Legal proceedings in Turkish Law

1)First instance (payment order from bailif’s office)
•Without judgment (The proceedings that do not require a prior judgement-verdict)”
•With judgment (The proceedings when claimant has a prior judgement-verdict)
If obtained in foreign country, claimant should apply for; recognition and execution of foreign title

2nd Instance (lawsuit)

2) Second instance (lawsuit)GENERAL INFORMATION ON THE FIRST INSTANCE
•Bailiff office sends a “payment order” to the debtor.
•Bailiff office sends the payment order to the address of the debtor which is provided by the creditor or otherwise the official address of the debtor. Even when debtor doesn’t receive the order personally, the second notification to the official address will be deemed as a valid notification and the time period for objection starts.
•If the debtor objects the debt within 7 days after the payment order is served then the proceedings stop.

First instance without an objection
•If the debtor doesn’t object the payment order or misses the timeframe of objection and doesn’t pay the debt, enforcement can be initiated. The debtor’s properties can be confiscated and put op for execution/selling.
•Execution proceeding enables to collect the receivables without court order and reach a solution without carrying the issue to the court when debtor doesn’t object. It is faster, and more result oriented.
•When there is no objection from the debtor it usually takes about 2-4 months to start enforcement.

LAWSUIT (ACTION FOR ANNULMENT OF OBJECTION)
•If the debtor has objected the claim within the given timeframe which is 7 days then the payment order send from the bailiff’s office needs to be cancelled.•In order to restart the enforcement procedures, the creditor has to initiate a lawsuit for theannulmentof the objection. (Second instance)•This lawsuit usually takes about 1-2 years.

PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION
•A preliminary injunction is an extraordinary way of enforcement. In this way, before the execution proceedings start, the creditor can apply to the court and the enforcement procedures can start without sending the payment order to the debtor, on condition that 15% of the debt is deposited as warranty.•This is the way used mostly for the cases with high balances and when there is a risk the debtor will liquify assets.

Comparison of the two ways:
•The first instance is much faster than the 2nd instance
•The first instance is cheaper than the 2nd instance
•The first instance in Turkey are executed by Bailiff offices, which are state owned
•The first instance can be initiated without too much hassle, no specific documents needed or proof of the claim, however for a Lawsuit the claimant should have all the necessary documents to prove the claim.•Therefore, the payment order is mostly preferable as a first stage to proceed debt collection in an legal approach.