Compensation Claims

In a workplace accident, the disability percentage is more than a number on paper; it is the salary you earn for the rest of your life, the allowance you can give your child, and whether or not you have to take a painkiller before going to bed. In a traffic accident, the sum paid by the insurer often does not even reach half the actual cost of the damage. In a fatal accident, the concept of "loss of support" expresses not the value of the life lost but the period over which those left behind are deprived of its economic contribution. Compensation for your loss is not a favour; it is your legal right. At RoNa Legal, we run material and moral damage claims in Turkey and Montenegro in a single file, end to end; we specialise in matters where two legal systems engage at once — particularly in incidents involving Turkish contractors on Montenegrin construction sites, Turkish tourists on the Adriatic coast roads, and Turkish patients in hospitals in both countries.

Work-accident compensation — do not lose the law on top of the accident

The frame of work-accident compensation in Turkey

The first thing I check in a work-accident file is whether notification to SGK has been made. Article 13 of Social Security Act No. 5510 defines a work accident not only as a fall or machine strike on a construction site; it also covers time spent because of the work carried out by the employer, while present at the workplace, when sent to another location on duty, and even the time a nursing woman worker spends breastfeeding her child. This broad definition is overlooked in practice, and employers often defend "this was not a work accident"; yet determining whether an accident is a work accident is not at the employer's discretion but rests with SGK and, where needed, the labour court. For accidents not reported to SGK, filing a work-accident determination action is the cornerstone of the subsequent compensation claim.

The legal consequence of a work accident runs on two tracks. On one side is SGK's subrogation claim against the employer: under Article 21 of Social Security Act No. 5510, where the work accident results from the employer's intent, gross negligence, breach of regulation or fault, the Institution recovers the payments it has made to the insured or dependants from the employer. A critical distinction here: the party that subrogates is SGK; the employer does not subrogate to SGK. In practice clients confuse this concept frequently; the employer does not have the right to deduct SGK payments, on the contrary SGK has the right to recover from the employer. The 10th Civil Chamber of the Court of Cassation has settled case law in this area, and the employer's degree of fault is decisive.

On the other track is the compensation action brought by the worker or dependants against the employer. Article 49 of the Turkish Code of Obligations No. 6098 regulates tort liability, Article 66 the liability of the employer of another, and Article 56 moral damages. Under Occupational Health and Safety Act No. 6331, the employer is obliged to conduct a risk assessment, appoint an occupational safety specialist and workplace physician, provide training to employees, and supply personal protective equipment. Breach of these duties directly determines the degree of fault in the compensation action. On limitation, Turkish Code of Obligations Art. 72 applies: two years from the date the damage and the tortfeasor are learned, and in any case ten years from the date of the act. If the act also constitutes an offence — such as negligent injury or negligent homicide — the extended criminal limitation period provided in the Turkish Criminal Code applies; in fatal work accidents this period often extends up to fifteen years. The settled case law of the General Civil Assembly of the Court of Cassation (E. 2011/4-640; E. 2018/17-157) holds that the extended limitation applies directly if the act is classified as an offence under the criminal statutes, regardless of whether a criminal case has been filed.

The main items of material damages are temporary disability (loss of earnings for the period when work was not possible after the accident), permanent disability (lifetime earnings loss caused by the disability percentage), and treatment expenses. The technical core of the work is the actuarial calculation. In plain terms, actuarial calculation says: "How many more years would you have worked and how much would you have earned had the accident not occurred? How much can you earn after the accident? What is that difference worth in today's money?" This calculation uses the PMF 1931 table (Population Mortality Female — still the most widely used probable life-span table in practice) for life expectancy, alongside TRH 2010 and current life tables. Earnings loss is computed at or above the minimum wage and with an annual escalation assumption — commonly the progressive annuity method — and is discounted to present value at the rate accepted by the court. What I always tell the client: the actuarial calculation is not a formula but a table of your future prepared by the expert; every month between the day you file and the day the calculation is made alters the numbers on that table.

Moral damages (Turkish Code of Obligations Art. 56) are awarded to the victim in serious violations of bodily integrity and, in cases of death, to relatives; the judge exercises discretion through the victim's degree of fault, age, social circumstances, the decline in quality of life after the event, and the economic capacity of the tortfeasor.

