Amendments have been made in Turkey to the principles for determining the necessary experience for insurance arbitrators, as well as introducing new requirements for the insurance arbitration system. The Regulation Amending the Regulation on Insurance Arbitration ("Amendment Regulation") was published in Official Gazette number 29598 on 19 January 2016, entering into effect on the same date.

Significant changes introduced by the Amendment Regulation include:

  • Experience required for insurance arbitrators will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
  • Whether an applicant holds at least five years' experience in insurance law or at least ten years' in insurance will be evaluated by taking into consideration the quality and quantity of the applicant's work during such periods.
  • The experience condition will not be met unless the period is uninterrupted.
  • Whether a task qualifies in terms of the experience conditions will depends on the task being directly linked to insurance technique. Working in an insurance-related institution alone is not sufficient.
  • A list will be kept of people who are prohibited from acting as insurance arbitrators.
  • The Undersecretariat of the Treasury can swap insurance arbitrators between the life-insurance and non-life insurance areas, taking into account the number and type of disputes.
  • Principles are determined for an impartiality undertaking which must be given by arbitrators.
  • Once an insurance file is classified as life-insurance or non-life insurance (based on its subject), an arbitrator will be selected from the general list in turn. Arbitrators' areas of expertise are taken into account for the order of the selection.
  • If specific or technical information is necessary, arbitrators have discretion to obtain expert opinions, either ex officio or upon request by the parties.
  • If the parties to an insurance dispute are represented by an attorney, the attorney fee is equal to 20% of the attorney fee stipulated under the Minimum Attorneyship Fee Tariff for disputed conducted before court of first instance.
  • The Insurance Arbitration Committee must make arbitrator decisions available to any interested person.

Please see this link for full text of the Amendment Regulation (only available in Turkish).

Information first published in the MA | Gazette, a fortnightly legal update newsletter produced by Moroğlu Arseven.

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