Lawyer in Antalya, Turkey – Legal Services for Foreigners
Şehap Law & Mediation Office is a law firm based in Muratpaşa, Antalya, working in Turkish law since 2007. We advise foreign individuals and businesses on criminal, property, inheritance, family, commercial and compensation matters, and correspondence can be conducted in English.
Foreign nationals encounter Turkish law in a limited number of recurring situations. Someone who owns an apartment in Antalya faces a title deed problem or a dispute with a developer. A family inherits property in Türkiye from a relative who lived here. A resident goes through a divorce with an international element. A visitor is named as a suspect after an incident on holiday. A company sells to a Turkish counterparty and is not paid. Each of these follows a different procedure, in a different court, with different time limits.
This page sets out the main areas in which those questions arise, what the Turkish procedure generally looks like, and where to find more detailed guidance on this site. It is written for people who are trying to work out what kind of problem they have and what happens next — not as a substitute for advice on a specific file.
Legal services for foreigners in Antalya
Our office works across the areas of Turkish law that most often affect foreign clients in Antalya. The sections below describe each area and, where a detailed guide exists on this site, link to it.
Criminal law and criminal proceedings
Criminal matters move faster than any other kind of case and the first hours matter disproportionately. Turkish criminal procedure separates the investigation phase, led by a public prosecutor, from the trial phase before a court. Rights that apply from the moment of apprehension — to counsel, to silence, to an interpreter, and for foreign nationals to consular notification — are set out in the Code of Criminal Procedure (Law No. 5271).
Our detailed guide for a criminal lawyer in Antalya covers police questioning, detention and judicial control, travel restrictions, the criminal courts in Antalya, and the offences most often involving foreign nationals. Three companion guides deal with arrest and detention, the step-by-step course of proceedings, and criminal allegations against visitors.
Property and real estate law
Antalya has one of the largest concentrations of foreign-owned property in Türkiye, and property questions are correspondingly common. Typical matters include purchases and the contractual arrangements preceding them, title deed disputes, disagreements over ownership shares, problems with developers and off-plan purchases, and disputes between co-owners of a single property.
Turkish property litigation has a jurisdictional rule that surprises many foreign owners: for claims concerning rights in rem over immovable property, the court where the property is located has exclusive jurisdiction. A dispute over an apartment in Antalya is heard in Antalya, regardless of where the parties live. Property disputes are also frequently accompanied by criminal complaints, which run on a separate track.
Inheritance law in Türkiye
Where a person leaves assets in Türkiye, Turkish succession procedure applies to those assets and must be completed before they can be transferred or sold. The usual sequence involves establishing who the heirs are, obtaining a certificate of inheritance, identifying the estate, dealing with tax formalities, and then either agreeing a distribution or applying to court.
Recurring issues include property inherited by heirs who live abroad, disagreements between heirs over what should happen to a property, transfers made by the deceased during their lifetime that other heirs consider improper, and estates where the question of which country’s law applies to which assets has to be resolved before anything else can proceed.
Family and divorce law
Family matters involving foreign nationals raise questions that purely domestic cases do not. Which country’s courts may hear the case, which law applies, how a decision given in one country is treated in another, and how arrangements for children work when the parents live in different states are all threshold questions that shape the whole process.
Typical matters include divorce where one or both spouses are foreign nationals, custody and contact arrangements with an international dimension, financial consequences of divorce affecting assets in more than one country, and questions about the effect in Türkiye of a decision given abroad.
Commercial and corporate law
For foreign investors and companies trading with Turkish counterparties, the practical issues are usually contractual and evidential. Matters we advise on include commercial contracts and their negotiation, disputes between shareholders and within companies, recovery of unpaid commercial debts through enforcement proceedings, and commercial litigation generally.
Turkish law makes mediation a precondition to court proceedings for certain categories of commercial and employment claim. Whether that requirement applies to a given dispute has to be established before anything is filed, because failing to observe it results in the case being dismissed on procedural grounds.
Litigation and dispute resolution
Turkish civil proceedings are conducted before professional judges, in writing to a greater extent than in common-law systems, and without juries. Hearings are typically spaced weeks or months apart rather than run consecutively, and expert reports play a substantial role in technical and valuation questions.
Mediation is a compulsory first step for several categories of dispute, including employment claims, certain commercial claims, and — since 2023 — disputes arising from tenancy relationships, the division of property and the dissolution of co-ownership. Where it applies, a case cannot be filed until the mediation process has been completed.
No reliable estimate of duration can be given before a file has been examined, and any figure offered without seeing the documents should be treated with caution.
Compensation and traffic accidents
Antalya’s visitor numbers and road traffic make personal injury and accident claims a frequent subject of instruction. Turkish law recognises distinct heads of loss, including treatment costs, loss of earnings during recovery, permanent loss of earning capacity, and — where a person dies — the loss suffered by those who depended on them.
An important procedural point: in claims under compulsory motor insurance, a written application to the insurer is required before proceedings can be brought, and the insurer must respond within the statutory period. Only then does the route to court or to the insurance arbitration system open. Missing this step delays everything.
A general overview of our work in this area is on the compensation and traffic accidents page.
Do foreigners need a Turkish lawyer?
Direct answer: There is no general legal requirement for a private party to be represented by a lawyer in Turkish civil proceedings. In practice, proceedings are conducted in Turkish, documents are served in Turkish, and time limits run whether or not you are aware of them — which is why most foreign parties instruct one.
The situations where representation matters most are those with short deadlines or where a decision may be taken without your active participation: criminal investigations, enforcement proceedings, and any case where documents are being served on an address in Türkiye.
Can a foreign national appoint a lawyer in Türkiye from abroad?