Compensation ranges — 2026 practice. In severe work-accident files (high disability percentage + permanent impairment), total material and moral damages generally range between TRY 500,000 – 5,000,000; in fatal work accidents, including loss-of-support damages, the total can rise to TRY 2,000,000 – 15,000,000. The final figure is set by the court on the actuarial calculation, disability percentage, contributory fault, the victim's income level, and the number of dependants; these figures are not guarantees but reference bands for file planning.

Work accidents in Montenegro — Turkish worker, Turkish contractor, foreign law

Montenegro has been one of the most active markets for the Turkish contracting sector in recent years. According to Turkish Ministry of Trade data, Turkish contractors have undertaken 66 projects worth USD 418 million in Montenegro to date, and the Bar-Boljare Motorway remains the country's largest infrastructure move. Phase 1 (Smokovac-Mateşevo) was completed by the Chinese firm CRBC; leading Turkish contractors submitted bids in the pre-qualification for the Mateşevo-Andrijevica section of Phase 2. With this large construction load, as of 2025 Montenegro has become a country with approximately 6,920 construction workers on site, a significant portion of whom are Turkish citizens. When hotel and residential sites around Budva, Tivat and Podgorica are included, work-accident risk is statistically material.

Montenegrin work-accident law has a two-pillar structure. The first is Zakon o zaštiti i zdravlju na radu (Occupational Health and Safety Act); it imposes on the employer risk assessment, safety training, protective equipment, and the duty to notify the accident to the Uprava za inspekcijske poslove (Inspectorate) and to the health and labour inspectorate within 24 hours. If notification is not made — a situation we frequently encounter on Montenegrin construction sites — the employer's administrative penalty is aggravated and the intent element strengthens in the criminal investigation.

The second pillar is ZOO (Zakon o obligacionim odnosima), the Montenegrin Code of Obligations. Article 149 of the Code defines damage under three heads: stvarna šteta (actual damage — treatment, prosthetics, lost-earnings principal), izmakla korist (lost profit — future income that will not be earned), nematerijalna šteta (moral damage — physical pain, psychological pain, fear, and loss of a relative). The employer's liability for those employed is governed by ZOO Arts. 166–172 and runs parallel to the Turkish Code of Obligations Art. 66 regime. On the criminal side, the provisions of Krivični zakonik Crne Gore on failure to take occupational-safety measures (Arts. 326 et seq.) engage; if the accident is severe, the manager and the safety specialist are subject to criminal prosecution.

In practice, Montenegrin courts — Osnovni sud (first instance) and Viši sud (appellate) — are notably more conservative than Turkey in setting compensation amounts. In severe work accidents, total material and moral damages typically fall in the EUR 15,000 – 150,000 band, and in fatal accidents including loss-of-support damages, the EUR 50,000 – 400,000 band; in exceptional cases this upper bound moves higher. This EUR-based range reflects the average trend in Montenegrin supreme-court decisions and expert reports in active files; compared with TRY equivalents in Turkey, we see that a Montenegrin judgment in an equally serious matter is nominally lower but, in euros, carries greater recovery security.

RoNa Legal's working model in Montenegrin work-accident files is transparent: direct client communication, strategy design, evidence-gathering and negotiations are run under Rohat Kahraman's and Av. Nazlıcan Hilaloğulları's coordination, while we work with locally licensed lawyer partners at Osnovni sud and Viši sud hearings. This local-lawyer coordination model is a natural requirement of Montenegrin bar regulations and ensures that the client's file is handled by capable hands in both countries.

Traffic-accident compensation

Traffic accidents in Turkey — what you get from insurance, what you do not

The most commonly overlooked detail in traffic-accident compensation is that the action is not brought against a single counterparty. The party at fault is the driver, but legal liability also arises through the operator. Articles 85 and 86 of Highway Traffic Act No. 2918 regulate the strict liability of the operator; that is, the operator of the vehicle is liable for damage arising from the operation of a motor vehicle even without fault. This liability is the most important item of security for the injured party.

