Divorce case cost estimate (agreed or contested)

How it is calculated

• Court. A divorce case is heard by the family court (aile mahkemesi). It sits with one judge and is of asliye rank (Law No. 4787 art. 2/1); where there is none, the asliye civil court named by the Council of Judges and Prosecutors hears it (art. 2/2). Either way the asliye amounts are paid.
• Agreed and contested. If the marriage has lasted at least a year, it is deemed to be fundamentally shaken when the spouses apply together or one accepts the other’s claim. The judge hears both spouses in person and must be satisfied that they expressed their wishes freely and that the arrangement on the financial consequences and the children is sound (Civil Code (TMK) art. 166/3). In a contested case the judge may not treat the facts as proved unless satisfied that they exist, and weighs the evidence freely (art. 184/1, 184/4). What is paid when the case is filed is the same in both; the difference lies in the later items. An agreed divorce has an arrangement for the judge to hear and approve, so the calculator asks for witnesses only in a contested case.
• Paid when the case is filed. The divorce itself has no money value, so the filing fee and the fixed judgment fee are charged as in any claim without a stated value (Fees Law No. 492, tariff (1) A-I-2 and A-III-2-a). Fixed fees are paid before the step they relate to (art. 27/1). The calculator assumes the judgment fee is paid in full when the case is opened, which is why no balance appears after the judgment.
• Power-of-attorney copy fee (vekâlet suret harcı): charged on the copy of the power of attorney certified by the lawyer (tariff (1) D-I-c). The calculator counts one copy.
• Expense advance (gider avansı): the claimant pays it with the court fees when filing (Code of Civil Procedure (HMK) art. 120/1; Expense Advance Tariff art. 3). It is a number of notification fees for each party, plus a fixed amount for other work (tariff art. 4). The parties are the two spouses. The notification fee is the PTT’s, which is why the calculator asks for it. The unused part is returned once the judgment is final (tariff art. 5/1).
• Items that may fall due later (not in the total). The family court has the inquiry into the causes of the dispute made by the psychologists, pedagogues and social workers assigned to the courthouses by the Ministry of Justice; where they are not available, or another field is needed, employees of public bodies or freelance professionals are used (Law No. 4787 art. 5/1–2). The law does not say whether the parties are charged separately for the court’s own staff; the calculator does not calculate it and takes the number of experts as 0 unless you enter one. The table gives the minimum fee for family, labour and cadastre courts, which the court may raise (Expert Minimum Fee Tariff arts 6, 8). A witness is paid within the range in the table, in proportion to the time lost (HMK art. 265; Witness Fee Tariff art. 3). Each party deposits the amount the court sets for evidence it asks for (HMK arts 324–325).
• Mediation. Law No. 6325 art. 18/B/1 lists the disputes for which applying to a mediator before suing is a condition; divorce is not among them. The calculation therefore has no mediation cost.
• AAÜT minimum (separate line, not in the total). The Minimum Attorney Fee Tariff gives the minimum fee a court sets against the losing side (AAÜT art. 3/1), and a lawyer’s fee cannot be agreed below it (AAÜT art. 1/3; Attorneys Act art. 164/4). The tariff has no separate line for agreed and contested divorce. Because the family court is established with asliye rank (Law No. 4787 art. 2/1), the fixed fee the tariff gives for cases before asliye courts is shown for one side. The fee itself is agreed between lawyer and client (Attorneys Act arts 163–164); the amount in the table is not this office’s fee.
• AAÜT art. 6. If the dispute ends before the preliminary-examination minutes are signed, by mootness, withdrawal, acceptance, settlement or otherwise, half the tariff fee is awarded; if later, the whole of it. The article does not apply to contractual fees calculated by the courts (art. 6/1). It presupposes a dispute that ends. Whether it applies to an agreed divorce, especially one begun by a joint petition, the text does not say, so the calculator applies no reduction and shows the full tariff amount.

What it leaves out

• Maintenance (nafaka), material and moral compensation and other money claims. If they are added to the petition, a judgment fee is charged on their value: for maintenance on one year’s amount (tariff (1) A-III-1-d), for compensation on the value awarded (tariff (1) A-III-1-a). The calculator has no single-rate fee calculation for these, so it covers the divorce itself only. Under the AAÜT, maintenance is likewise valued at one year’s amount (art. 9/1), money claims are charged by the proportional scale, and the fee cannot be below the fixed amount (art. 13/1).
• Fee exemptions (Fees Law art. 13) and legal aid. A legal-aid decision gives temporary exemption from court costs (HMK arts 334–335).
• The reduction of the judgment fee where the claim is withdrawn, accepted or settled (Fees Law art. 22).
• Fees and costs of interim measures, site inspection and appeals (tariff (1) A-I, A-III, A-IV and A-V).
• Travel, accommodation and other costs of experts and witnesses, the higher fee for a legal-person expert, and any increase the court orders.
• Where a spouse lives abroad: the cost of notification abroad and of translation, the cost of a power of attorney made before an official abroad or at a consulate, and the apostille.
• How the court costs are shared between the spouses (HMK art. 326), and the bar’s power-of-attorney stamp (vekâlet pulu, Attorneys Act No. 1136 art. 27).

For related calculations see the court cost calculator and the minimum attorney fee tariff calculator; for the law of divorce itself see family law.