation | Obtained in the country that issued the document — never from inside Türkiye. Budget for the foreign authority's own fee and for courier time. |
| Power of attorney | Issued at a Turkish consulate abroad, or before a local notary with an apostille and then translated. The consular route usually costs less; the notary-plus-apostille route is usually faster. |
Why two matters that sound identical are quoted differently
When a fee proposal for what sounds like the same job differs from one firm to another, it is usually one of these, not a difference in appetite:
- Whether the other side will contest. An uncontested enforcement proceeding and a contested one are different pieces of work with the same name.
- The document position. A file that arrives complete, apostilled and translated is not the file that arrives as photographs of a contract in a language nobody has certified.
- Whether an expert report is likely. Valuation, construction defect, accounting and medical questions usually mean an expert stage, and expert stages set the length of the case.
- Number of parties and where they are. Service on a defendant abroad runs on a different clock from service in Istanbul.
- Whether interim protection is needed. A precautionary attachment at the start changes the work and the security you must post — and often decides whether winning is worth anything.
What we do, and what we will not do
We put the fee basis in writing before work begins, we tell you which parts of the cost are ours and which are the state's, and we say when a matter is not worth pursuing at the cost it will take. We do not quote a figure for a matter we have not read, and we do not publish prices — a fee that is quoted before anyone has seen your documents is a guess with a number on it.
Send your documents for a fee proposal
The statutes named here are the Attorneys' Act No. 1136, the Law of Fees No. 492, the Code of Civil Procedure No. 6100 and the Private International Law and Procedure Act No. 5718. Tariffs and fee amounts are set annually and change; the figures that apply are the ones in force when your matter is filed. This page is general information about how costs are structured, not advice on your matter and not a quotation.