The second counterparty is the compulsory motor third-party liability insurer (traffic insurance). Traffic insurance covers bodily and material damage caused to third parties within the policy limit; the injured party may apply directly to the insurer. The third counterparty is the optional motor third-party liability insurance (casko and extended liability); here the policy covers the owner's own damage and additional cover against third parties. Within material damage, there is an item most clients do not know: vehicle diminution in value. Even if your vehicle is not a total loss, the accident record lowers its value and this drop can be claimed from the insurer or the party at fault.

For bodily damages (temporary/permanent disability, treatment expenses) the actuarial rules operate on the same logic as in work accidents. In fatal traffic accidents, loss of support runs under Turkish Code of Obligations Art. 53. Moral damages, however, are outside the scope of compulsory traffic insurance; they can only be directed at the at-fault driver and the operator. This is where clients are most often disappointed: the insurer says "we don't pay moral damages," and this is correct; but it does not mean moral damages do not exist — it means the counterparty is different.

The Insurance Arbitration Commission, operating under Article 30 of Insurance Act No. 5684 as an alternative to court in traffic-insurance disputes, is a fast resolution route. Applying to the Commission is not mandatory; you may also go directly to court. In practice, however, a written demand must have been made to the insurer and either not answered or rejected before applying. The monetary thresholds in force from 22 January 2026 are important: the threshold for objection to arbitral awards before the Commission is TRY 35,000, and the threshold for appeal to the Court of Cassation against the decisions of the objection arbitration panel is TRY 383,000. Decisions in disputes below these thresholds are final. The TRY 40,000 threshold discussed in the past no longer applies; monetary thresholds are updated each year by the PPI.

On limitation, under Highway Traffic Act Art. 109, two years from learning of the damage and the tortfeasor and in any case ten years from the accident; if the act constitutes an offence (negligent injury, negligent homicide), the extended criminal limitation period under the Turkish Criminal Code applies. The General Civil Assembly of the Court of Cassation is clear: when criminal limitation applies to the driver, it is not correct to limit the action against the insurer to only two years; if limitation is interrupted against the compensation debtor, it is deemed interrupted against the insurer (Highway Traffic Act Art. 109/last). The current case law of the 17th Civil Chamber of the Court of Cassation steadily maintains this line.

Traffic accidents in Montenegro — in a Budva summer, statistics do not lie

In summer, the Budva-Kotor-Tivat axis becomes a traffic-density corridor. The probability of an accident in Montenegro rises markedly in the summer season for Turkish tourists on rental cars, business travellers commuting frequently, and Turkish workers on site. In Montenegro, under Zakon o bezbjednosti saobraćaja na putevima, the alcohol limit is 0.30‰ for ordinary drivers and 0.00‰ for professional drivers (bus, truck, taxi); breach of this limit leads to both administrative fines and criminal prosecution. Serious-injury and fatal traffic accidents are tried under the transport-safety articles of Krivični zakonik.

On the civil compensation side, ZOO engages; the three heads of stvarna šteta, izmakla korist and nematerijalna šteta apply again. Zakon o obaveznom osiguranju u saobraćaju regulates compulsory traffic insurance and recognises the injured party's right to apply directly to the insurer. A frequently asked question needs clarification here: what is the insurance status of a Turkish-plated vehicle in Montenegro? Turkey and Montenegro have no automatic mutual recognition; Turkish traffic insurance alone is not sufficient in Montenegro. A Turkish driver entering Montenegro must either present a valid Green Card (international motor third-party liability insurance document) or buy border insurance. If a valid Green Card is not in place at the time of the accident, the injured third party's compensation is covered by the guarantee fund of the Montenegrin National Insurance Bureau (Nacionalni biro osiguravača Crne Gore), which then subrogates to the party at fault. The consequences for the Turkish client are heavy: no insurance cover remains, and they are liable with personal assets for all damages.

In Montenegro, total material and moral damages arising from traffic accidents typically fall in the EUR 5,000 – 80,000 band in practice; in accidents with severe bodily injury the figure can rise to EUR 150,000 and above; in fatal traffic accidents, including loss of support, the EUR 50,000 – 350,000 range is typical.

The criminal dimension of a traffic accident — drink driving, negligent injury or homicide — opens a separate legal track. For detailed information see our criminal law page.

