Turkish court summons and petitions (tebligat, dava dilekçesi) translation

What arrives from a Turkish court

Service of court documents in Türkiye is governed by the Notification Law No. 7201 (Tebligat Kanunu), and the envelope that reaches you in the UK usually holds several distinct papers. The service slip (tebliğ mazbatası) is the form on which the postal officer or consular clerk records the date and manner of delivery, often by hand. The summons (davetiye) gives the hearing date and warns of the consequences of not attending. The statement of claim (dava dilekçesi) sets out the claimant's case with a list of evidence, and may be accompanied by the court's preliminary minutes (tensip zaptı), which fix the deadlines, an interim order (ara karar), or an expert report (bilirkişi raporu). From an enforcement office (icra dairesi) comes a payment order (ödeme emri), which is not a judgment but starts a strict objection period. A notice from a notary (ihtarname) is not a court document but is served in the same way.

Papers reach people in the UK by three routes: through the Ministry of Justice under the 1965 Hague Service Convention, through the Turkish consulate for Turkish citizens, or, for companies and lawyers, through the national electronic notification system (UETS). In each case the clock starts on the date shown on the service slip, and the periods are short: two weeks to file a defence in a civil claim, seven days to object to a payment order, two weeks to appeal. We translate every page, including the handwritten service annotations, and we add a clearly marked translator's note listing the service date and each deadline stated in the papers, without adding any advice.

Why you need it translated in the UK

• To act in time. You cannot instruct a Turkish lawyer, or decide not to, without knowing what is claimed and by when. Our page on Turkish court cases while living in the UK explains the practical steps.
• UK solicitors and courts. Turkish proceedings are relevant to a UK case when the same dispute is running in both countries, for example a divorce started in Ankara and in London, a children case, or an application to stay a claim. The translated summons and petition show the court, the parties and the date the Turkish case began.
• Home Office. Protection claims rely on indictments, summonses and petitions as evidence of prosecution or persecution, and an outstanding case has to be explained in a settlement application. That evidence is discussed under translations for asylum and humanitarian protection claims.

What the translation must contain

Where the papers are filed in a UK court, paragraph 23.2 of Practice Direction 32, quoted below, applies: the foreign-language document is filed with the translation, and the translator signs and certifies its accuracy. Our certificate does so and carries our company details, which also satisfies the Home Office. Parties are rendered consistently as claimant (davacı) and defendant (davalı), the served person as addressee (muhatap), and a peremptory deadline (kesin süre) is called exactly that, because missing one has consequences that a softer word would hide.

Details that decide cases

The service slip is the most important page and the easiest to overlook, since it looks like a postal form. It shows whether the papers were handed to you, to a relative at the same address, or left with the consulate, and each of these has a different legal effect on when service is deemed complete. Petitions cite statutes by abbreviation (HMK, TMK, İİK) and we expand each once. Headers such as T.C. ANKARA 5. ASLİYE HUKUK MAHKEMESİ are translated in full with the court number kept. Dates in the Turkish day-month-year order are written out so that a UK reader cannot reverse them. Nothing in these papers is apostilled; they are working documents in a live case.

Price and turnaround

A summons with a statement of claim is 3 to 6 pages of 1,000 characters, £30.00 to £60.00; an expert report can exceed 10 pages. Certification costs nothing extra, and we add no UK VAT. Because these papers carry deadlines we give them priority: the fast option returns a summons the same day when it reaches us before 11:00 UK time, and standard delivery is 1 to 2 working days. A hard copy by courier from Ankara is £30, though for court papers the PDF is what your lawyer needs. There is no UK office and no collection.