Debt Collection Litigation Process

Regarding the litigation process, the jurisdiction for a debt action varies depending on the type of debt. If the debt arises from a business relationship, the action must be conducted before the courts. If the debt arises from a general legal relationship, the courts of jurisdiction will be the courts of first instance. A consumer-seller relationship will have jurisdiction in consumer courts, while a commercial relationship will have jurisdiction in commercial courts of first instance. The litigation process must be initiated by a Turkish lawyer. Furthermore, a power of attorney document (“PoA”) must be given to the lawyer. If the applicant's country is a party to the Hague Convention, the competent authority requires that the PoA be apostilled after being obtained from the relevant authorities; if not, the competent authority requires that it be certified by the consulate after being obtained from the Turkish authorities or relevant authorities. The filing of a debt action grants the claimant provisional measures that make the case more advantageous than enforcement proceedings. Firstly, the claimant will have the right to request provisional attachment of the debtor's movable and immovable property, along with rights and claims held by third parties. The second remedy is to request preliminary compensation to be placed on the Defendant's movable and immovable property to restrict the Debtor from selling and/or transferring it to third parties in any way until the transaction is completed. In any case, the court must be convinced by demonstrating the necessity of such provisional measure. If the debt action results in a favorable outcome for the Plaintiff, the decision may be directly enforceable against the debtor. In the event of non-payment of the debt, the Claimant will have the right to initiate the enforcement procedure by having the decision made before the enforcement authority. The enforcement procedure in the litigation process is as follows: The Plaintiff informs the claim by sending an enforcement order (called a payment order in enforcement proceedings without a litigation process) based on the court decision in its favor. If the Debtor does not object to the claim within 7 days from the date of the claim; the case, and therefore the alleged debt, becomes final, and for such a transaction, the Plaintiff may bring a litigation action against the immovable property, real estate and other rights (including the debtors' shares in a company in Türkiye) and the debtor's receivables. If the debtor objects to the enforcement order, this objection does not cause the process to continue. Furthermore, the grounds for objection are limited compared to the grounds for objecting to the enforcement order. The debtor may base their objection on the following:

1. Limitation
2. The plaintiff gave the debtor time
3. The debt has been collected.

Finally, as mentioned above, the Plaintiff's second option is to initiate enforcement proceedings before the enforcement office without a decision. Following this, the enforcement office prepares a payment order and presents it to the debtor. If the debtor does not object to the payment order within 7 days (the objection period is 5 days if the debt is in foreign currency), it becomes final after the date of service. Consequently, the Plaintiff will have the right to initiate seizure proceedings in court, as in the enforcement proceedings mentioned above. If the debtor objects to the payment order, the enforcement decision is not considered a possibility in the proceedings. In this case, the Plaintiff must file a lawsuit within 6 months before the enforcement court for the temporary/permanent removal of the objection or within 1 year before the first instance civil/commercial court for the annulment of the objection. This 6-month period is the prescription period. In other words, if the Plaintiff does not file a lawsuit within a certain period, they will permanently lose the right to claim. Conversely, the enforcement proceedings will not be annulled; the Plaintiff has the right to request the annulment of the objection within 1 year. However, the enforcement proceedings will be cancelled after the expiration of the aforementioned one-year period. If you would like more information on this matter, you can contact our experienced personnel from promissory note lawyers You can provide consulting services.