Medical malpractice — complication or error?

The first critical distinction in a medical-malpractice file is this: not every bad outcome is malpractice. The doctor-patient relationship is legally a mandate contract (Turkish Code of Obligations Art. 502 et seq.); the physician is obliged to show the care required by medical science but does not guarantee the outcome. A complication is the occurrence of a foreseeable risk of medical science despite the fulfilment of the duty of care. Malpractice, on the other hand, is the result of culpable conduct such as want of care, wrong diagnosis, wrong treatment, faulty surgical application, or deficient informed consent. Under the Patient Rights Regulation, the patient must be informed, in terms they can understand, about the proposed treatment, its alternatives, possible risks, and the probability of failure; an intervention performed without informed consent remains unlawful even if medically successful.

A malpractice file at a state hospital is filed as a full judicial action against the administration under Administrative Jurisdiction Act No. 2577; the action period is one year from the date the damage is learned, and in any case five years from the date of the event. The issue of the competent court for malpractice at a private hospital was debated for years; current trend has the Court of Cassation accepting the Consumer Court as competent in many files on the ground that the service is a consumer transaction, while the Civil Court of First Instance remains competent where personal liability is directed at the physician. On limitation, contractual liability runs a five-year period under Turkish Code of Obligations Art. 147, and tort runs 2+10 years + criminal limitation under Turkish Code of Obligations Art. 72.

The role of the High Health Council, long a central authority in malpractice files, is no longer what it used to be. Act No. 7406 published in the Official Gazette of 27 May 2022 added Article 18 (Annex) to Basic Health Services Act No. 3359, establishing the Professional Liability Board within the Ministry of Health. The Board has two core duties: to grant or withhold permission for criminal investigation of physicians, dentists and other health-profession members serving in public and private health institutions and foundation universities; and to decide whether administratively paid damages will be subrogated to the health-care professional concerned. The Constitutional Court's decision of 30 November 2023 annulled part of this regulation — in particular the provision affecting academic autonomy for university faculty members; the act was updated by the amendment published in the Official Gazette of 1 March 2024. Practical result: today, criminal investigation cannot be launched directly against a physician working at a private hospital; permission must be obtained from the Professional Liability Board; if permission is granted, investigation proceeds under Act No. 4483; if not, an appeal lies with the Ankara Regional Administrative Court. Expert evaluation by the Council of Forensic Medicine and reports from the relevant university departments remain decisive.

In Montenegro, malpractice runs under Zakon o zdravstvenoj zaštiti (Health Services Act) and ZOO provisions. The patient's right to informed consent is a statutory duty of the health institution; the compensation action is filed at Osnovni sud, and expert reports are obtained from Klinički centar Crne Gore or from Faculty of Medicine experts. A Turkish citizen's right to compensation under ZOO Art. 149 for incorrect treatment received in Montenegro is not affected by whether they are a tourist or on a temporary assignment. In Montenegrin malpractice cases, compensation amounts typically fall in the EUR 10,000 – 120,000 band; in severe permanent disability the upper limit moves higher.

Fatal accidents and loss-of-support compensation

I am writing this section as the one we think hardest about at RoNa Legal. The loss of a life cannot be rendered in numbers; neither TRY 3 million nor EUR 10 million makes up for the absence of a father, a spouse, a child. Loss-of-support compensation is a concept in which the law does not ignore this void but instead renames it: compensation is not the price of the deceased's life; it is the monetary value, calculated over the years without it, of the economic contribution the deceased provided to those left behind.

Article 53 of the Turkish Code of Obligations lists three items in the event of death: funeral expenses; treatment expenses and losses from reduced or lost working capacity where death did not occur immediately; and — the heaviest item — the losses suffered by those deprived of the deceased's support. The concept of support is broadly interpreted here; it covers not only cash actually given but also care foreseen to be given in old age, education expenses to be provided to a child, and the standard of living to be afforded to a spouse.

