What happens if you miss the first mediation meeting

An employee who has left a job takes the claims to a mediator and, on the day of the meeting, finds the other chair empty. The mediator closes the final record with the note that one party did not attend, and the file moves on to court. The party who stayed away has saved an afternoon. The cost order at the end of the case tells a very different story.

Which disputes must go to a mediator first

In Turkish law, certain disputes cannot be brought before a court until the parties have applied to a mediator. This is known as mandatory mediation as a procedural prerequisite (dava şartı arabuluculuk). If the step is skipped, the court dismisses the case on procedural grounds without ever looking at the merits. The main disputes within scope are:

• Claims between employee and employer such as severance pay, notice pay, overtime and annual leave, together with reinstatement claims
• Commercial claims whose subject matter is the payment of a sum of money
• Disputes arising from a lease relationship, the division of immovable property and dissolution of joint ownership, and claims arising between neighbouring owners
• Part of the disputes falling within the remit of the consumer courts (tüketici mahkemesi)

Claims for pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages arising from an occupational accident or an occupational disease are deliberately left outside this requirement. Those files go straight to the labour court (iş mahkemesi).

Staying away does not lose the case, it enlarges the bill

Not turning up does not mean you are wrong on the substance of the dispute. The court still decides on the evidence. What changes is the costs part of the judgment: a party who fails to attend the first meeting without showing a valid excuse is held liable for the whole of the litigation costs, even if that party wins the case in whole or in part. No advocacy fee is awarded in that party's favour either.

In a file that has accumulated court fees, charges for service of documents, site inspections and reports commissioned by the court, this can eat deeply into whatever is recovered. Where neither party attended, each is left with its own costs.

What counts as a valid excuse

The legislation does not define the excuse; the assessment belongs to the court. In practice, illness, a hearing listed for the same day, and unforeseen obstacles that can be documented are accepted. Two things decide the outcome: the excuse must reach the mediator before the meeting, and it must rest on a document.

You do not have to attend in person. Attendance through the party's advocate is possible, and for companies it is enough that an authorised representative attends.

Sitting at the table is not accepting the offer

This is the most common misunderstanding. Taking a seat does not mean adopting the other side's proposal. If no agreement is reached, the record is drawn up accordingly and the way to court remains entirely open.

Where agreement is reached, the document signed by the parties, their advocates and the mediator counts as a document with the force of a judgment, without any need for a separate enforceability annotation. It can be taken directly to enforcement proceedings. Set against litigation that may run for years, that is a consequence worth weighing.

The timetable runs quickly

In employment disputes the mediator must conclude the process within three weeks of appointment, and that period may be extended by no more than one week where circumstances require it. In commercial disputes the period is longer, but still limited.

Between the invitation arriving and the meeting date there is little time to prepare. Gathering the heads of claim, the working period, payment documents and correspondence before the meeting also shapes how what is said at the table will later appear in the court file.

This article is for general information only and does not constitute legal advice on any specific matter.