How Malpractice Compensation Is Calculated in Turkey

When medical negligence causes injury or death, the legal system cannot reverse the physical damage. Instead, it offers a financial remedy designed to restore the victim's economic status and acknowledge their suffering.

In Turkish law, whether you are suing under Administrative Law (for state hospitals) or Private Law (for private clinics), the compensation is strictly categorized into Material Compensation (Maddi Tazminat) and Moral Compensation (Manevi Tazminat). Understanding how these are calculated is essential for managing expectations in a malpractice lawsuit.

Key Takeaways

• The heads of loss are fixed by statute: Turkish Code of Obligations (Türk Borçlar Kanunu, Law No. 6098) article 53 on a death, article 54 on a bodily injury.

• Article 55 bars the judge from adjusting an actuarial figure on equitable grounds, and bars deducting social security payments that cannot be recovered from the wrongdoer by way of recourse.

• Since 31 July 2026, interest on loss-of-earning-capacity and loss-of-support awards runs from the incident only for the period in which earnings are known; for the projected years, from the judgment.

• Deadlines split by defendant: against private providers two and ten years in tort, but five years on the contract under article 147/5; against state hospitals one and five years plus a prior application.

Material Compensation: Restoring Financial Balance

Material compensation aims to cover the actual financial losses incurred due to the medical error. The goal is to put the victim in the financial position they would have been in had the error never occurred.

Based on the Turkish Code of Obligations (BK) and relevant court precedents, actionable claims include:

• Treatment Expenses: Any costs paid to correct the error, including surgeries, medication, and rehabilitation.

• Loss of Earnings (Temporary): If the patient cannot work during recovery, they can claim the income lost during this period.

• Loss of Workforce (Permanent Disability): If the malpractice results in a permanent disability (e.g., loss of a limb or organ function), the court calculates the "loss of work power" (iş göremezlik). This is an actuarial calculation projecting lost future earnings over the victim's remaining active life.

• Damage to Economic Future: Article 54 adds the shaking of one's economic future (ekonomik geleceğin sarsılması), for the claimant whose capacity is intact on paper but who is now harder to employ.

• Caregiver Fees: If the victim requires permanent assistance (e.g., a child born with cerebral palsy due to negligence), the cost of a caregiver (bakıcı ücreti) is recoverable.

• Loss of Support (Destekten Yoksun Kalma): If the malpractice results in death, the deceased's dependents (spouse, children) can sue for the financial support they will no longer receive .

Expert Calculation: Courts do not guess these numbers. They rely on expert witness reports (Bilirkişi)—often from the Forensic Medicine Institute—to determine the exact percentage of disability and fault.

How the number is actually built

Expert evidence is ordered under article 266 of the Code of Civil Procedure (Law No. 6100), only where the question needs knowledge outside law. A malpractice file therefore runs on two reports: a medical board — often a specialisation board of the Council of Forensic Medicine (Adli Tıp Kurumu) — fixes the fault ratio and the disability percentage, and an actuarial expert converts it into money across the claimant's remaining active working life. Article 55 then bars the judge from adjusting the result because the total feels high or low, and applies the same method to administrative claims, so a state hospital claim is valued like a private one.

Deductions are controlled too. Social security payments that cannot be recovered from the liable party by way of recourse do not come off the loss. Sums genuinely paid towards the claim before the evidentiary stage are deducted proportionally, by their payment date rather than face value years later. Article 52 cuts the other way, letting the judge reduce damages where the patient consented, contributed to the loss or made it worse.

Moral Compensation: The Price of Suffering

Moral compensation is more abstract. It is designed to compensate for the pain, sorrow, and reduction in the joy of living caused by the doctor's error.

However, Turkish courts strictly adhere to the principle that moral compensation is not a penalty, nor is it a mechanism for enrichment .

How is it calculated?

Judges have significant discretion here, but they must follow objective criteria set by the Supreme Court (Yargıtay):

• Fault Ratio: How much was the doctor to blame versus the patient's own condition or potential complications? .

• Severity of Harm: A permanent scar on the face warrants higher damages than a temporary injury.

• Socioeconomic Status: The court considers the financial standing of both parties to ensure the amount is significant enough to be felt by the defendant but not exorbitant .

Case Study Example: In a laser epilation case where a patient suffered burns, the court ruled that even if the physical damage wasn't life-threatening, the "sadness and suffering" caused by the aesthetic damage justified moral compensation .

Who else may claim

Article 56 has two paragraphs. The first covers the injured patient; the second allows an award to relatives, but only where the bodily harm was severe or the patient died. After a moderate injury a spouse has no separate claim; after a death, the claim is theirs and is brought in their own name.

The interest clock: when does it start?

In long-running cases, legal interest (yasal faiz) becomes a large share of the payout.

The rule for incidents on or after 31 July 2026

Article 55 of the Code of Obligations, as amended by Law No. 7589, now splits the award. On the part covering the period in which the claimant's — or the deceased supporter's — earnings are known, interest runs from the wrongful act. On the projected future years it runs only from the judgment, so a late-filed claim no longer accrues interest across the whole future stream.

Check your incident date before relying on this. The new interest regime applies only to wrongful acts and damage-causing events occurring after 31 July 2026. If the negligence you are complaining of happened before that date — which is the case for most claims being prepared in 2026 — your file continues under the previous version of Article 55 and the established case law, where interest on the whole award has generally run from the date of the wrongful act. Getting this wrong changes the figure materially in a claim that took years to reach judgment.