The settled application of the support share calculation: the deceased's own share is deducted from their net income, and the remainder is treated as support share. In a family with a spouse and two children, the standard application takes the deceased's share at 50%, the spouse's share at 25%, and each child's share at around 12.5%; the ratio varies with the facts, the age of the dependants, whether the spouse works, and whether the children need care. The period during which a child receives support is commonly taken as age 18 for boys and age 22 for girls (longer if still a student), and the period for the spouse is limited by the spouse's probable life expectancy. A parent's right to support is also within the scope of Art. 53; however, here the actual or future support must generally be proved.

The actuarial calculation is more technical in this section than ever. The expert determines the deceased's probable life expectancy based on PMF 1931 or current tables, establishes net income, calculates the support share for each dependant, reflects each year's escalation through the progressive annuity method, and discounts to present value. What I tell the client in this process: every number in the report has an assumption behind it; the reasonableness of the assumptions is the reasonableness of the figure. You always have the right to object to the expert report, and in most files the final compensation ends 20–40% above the figure in the first report; but this is only possible with a proper objection petition, the right expert selection and the evidence structure in the file.

In a fatal work accident the file has three layers: SGK's survivors' pension awarded to dependants and the payments it makes, the loss-of-support action against the employer, and SGK's Art. 21 subrogation against the employer. In a fatal traffic accident, the traffic insurer pays loss-of-support compensation within the policy limit; the moral damages item cannot be directed at the insurer and can only be asserted against the driver at fault and the operator. Thanks to the extended criminal limitation, these cases can generally be brought even years later; nonetheless, starting evidence collection within the first 48 hours sets the course of the case.

For details on the intersection of loss-of-support compensation with alimony and inheritance items in family law, see our divorce and family law page.

Other compensation claims

The field of compensation law extends beyond work and traffic accidents. The general tort framework is regulated by Turkish Code of Obligations Arts. 49–76 and requires fault, damage, unlawfulness, and causation as the four basic elements. Damages arising from breach of contract are claimed under Turkish Code of Obligations Art. 112 et seq.; here the burden of proof is distributed within the parties' performance duties. Compensation for violation of personality rights under Turkish Civil Code Arts. 24–25 and Turkish Code of Obligations Art. 58 — particularly in files involving insult, defamation, invasion of private life, dissemination of false news, and attacks on personality in the digital environment — is an area that has grown substantially in recent years. Product liability falls within Consumer Act No. 6502; in damages caused by a defective or insufficiently safe product, the manufacturer, importer, and seller are jointly and severally liable. Compensation claims arising from environmental pollution run in parallel under the Environment Act and general tort rules.

The general framework of moral damages is the same in every type of case: harm to the victim's personality values is remedied by an amount in accordance with equity as determined by the judge's discretion; here the compensatory, not punitive, function comes to the fore.

Cross-border compensation recovery — two countries, one file

One of RoNa Legal's distinguishing aspects is running the matter with two legal systems when the country in which the claim arises differs from the country in which it is to be recovered.

The answer to the question of which law applies, in tort, is in Art. 34 of Turkish Private International Law Act No. 5718: the principal rule is lex loci delicti — the law of the place where the tort was committed. Exceptions are also regulated in this article: where the place of the act differs from the place where the damage arose, the law of the place of damage; where there is another law more closely connected, that law; where bonds such as common habitual residence exist between the parties, those are applied primarily. In a work accident in Montenegro, Montenegrin law applies as a rule; however, where closer links exist, such as both parties being Turkish citizens and the employment contract having been formed in Turkey, Turkish law may engage. The Montenegrin ZMPP (Zakon o međunarodnom privatnom pravu) contains parallel provisions.

The recognition-and-enforcement question is the second half of the case. For a compensation judgment obtained in Montenegro to be executed in Turkey, a recognition-and-enforcement action is filed before Turkish courts under Turkish Private International Law Act Arts. 50–59; in the other direction, a parallel process runs before Montenegrin courts. Reciprocity (de facto reciprocity) is observed in practice. In enforcing foreign-currency compensation judgments in Turkey under Art. 58/3 of the Enforcement and Insolvency Act, the creditor may request conversion of the debt into Turkish lira at the exchange rate on the payment date; however, where the creditor wishes to preserve the claim in a foreign currency in euro-denominated decisions, the contract or the content of the judgment must be framed accordingly. At the collection stage of compensation judgments we work together with our enforcement and insolvency team.

