ENFORCEMENT OF JUDGMENTS

ENFORCEMENT OF JUDGMENTS

Court decisions become enforceable once the reasoned judgments are issued. Whether it's a labor court decision or an enforcement court decision, once a decision is made and its reasoned judgment appears in the UYAP system, enforcement proceedings can be initiated with that judgment.

In enforcement proceedings, particularly in summary execution cases, the enforcement process will be halted when an objection is raised against the debt. The creditor will then need to pursue the annulment or removal of the objection. If this is done, a case will be heard and a decision will be issued. This decision will be a judgment. However, the judgment does not need to be final before enforcement can begin. It is necessary to wait for the reasoned judgment. With the reasoned judgment, enforcement can then proceed through the enforcement office. It is important to note that the case, initially filed as summary execution, has now become a legal case because the objection was challenged or removed. As a result of this legal process, the debt will be decided by a judicial authority, and this summary execution has now transformed into a judgment-based execution, allowing for enforcement proceedings.

At this point, the judgment will no longer be enforced automatically. Enforcement will be carried out through the enforcement office following the court decision. As mentioned above, final judgments are not required for enforcement; only the reasoned judgment document is sufficient. The necessary step at this point is to submit this reasoned judgment document (the judgment) along with the enforcement request and costs to the enforcement office.

At this point, a new concept, the request for enforcement, will attract our attention. What does this request for enforcement mean? This request for enforcement requires filling out Form 4-5 of the Enforcement Request, provided in the Annexes of the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law Regulation. The items to be filled in this request for enforcement will be the CLAIM ITEMS written in the judgment. It is very important that no items different from those in the judgment are included in the request for enforcement. Otherwise, when the request for enforcement and the reasoned judgment are compared, the enforcement office will not fulfill your request.

Regarding the items in the enforcement request; the principal amount, legal interest, (if applicable, 20% enforcement denial or bad faith compensation), (if applicable, 10% signature denial compensation), attorney's fees (if any), court costs, expert witness fees (if an expert examination has been conducted) must be filled in within the enforcement request. The matters that need to be included in the enforcement request will be clearly stipulated in the reasoned judgment document.

What happens if there is already an enforcement proceeding related to the debt in question? In this case, the judgment issued after the lawsuit in the enforcement court MUST AGAIN BE HEARD IN THE ENFORCEMENT OFFICE WHERE THE PREVIOUS ENFORCEMENT PROCEEDINGS WERE INITIATED. To explain with an example, let's say an objection was raised against an enforcement request from the Istanbul 1st Enforcement Office. Let's say a lawsuit regarding the lifting or cancellation of the objection was heard in the Istanbul 5th Enforcement Court, and a reasoned decision (judgment) was obtained from this court. At this point, the enforcement of this judgment will be related to the content of the enforcement proceeding. In other words, the process MUST CONTINUE WITH THE SAME FILE NUMBER AND IN THE SAME ENFORCEMENT OFFICE. Therefore, the reasoned judgment (ruling), the request for enforcement (Examples 4-5), and the relevant expenses must be submitted to the Istanbul 1st Enforcement Office, based on the file number under which the case is being heard. There is a fee of 42 TL for the enforcement of judgments in 2022. The process will then proceed with the enforcement of the judgment.

It is also worth mentioning a point regarding the content of the enforcement request (examples 4-5). References are made to Articles 30 and 343 of the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law regarding the content of the judgment. In this regard, the issue of granting the opposing party a REASONABLE TIME for the execution of the relevant judgment is regulated. If the judgment cannot be executed within a reasonable time, a coercive imprisonment of up to 3 months may be ordered. There is no legal limit on the reasonable time. The plaintiff can write a period of time of their choosing for the execution of the judgment in the enforcement request. If this period is not written, the enforcement office will give a reasonable period according to the nature of the case. However, leaving this to the discretion of the enforcement office may cause delays in the execution of the process. This point should be noted.