The short answer
Yes. A patient who was treated in Turkey and now lives in Germany, the UK, Italy or anywhere else can pursue a claim against the clinic, hospital or surgeon without moving back to Turkey. The claim is handled in Turkey by a Turkish-qualified lawyer; you take part from where you live.
What changes when you are abroad is not whether you can claim, but how the practical steps are organised: how documents travel, how you authorise a lawyer, and how the two of you communicate across languages and time zones.
What a lawyer needs from you first
Before anyone can tell you whether your situation is worth pursuing, three questions have to be answered:
- What was agreed and explained? The treatment plan, the quotation, the consent forms, and the messages you exchanged with the clinic or the agency that arranged the trip.
- What happened? The procedure that was actually performed, by whom, and what went wrong — in your own words, in order, with dates.
- What is the harm? The medical consequences you live with now, and what a doctor in your own country has documented about them.
You almost certainly already have more of this than you think: WhatsApp conversations, e-mails, photographs with dates, invoices, flight bookings, the discharge paper you were handed at the airport. Do not clean up or delete anything. Keep the originals and send copies.
Authorising a lawyer from abroad
To act for you before a Turkish court or in negotiations, a lawyer needs a power of attorney (vekâletname). Living abroad, you have two routes:
- At a Turkish consulate in your country. This is usually the simplest: the consulate issues the document in Turkish, in the form Turkish courts expect.
- At a local notary, followed by an apostille (for Hague Convention countries) and a certified Turkish translation.
We tell you which route fits your country and send you the exact wording. Nothing has to be signed before the first review; the power of attorney comes once you have decided to proceed and the terms are agreed in writing.
Do you have to travel to Turkey?
For the early stages — the review, collecting records, obtaining a medical opinion, negotiating with the provider — no. For court proceedings, Turkish civil procedure allows your lawyer to represent you at hearings; parties are not routinely required to appear in person.
There is one honest exception. Courts frequently rely on an expert medical assessment, and in some cases the examining body wants to see the patient rather than only the records. When that happens, there are usually options: a report from a specialist in your country, a planned short visit, or both. We flag this early so it never arrives as a surprise.
Language and communication
Everything you receive from us is in your language. The file itself — pleadings, expert reports, court correspondence — is in Turkish, and we explain each document in plain terms before you decide anything. Communication runs on whatever you already use: e-mail, WhatsApp, video calls. Sensitive documents are shared through a secure link we provide, not over chat.
Time zones are rarely a problem: Istanbul is one hour ahead of Central Europe and two to three hours ahead of the UK.
Costs and how they are explained
Claims involve several kinds of cost: the lawyer's fee, court fees, expert fees, and translation. How these are structured depends on the case and is set out in writing before you commit, together with what happens if the claim does not succeed. If anything in that document is unclear, ask — a fee agreement you do not fully understand is not one you should sign.
How long does it take?
Realistically, months rather than weeks for a negotiated outcome, and longer if the matter goes to court and expert reports are required. Two things shorten the path considerably: complete records at the start, and acting early. Limitation periods in Turkey depend on the legal basis of the claim and can be shorter than people expect, so a delayed first call is the most common avoidable mistake.
What to do now
- Gather what you have: consent forms, messages, invoices, photographs, discharge papers, and any report from a doctor at home.
- Write a one-page timeline: dates, places, names, what you were told.
- Send a short summary through the case review form — not the full records yet. We will tell you what to send next and how.