Direct answer: Yes. A lawyer can generally be instructed without travelling to Türkiye, provided a valid power of attorney is issued. The document is normally executed either before a Turkish notary or at a Turkish consulate in the country where you are.
Where a power of attorney is issued before a foreign notary rather than a Turkish consulate, it will usually need to be legalised — commonly by apostille where the relevant convention applies between the two states — and translated into Turkish. Requirements differ depending on the country of issue and on what the lawyer needs to do, so the wording should be settled before the document is executed rather than after.
Powers of attorney for certain matters must contain specific authorisations. A general document that does not include them may turn out to be insufficient for the step you actually need taken, which then means issuing a second one from abroad and losing several weeks.
Do foreign clients need a power of attorney?
Direct answer: For a lawyer to act in proceedings, examine a case file or receive documents on your behalf, yes. For an initial consultation about your position, no.
The practical sequence is usually: an initial discussion of the facts and documents; identification of what needs to be done and therefore what authorisations the power of attorney must contain; execution of the document at a Turkish consulate or notary; and then substantive work on the file.
The reason the order matters is that the scope of the document is determined by the work, not the other way round.
Can legal proceedings in Türkiye be handled without travelling to Türkiye?
Direct answer: In many civil and commercial matters, yes — a lawyer holding a power of attorney can conduct the proceedings. In criminal matters the position is different, because the Code of Criminal Procedure treats the defendant’s presence as the rule and exemption as the exception.
For civil proceedings, a represented party is generally not required to attend personally at every stage, although a court may require attendance for particular procedural steps.
For criminal proceedings, the starting point is that a hearing is not held in the defendant’s absence. The Code does provide for exemption from attendance once the defendant has been questioned, for questioning by letter of request in cases below a statutory threshold, and for specific arrangements where the defendant is abroad — but these are decisions for the court in each case, not entitlements. Our step-by-step guide to criminal proceedings sets out the relevant provisions.
Are legal proceedings available in English in Türkiye?
Direct answer: No. Turkish is the language of the courts. Documents are filed in Turkish and hearings are conducted in Turkish. What the law provides is interpretation and translation, not proceedings in another language.
In criminal matters, the Code of Criminal Procedure requires that where a person does not speak Turkish well enough to express themselves, the essential points of the accusation and defence be translated by an appointed interpreter — at the investigation stage as well as at trial.
Documents in a foreign language that are to be used in proceedings generally require sworn translation, and in some cases legalisation. Where a foreign public document is involved, the applicable formalities depend on the country of origin.
The practical consequence is that your understanding of your own case depends on someone explaining the Turkish-language file to you accurately. That is a large part of what representation involves for a foreign client.
How can a foreign client communicate with a lawyer in Antalya?
Direct answer: Our office conducts correspondence and consultations with foreign clients in English, in addition to Turkish. Documents filed with Turkish courts remain in Turkish, but the file can be explained to you in English.
This site is published in Turkish, English, German and Russian, and enquiries can be sent through the contact page. For clients based abroad, most matters can be progressed by correspondence once a power of attorney is in place.
Working with our office in Antalya
Şehap Law & Mediation Office has been practising in Antalya since 2007. Our office is in Soğuksu, Muratpaşa — within reach of the Antalya Courthouse, where the civil and criminal courts hearing Antalya matters sit.
Cases with an Antalya connection are generally heard in Antalya, and for some categories this is not a matter of choice: claims concerning rights in immovable property must be brought where the property is located, and criminal proceedings follow the place of the investigation. For foreign clients this means the practical location of the file is fixed even when the parties are not in Türkiye.
You can read more about the firm on our about page, about the lawyers on Av. Serdar Şehap’s profile, and about the full range of our work on the practice areas page. Guidance specifically for clients living outside Türkiye is on the legal support for foreign nationals page.
Frequently asked questions
Is there an English-speaking lawyer in Antalya?
Our office conducts correspondence and consultations with foreign clients in English. Court documents and hearings remain in Turkish, with interpretation and translation provided as the law requires.
Can I instruct a lawyer in Antalya without coming to Türkiye?
Generally yes, once a valid power of attorney has been issued — usually at a Turkish consulate in your country or before a Turkish notary. The required authorisations depend on what needs to be done.
Which court will hear my case?
It depends on the subject matter. Claims concerning rights in immovable property are heard where the property is located. Criminal matters follow the place of the investigation. Other cases follow the general rules of jurisdiction.
Do I need a lawyer for a property purchase in Türkiye?
There is no general requirement, but the contractual arrangements preceding a transfer and the checks on the title are where most later disputes originate. Advice before signing is generally more useful than advice afterwards.
Is mediation compulsory before going to court?
For several categories of dispute, yes — including employment claims, certain commercial claims, and disputes arising from tenancy relationships, the division of property and the dissolution of co-ownership. Whether it applies to your matter should be established before filing.
How long do proceedings take in Türkiye?
No reliable general answer can be given. Duration depends on the type of case, the evidence required, whether documents must be served abroad, and whether the judgment is appealed.
Will documents be sent to me in English?
Documents filed with and issued by Turkish courts are in Turkish. Correspondence with our office can be in English, and the content of the file can be explained to you.
Does a case in Türkiye require me to attend hearings?
In civil matters a represented party is generally not required to attend every stage. In criminal matters the defendant’s presence is the rule, subject to the exceptions the Code of Criminal Procedure provides.
Contacting our office
Legal matters governed by Turkish law usually turn on the specific facts, the documents available and the procedure that applies to that type of claim. Foreign individuals or businesses dealing with a legal matter in Antalya are welcome to contact our office for information about the applicable process and about legal representation. Enquiries can be made in English through the contact page.
This page is provided for general informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice. The applicable legal procedure may vary depending on the facts and circumstances of each case.