Where a Turkish civil case turns on a technical question, such as a valuation, an account of sums owed or a construction defect, the expert report can carry much of the file. A foreign party that has to respond to it, or a lawyer abroad following the case, reads it in translation. Two texts set its structure, Article 279 of the Code of Civil Procedure (HMK) and Article 55 of the Regulation on court experts, and a translation keeps the structure they describe.
Two lists of contents
Article 279(2) requires the names of the parties, the matters assigned to the expert, the material facts observed and examined, the reasoning and conclusions, any disagreement between experts and its reason, the date and the signatures. Article 55(1) of the Regulation, in force since 2017 and amended in 2025, gives a longer list in a fixed order: the assigning authority, the file number, the parties, the date and length of the assignment, the subject of the examination, the material elements examined, the method, the scientific and technical basis, the reasoned conclusion, the date of the report, and the expert’s name, title, registry number and signature. Where a company acts as expert, the report adds its trade name, its legal representative and the individual expert who drafted it.
Heading and assignment
The opening block carries the assigning court and the file number, both copied exactly, and the date and time allowed for the assignment. The file number connects the report to the judgment that may later rely on it; shortening or reformatting it makes that link harder to check.
The court’s questions
The subject of the examination is often set out as the questions the court put to the expert, quoted and numbered. The translation keeps the quotation marks and the numbers, because the reasoned conclusion answers the questions in the same order. Where a question uses the words of a statute, its article numbers stay as written.
Method, basis and conclusion
The method and the scientific and technical basis explain how the expert reached the result: site inspection, document review, calculation or laboratory analysis. Figures, currencies, dates and interest periods in calculation tables stay as they are; column and row headings are translated, but no calculation is redone. If the decimal separator is adapted to English usage, a translator’s note says so, since the comma and the point swap roles between Turkish and English numbers.
Report, not opinion
An expert may not make the legal characterisations and assessments that belong to the judge. The rule appears three times: HMK Article 279(4), Article 3(2) of Law No. 6754 on court experts and Article 55(4) of the Regulation. It bears on the English name. “Expert report” matches the Turkish term (bilirkişi raporu) and stays neutral, while “expert opinion” can suggest a view on the law, which is exactly what the expert is barred from giving. The report is not a decision either: the judge assesses it freely (Article 282), so words such as “ruling” or “finding of the court” do not belong in its translation.
Annexes and dissent
Diagrams, maps, sketches, photographs and tables are attached to the report (Regulation, Article 55(3)) and form part of it. Captions and legends are translated, or the translation notes that they were not. Where experts disagree, the different views are explained in the report or submitted as a separate report (HMK Article 279(2); Regulation, Article 55(2)), and the translation keeps the minority view apart instead of blending it into the main text.
Signature, registry number and what follows
The expert’s registry number is copied exactly; it refers to the expert’s entry in the register of court experts kept by a regional board. An expert on the list sends the report through UYAP with a secure electronic signature (Registry Services Regulation, Article 220(2)), so the print-out shows an electronic signature entry. The date of submission is written on the report and it is served on the parties before the hearing (HMK Article 280); each party may object within two weeks of service, and the court may obtain a supplementary report (Article 281). Acte Tercüme translates Turkish expert reports into English, and objections to them into Turkish, with tables and annexes in the original order.