Who Pays Lawyer Fees in Divorce Cases?

Almost everyone knows that marriage takes place before a civil registrar and divorce before a judge in court. Yet although people attend weddings from an early age and know something of that process, their knowledge of courthouses and how divorce actually works is often limited. That gap creates understandable anxiety; those who want to apply to court for divorce may feel like a non-swimmer falling into a pool. Therefore the divorce process usually needs to be handled through a specialist law firm, and the lawyer is entitled to a fee in return. A lawyer who follows the divorce for the client and obtains the judgment is a self-employed professional who completed four years of law school, one year of traineeship, and is registered with the local bar. For that skilled work in divorce and other civil or criminal matters, counsel charges an attorney fee. In Ankara divorce cases, who pays and how is assessed together with the client–lawyer agreement and any attorney fee awarded at the end of the proceedings.

The attorney fee is set at the outset between lawyer and client. A written fee agreement is not mandatory but is strongly recommended to avoid later disputes about payment. In divorce cases fees are of two kinds: fixed (maktu—a concrete amount agreed up front, often paid in advance) and proportional (nisbi—a percentage of damages recovered from the other side or of amounts obtained in a property-division claim if the case is won). Both the fixed amount and the percentage should be stated in the fee agreement. Because the lawyer–client relationship rests on trust, that trust must not be shaken and fee issues must not disrupt the case: the fee agreement should be in writing and, except for exceptional instalment arrangements, the fee should be paid at the beginning and in advance.

If the case is won, the judge awards a state-set fixed attorney fee against the losing party, payable notionally to the winning party. Although the judgment may say it is payable to the plaintiff or defendant, under the Attorneyship Law that sum belongs to the lawyer and is independent of the contractual fee agreed at the start between lawyer and client. The advance fee under the retainer and the court-awarded attorney fee against the other side are separate items; the law treats the awarded fee as the lawyer’s.