What is Tort Law and How is It Defined in Turkey?

Tort law in Turkey is defined as any action that regards civil suits. Civil court claims usually belong within the scope of tort law. In other words, tort law definition can be summed up as the law that provides compensation to the victims of different kinds of wrongdoings, usually in the form of financial compensation.

In the continuation of this text, we will explain it to you in detail to the subject of tort law and provide some tort law examples. With examples, it might be easy to answer the “What is a tort action?” question. However, if you are reading this article because you think you are eligible to sue for tort law in Turkey, you should consult expert attorneys at Istanbul Lawyer Firm about this situation. Since tort law is hard to define, it might be important to examine the specific case carefully.

Who Can Sue in Tort Law?

Generally, there are two parties involved in such cases. One is the wrongdoer, which is the person that causes the tort actions, and the other is the victim, who is “injured” or “hurt” due to such actions. Some of the tort law examples that can be deemed as tort actions are assault, damage to property, infliction of emotional stress, and battery. To sum up, tort law in Turkey mostly deals with the issue of legal liability.

In such cases, the defendant is typically the sued person, who is taken to the court because of the wrongdoing. Therefore, the victim of the action can sue. Although generally it is accepted that everyone can be sued and sue for tort actions, certain conditions need to be met for the legal case.

Conditions for Tort

Tort law in Turkey defines four conditions that are supposed to be met for the case to be legitimate. This means that if your specific case does not fall into any of these categories, you cannot be eligible to sue for tort. This means that these conditions are the guidelines by which someone can or cannot sue a wrongdoer.

However, even if you think your case does not fit into these conditions, you can still consult a lawyer in Istanbul Lawyer Firm to fully understand your legal rights in certain situations. Since tort law is hard to define completely, your case might still be legitimate.

Causation in Tort Law

Tort law in Turkey states that the action can only be sued if the harm comes from the wrongdoer’s misconduct. This means that there must be causation for the action to be deemed as a tort action. Therefore, a direct causal link is vital for the case. If you are not sure about the causation of your case, then it is important to note that the causation can be discussed with the lawyer.

Damages in Tort Law

According to tort law in Turkey, damages can be either material or moral. For instance, damage to private property usually falls in the scope of material damage. Moral damage, on the other hand, deals with immaterial damages such as the purposeful infliction of emotional damage. Both damages can be compensated in court.

Negligence in Tort Law

Negligence is defined as the direct ground for liability according to tort law in Turkey. To understand whether negligence has taken place in a certain situation, the first thing to do is to check the mental state of the defendant. This is because only persons who can take certain responsibilities can be negligent.

Acts Against Law in Tort Law

One of the conditions in tort law in Turkey is an unlawful act. This means that a case can only be sued for if it is “unlawful” according to Turkish Law in general. However, this can be a tricky subject because “unlawful” is usually a hard adjective to define. Therefore, effective communication with a competent lawyer is needed.

Statute of Limitation of Tort

Tort actions are usually limited by a timeframe. This means that according to tort law in Turkey, claiming compensation for a certain tort action can only be possible if the legal case is prepared within a certain amount of time. To find out about the timeframe of your case, it might come in handy to speak with your attorney.

Compensation in Tort Law

Civil cases about tort law in Turkey are usually dealt with in two stages. In the first stage, it is decided whether the act falls under tort law in Turkey, and the damage is assessed in detail. The second stage directly comes from the latter, in that, it is at this stage that the amount of compensation is decided according to the amount of damage. As mentioned above, the decision is generally in the form of monetary compensation.

In short, tort law in Turkey defines certain unlawful actions that are in a direct causal relationship with the misconduct as suitable. Tort law is usually about liability; therefore, negligence is also at play. This means that there are too many details to be considered within this subject of law. Thus, it might be useful for you to consult a lawyer about your specific case before deciding what to do. Attorneys who are experts in tort law in Turkey are always at your service at Istanbul Lawyer Firm.

You can read our previous article at /blog/severance-pay-in-turkey