APPEAL AGAINST INSURANCE ARBITRATION COMMISSION DECISIONS

APPEAL AGAINST INSURANCE ARBITRATION COMMISSION DECISIONS

   The Insurance Arbitration Commission is an institution that allows disputes arising from insurance contracts between insurance companies and policyholders to be resolved by arbitrators outside of court proceedings, without a hearing. The decisions of the Insurance Arbitration Commission have the force of a court judgment. As is known, individuals have legal avenues to appeal against court decisions, such as appeal and subsequent cassation. The possibility of appealing against judicial proceedings is crucial for the right to a fair trial. Since the decisions of the Insurance Arbitration Commission are equivalent to court judgments, they should be subject to appeal. This possibility was made possible by the amendment to the Insurance Law on October 18, 2013. Therefore, in order to appeal against the decisions of the Insurance Arbitration Commission, the decision must have been rendered on or after October 18, 2013, because the right to appeal against the decisions of the Insurance Arbitration Commission was opened by the amendment to the Insurance Law that came into effect on that date. Furthermore, the monetary value of the dispute must be 8,000 TL or more; decisions are final for disputes below this value. The appeal must be filed within 10 days of the date the decision is notified to the relevant party. In terms of form, the appeal is completed by submitting the appeal form and application fee to the Commission within the specified period. The application fee varies depending on the monetary value of the dispute. According to the amounts listed on the Insurance Arbitration Commission's website, the application fees are as follows:

• For disputes up to 5,000 TL, the fee is 150 TL
• For amounts between 5,001 TL and 10,000 TL, the rate is 350 TL
• For amounts between 10,001 TL and 30,000 TL, the amount is 500 TL
• For disputes of 30,001 TL and above, the minimum amount must be 500 TL, but it must also be equivalent to one and a half percent of the monetary value of the dispute.

   However, these amounts are from a time when the appeal application limit was 5,000 TL. The appeal application fee was updated to 8,000 TL with the notification regarding the increase in the monetary limit published on 29/04/2022. Nevertheless, the old values ​​may also be useful in giving an approximate idea of ​​the application fee amount.

  If the date of the decision, the monetary limit, and the 10-day appeal period conditions are met, it is now possible to appeal the decision of the Insurance Arbitration Commission. The appeal is reviewed by the Appeals Arbitration Board established by the Commission. The appeal must be decided within 2 months. As a result of the review, the appeal may be rejected or accepted.

IS IT POSSIBLE TO APPEAL AGAINST A DECISION MADE AFTER AN INITIAL APPEAL?

   As previously mentioned, the decisions of the Insurance Arbitration Board are equivalent to court decisions; therefore, the provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure regarding appeal and cassation are applied by analogy for the appeal process. The minimum dispute value limit required for an appeal is also determined according to the appeal and cassation procedures. However, the difference here is that the initial appeal against the Insurance Arbitration Board's decision is made to the Board itself and examined by the Board. This appeal differs from the appeal process against ordinary courts because this stage is not an appeal review; it is not conducted by the court. Appeals against the Board's decision on the appeal are possible through the cassation process. In other words, for Insurance Arbitration Board decisions, the Supreme Court's unification of jurisprudence decision has made them final, and the right to appeal is not open. The Supreme Court justified this by stating that the Code of Civil Procedure does not include arbitration decisions among the disputes that can be appealed. Therefore, an appeal against the Insurance Arbitration Board's decision must first be made to the Board. This appeal is examined by a committee established by the Board and a decision is reached within two months. If a second objection is raised against this decision, it must be pursued directly to the Court of Cassation. For this second objection, the monetary value of the dispute must exceed 107,000 TL. For disputes below this value, the decisions given as a result of the first objection are final. If the amount of the dispute exceeds the 107,000 TL limit, all provisions regarding appeals can be applied.

 However, in exceptional cases, an appeal may be filed even if the monetary value of the dispute does not exceed the foreseen limit of 107,000 TL. These cases are:

Firstly, if a decision is to be made after the 4-month arbitration period has expired,

If the arbitrators decide on something that has not been requested, or fail to decide on the claims,

If an arbitrator makes a decision outside their area of ​​authority, an appeal can be filed without any monetary limit.

  For appeals, there is a two-week period; the appeal must be filed within two weeks of the notification of the decision on the initial appeal. The dispute will be resolved in accordance with all the provisions and procedures relating to appeals.