The Turkey-Montenegro Social Security Agreement in force since 1 December 2015 — signed in Ankara on 15 March 2012, published in the Official Gazette on 27 June 2013 and with its date of application set by Council of Ministers Resolution of 14 January 2016 — is a critical instrument for workers that Turkish contractors send to Montenegro on temporary assignment (detaché). Under the Agreement, a worker sent by a Turkish employer to Montenegro temporarily may remain subject to Turkish SGK legislation for a defined period, and no separate insurance obligation arises in Montenegro. In this case, when a work accident occurs, the file runs in two directions: Turkish SGK awards survivors' pensions to dependants and pays treatment costs; the victim or dependants may bring a compensation action against the employer under Montenegrin law where the accident occurred. When the coordination between these two legal systems is framed incorrectly, the victim can find themselves unable to claim from the same item in two countries; when framed correctly, they benefit as a whole from the rights recognised in both countries.

The Green Card system and the compulsory traffic-insurance structure of the two countries are the critical pivot in traffic accidents in Montenegro involving a Turkish-plated vehicle (or where it is injured). If the Turkish driver has a valid Green Card, the Montenegrin National Insurance Bureau pays compensation within the Turkish insurer's policy limits and subrogates to the Turkish insurer; if there is no Green Card, liability turns on the personal assets of the party at fault.

Why RoNa Legal?

Winning a compensation case does not start with requesting documents or writing petitions; it starts with setting the right legal frame in the right country. RoNa Legal, based in Budva, is one of the few law offices capable of running files simultaneously in Turkey and Montenegro. Our construction-sector experience is directly meaningful in a market with 6,920 construction workers on site in Montenegro; in work-accident files we know how the Turkish contractor-employer, the Turkish or Montenegrin worker, and Montenegrin inspectorate processes are woven into the same file. Our coastal-road traffic-accident experience in Montenegro enables us to quickly solve the Turkish insurer–Montenegrin National Insurance Bureau–party-at-fault triangle in summer Budva-Kotor-Tivat accident files.

Our two-jurisdiction strategy approach assesses mathematically which country the case should be brought in: compensation amount, case duration, enforcement ease, currency risk, and litigation costs are the four main parameters. Sometimes the case should be filed in Turkey and the judgment recognised in Montenegro; sometimes the opposite is true. We present the choice to the client in comprehensible terms, placing the mathematical outcomes of the two options side by side.

Our local-lawyer coordination model transparently manages the requirement that the right of audience in Montenegro belongs to lawyers registered with the local bar. Rohat Kahraman and Av. Nazlıcan Hilaloğulları directly run the file's strategy, negotiations, and the Turkish side; we act in coordination with local lawyers with whom we have worked for years for Montenegrin hearings and enforcement. The client has a single point of contact at every stage.

The first 48 hours — and limitation

The most common mistake in compensation law is waiting. The sentence "let me heal first, then I'll see a lawyer" explains the weeks in which the file's most valuable evidence is lost. The first 48 hours after a work or traffic accident are decisive for evidence-gathering: camera recordings must be secured before being overwritten, witness statements recorded while memory is still fresh, the accident scene sketched, SGK notification put under follow-up, and hospital records obtained. The limitation period has started to run, but the real cost of neglect is not limitation itself — it is the million-lira compensation item lost because of late evidence collection.

For fatal-accident files: We are sorry for your loss. We are here to protect your family's right to compensation and to secure, in the form the law provides, the economic support your loved one would have given if still alive. Running this process for you prevents you from carrying an extra burden in the first year of mourning.

Do not be late in seeking the reckoning of your loss — limitation periods are running, evidence is eroding. WhatsApp: +90 530 277 0845 | Contact form

Related links

• Criminal law — the criminal dimension of traffic and work accidents
• Divorce and family law — loss-of-support, alimony and inheritance intersection
• Enforcement and insolvency law — enforcement of compensation judgments
• Inheritance and estate — succession and compensation in fatal accidents
• Contact

This page is for general information only; for your concrete file, individual legal advice should always be obtained. Limitation periods, insurance monetary thresholds and Montenegrin compensation bands are variable; current legislation is confirmed before publication.