Mediation

Mediation is a voluntary dispute-resolution method conducted with the participation of an impartial and independent third person with specialist training, who brings the parties together to discuss and negotiate, applying systematic techniques, and who establishes a process of communication between them so that they understand one another and thereby produce their own solution.

The mediator is not a decision-maker and cannot impose a solution on the parties. The decision is made by the parties themselves. The mediator's task is to establish the communicative setting in which the parties can generate their own solution.

Mediation as a Condition Precedent to Litigation

In certain disputes, applying to a mediator before filing suit is mandatory by statute. An action filed without first resorting to mediation is dismissed on procedural grounds for absence of a condition of the action.

The principal disputes currently subject to mandatory (condition-precedent) mediation:

• Employment disputes — employee or employer receivables and compensation, and reinstatement claims (Labour Courts Law No. 7036, Art. 3)
• Commercial disputes — claims for receivables and compensation whose subject matter is the payment of a sum of money (Turkish Commercial Code No. 6102, Art. 5/A)
• Consumer disputes (Law No. 6502, Art. 73/A)
• Disputes arising from lease relationships — except the provisions on eviction of leased immovables by way of enforcement without judgment
• Partition of movables and immovables and dissolution of co-ownership
• Disputes arising from the Condominium Law (Law No. 634)
• Disputes arising from neighbour rights

The last four items were brought within the scope of mandatory mediation by the provision added to Law No. 6325 by Law No. 7445. As the scope changes from time to time, the current position must be assessed separately for your specific dispute.

Voluntary Mediation

Even where the law does not make it mandatory, mediation may be resorted to in any private-law dispute over which the parties may freely dispose. Disputes involving an allegation of domestic violence fall outside this scope.

How the Process Works

1. Application. Where mediation is a condition of the action, application is made to the mediation bureau at the courthouse; in voluntary mediation, directly to a mediator chosen by the parties.
2. Appointment and invitation. The mediator contacts the parties and fixes the day and place of the first meeting.
3. Sessions. The parties are heard together or separately. The process is confidential; statements and documents put forward in the sessions cannot be used as evidence in any subsequent action.
4. Outcome. Agreement or non-agreement is recorded in the final minutes.

Legal Force of the Settlement Document

If the parties reach agreement at the end of mediation, no action may be brought on the matters agreed. Where the settlement document is signed jointly by the parties, their lawyers and the mediator, it is deemed a document in the nature of a court judgment, without any need for an enforceability annotation; that is, it may be enforced directly like a court decision.

Applications

For information about the mediation process or to communicate requests concerning the appointment of a mediator, you may use the telephone number or e-mail address on the contact page.