Claims against state hospitals

Against a public hospital the claim is a full-remedy action (tam yargı davası) in the administrative courts, preceded by a written application to the administration under article 13 of the Administrative Procedure Law (Law No. 2577). Council of State practice has long tied interest to the date of that application rather than to the incident. Whether the new split start date displaces it is unsettled: article 55/2 applies the Code of Obligations to claims arising from every kind of administrative act and action, which on its face carries the new rule into full-remedy actions too, but no settled case law has formed yet.

What rate applies

Legal interest is no longer a fixed percentage. Since 31 July 2026, article 1 of Law No. 3095 sets it at 80 percent of the short-term rediscount rate applied by the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye on 31 December of the preceding year, with a reset on 30 June if that rate moves by five points or more. Compounding is prohibited.

Deadlines that decide whether you recover anything

Against a private doctor, clinic or hospital two limitation regimes run side by side, and you may rely on whichever is still open. In tort, article 72 gives two years from the day the injured person learns of both the damage and the person liable, and ten years in any event from the act; where the conduct is also a crime with a longer limitation period, that longer period governs the claim. In contract, the Court of Cassation settled long ago that the patient's relationship with a doctor or a private hospital is a mandate (vekâlet), so article 147/5 gives five years running from the medical intervention itself — the period that also applies where the file belongs to the consumer courts. Where the treatment is instead classed as a contract for work (eser), typically aesthetic or dental work promising a defined result, article 478 is argued to stretch that to twenty years if the provider was grossly at fault. A claim that looks dead on the tort clock is therefore often still alive on the contractual one.

Against a state hospital the clock is shorter. Article 13 of Law No. 2577 requires an application to the authority within one year of learning of the action, and within five years of the action itself. A refusal, or thirty days of silence, opens the sixty-day filing period under article 7. If you sued in the civil courts and lost on jurisdiction, article 13/2 excuses that application.

Filing after the July 2026 procedural reform

Malpractice claims used to be filed as indeterminate-claim actions (belirsiz alacak davası), because the figure is unknowable before the expert reports land. Law No. 7589 repealed article 107 of the Code of Civil Procedure, which housed that device. Article 109/4 replaces it: a partial claim may be increased once, free of the prohibition on extending claims, up to the close of evidence, with limitation interrupted from the filing date for the increased part too.

Who you sue matters as much. Doctors in public hospitals are not sued personally for their medical acts; the claim goes against the administration, which may seek recourse later. Since 2022, Ek Madde 18 of Law No. 3359 routes criminal investigations of health professionals through a permission procedure before the Ministry of Health's Professional Liability Board. Ek Madde 12 of Law No. 1219 makes liability insurance compulsory, so an insurer usually stands behind the defendant. Where the claim falls to the consumer courts, mediation is a precondition to filing (Law No. 6502 art. 73/A).

What the claim costs, and how long it runs

The proportional judgment fee (karar ve ilam harcı) in the civil courts is 68.31 per thousand — 6.831 percent — of the amount actually awarded by the judgment; the advance instalment payable on filing is the one calculated on the amount claimed. Article 28 of the Law on Fees (Law No. 492) normally requires a quarter of it in advance, but in damages claims brought for death or bodily injury the advance drops to one twentieth — which is why a large malpractice claim can be filed without a prohibitive deposit. Budget separately for the application fee, expert panel fees and sworn translation of foreign records, which usually need an apostille.

On timing, article 147/3, in force since 31 July 2026, provides that hearings may not be more than three months apart unless the judge sets a longer interval with reasons — usually a lengthy expert examination. Article 76 of the Turkish Code of Obligations (Law No. 6098) — not of the procedural code — allows an interim payment (geçici ödeme) where the claimant produces convincing evidence supporting the claim and his financial position also requires it. On liability itself, see our guide on suing a hospital in Turkey.

Common questions about malpractice compensation in Turkey

What is the difference between material and moral compensation in Turkey?

Material compensation restores your finances: treatment costs, lost earnings, lost earning capacity, caregiver costs and, on a death, loss of support. Moral compensation answers the pain and sorrow. One is calculated by an actuary, the other set by the judge.

How does the court calculate damages for a permanent disability?

A medical board fixes the disability percentage and the fault ratio; an actuarial expert projects the earnings you will lose over your remaining active working life. Article 55 bars the judge from adjusting that figure because it looks high or low.

Does the legal interest on the compensation start immediately?

Not across the whole award. Since 31 July 2026 it runs from the incident only for the period in which earnings are known, and from the judgment for the projected period. Against a state hospital, practice has taken the application to the administration as the reference point, though whether the new split rule reaches full-remedy actions through article 55/2 is still unsettled.

Can I claim if a doctor failed to diagnose a birth defect?

The workable ground is not that a child is a "damage" but that you were not informed. Article 70 of Law No. 1219 requires consent for every procedure, in writing for major surgery. A failure to inform that removes your ability to decide is a breach in itself.

Is moral compensation used to punish the doctor financially?

No. It is neither a penalty nor a route to enrichment. The judge sets it by the fault ratio, the severity of the harm and the position of both parties, so the sum is felt without being punitive.

Do I have to travel to Türkiye to run the case?

Usually not. The claim runs under a power of attorney issued at a Turkish consulate or before a notary abroad with an apostille, and article 149 of the Code of Civil Procedure lets a party or lawyer join a hearing by video link on request.

No two malpractice files produce the same number. What can be settled in advance is which deadline governs, which defendant is right and which head of loss your facts support — answers that usually decide the case before an expert is appointed.

This guide is general information on Turkish law, not legal advice on your own matter. Rules and practice change; check the position before you act.