Plastic Surgery Malpractice Case

Aesthetic surgery cases have increased in recent years in parallel with the increase in the number of aesthetic operations in our country. We decided to turn the most curious issues in the requests we received on this subject into an article. You can find some basic information about the time to sue the aesthetic doctor, the jurisdiction of the consumer court, the petition, the size of the work contract and the process of suing the aesthetic doctor or suing the hospital in our article.

Aesthetic Surgery Malpractice Cases in Turkey

Aesthetic lawsuit is a type of lawsuit used for lawsuits for material and moral damages filed by people who have suffered damages as a result of medical applications that are not aimed at the treatment of a disease or disability, but for the purpose of beautification, especially aesthetic operations performed by Aesthetic, Plastic and Reconstructive surgery specialists, as well as other branch physicians.

Cosmetic Surgery Malpractice Lawsuits

• Operations such as breast augmentation, breast lift, breast reduction, tummy tuck, facelift, face lift, face sling, jawline chin filling, arm lift, leg lift, liposuction, eyelid operation, laser lipolysis, genital aesthetic applications can be the subject of aesthetic litigation. From time to time, it can be witnessed that these applications are performed by other speciality physicians as well as aesthetic plastic surgeons. For example, gynaecologists perform genital aesthetic applications.
• In addition, it can be seen that Ear, Nose and Throat specialists also perform rhinoplasty (nose aesthetics) operations from time to time, and when a problem arises, these can also be the subject of litigation. It is also seen that some of the nasal operations can be partly for treatment and partly for aesthetic purposes.
• In addition, disputes arising from aesthetic operations such as youth vaccination, mesotherapy, skin care, lip filling, nasal filling, under-eye light filling, under-eye mesotherapy, laser epilation, tattoo removal performed by physicians with medical aesthetic certificate using the title of medical aesthetic specialist can also come before the courts as aesthetic lawsuits.
• Procedures such as hair transplantation, beard transplantation, moustache transplantation, eyebrow transplantation for aesthetic purposes performed by physicians authorised in the field of hair transplantation can also be evaluated within the scope of aesthetic litigation.
• Again, lawsuits filed due to applications such as Tooth Whitening, Zirconium Coating, Porcelain Tooth Coating, Implant, Prosthetic tooth, Smile design performed by dentists can also be handled within the scope of aesthetic litigation in terms of the aesthetic dimension of the procedures.

Aesthetic Surgery Compensation

Cosmetic surgery compensation lawsuits are lawsuits filed for compensation for material and moral damages. Within the scope of material compensation, compensation for material damages such as treatment expenses, permanent and temporary incapacity compensation, loss of earnings, transportation and accommodation expenses related to treatment can be requested. The court first obtains an expert report for fault assessment. If it is concluded that the physician is defective as a result of this examination, the file goes to the account expert for the calculation of compensation and the amount of compensation is determined.

Moral compensation is requested for the compensation of moral damages as a compensation for the pain and suffering suffered by the person as a result of the aesthetic operation. The court awards an appropriate amount of moral compensation, taking into account the characteristics of the event, the social and economic situation of the parties and the distressed process experienced by the person.

Since consumers are exempt from fees in cases filed in the consumer court, no fees are charged from the plaintiff in the consumer position when filing a lawsuit, amending the case, filing an appeal or a clean petition, only the advance on expenses is taken.

In case of complete rejection of compensation cases, the counter attorney fee is fixed. In other words, no matter how high the amount of compensation requested, the attorney fee to be paid to the opposing party in case of rejection of the case cannot exceed the fixed attorney fee determined according to the tariff of that year. In the event of partial acceptance and partial rejection of the lawsuit, the counter attorney fee to be paid to the opposing party’s attorney cannot exceed the attorney fee ruled in favour of the plaintiff’s attorney. This regulation has been introduced within the scope of the freedom to seek rights in order to prevent people from refraining from filing a lawsuit due to the possibility of facing high counter-attorney fees.

Aesthetic Doctor Lawsuit Filing Period

In order to sue the aesthetic doctor or the health institution where your surgery was performed, certain periods are stipulated in our legislation. Before filing a lawsuit, it is necessary to first determine the judicial process and judicial remedy to be followed in accordance with your case history, and then determine whether the periods in the laws have passed for this judicial remedy.

The statute of limitations in aesthetic cases varies depending on whether the operation is performed in a private hospital or in a university or state hospital. For example, while 5-year statute of limitations and longer criminal statute of limitations can be applied in terms of transactions carried out in private health institutions, if your operation was performed in a public health institution, attention should be paid to the mandatory 1-year institutional application process before the lawsuit. The time to sue the aesthetic doctor may vary according to the way the event occurred, where it was performed, and there are very different statute of limitations in our legislation. In each case, it should be checked and determined whether the periods have passed separately.

If a prosecutor’s office will file a criminal complaint as a result of the wrongful transaction, at this point, it is important that the 6-month complaint period is not exceeded in order to prevent the investigation from resulting in non-prosecution. Regarding these and similar periods, you should get lawyer support in terms of whether the periods have passed or not in terms of your case history.

Caution: The table below contains general information and you should consult a lawyer to find out the statute of limitations and legal periods in your specific case:

Statute of Limitations	Duration
Private Health Facility Tort Statute of Limitations	2-year and 10-year periods
Extended Criminal Statute of Limitations (Injury/Death)	Periods of 8 years or 15 years
Statute of Limitations for Contracts of Works and Power of Attorney	5-year period
Periods for Full Judgement Proceedings	1 and 5 year periods
Prosecutor’s Office Complaint period	6 months

Cosmetic Surgery Malpractice Litigation Consumer Court

In terms of aesthetic surgery cases, the Consumer Protection Law considers the Physician-Patient, Hospital-Patient relationship as a consumer transaction. This means that whether a possible dispute is related to a medical malpractice claim or a dispute regarding the price, the provisions of the Consumer Protection Law will be applied.

Since the Consumer Courts are in charge in terms of consumer transactions, the consumer court is also in charge in terms of disputes arising from plastic surgery. However, the monetary value of the dispute is also important here. If there is a demand below the monetary limits of the Consumer Arbitration Committee determined as of the year in which the judicial process will be initiated, the dispute is resolved in the Consumer Arbitration Committees, not the Consumer Court.

The last issue that we need to mention in this regard is the application of mediation as a condition of litigation in terms of disputes in which the Consumer Courts have jurisdiction. Before initiating such a lawsuit process, the mediation office in the courthouse must be applied to and the health law mediation application must be completed. Otherwise, in the lawsuit to be filed, the Court will reject your case for lack of a cause of action.

If the aesthetic operation was performed in a state hospital or university hospital, the lawsuit must be filed in the administrative court since the administrative judicial authorities are now in charge. Moreover, in terms of these cases, the defendant is not the physician who performs the defendant procedure, but the institution to which the physician is directly affiliated is considered a party. For example, in terms of aesthetic surgery performed in a state hospital, the lawsuit is filed against the Ministry of Health, and if the Ministry has to pay compensation as a result of the trial, it can recourse to its personnel who are at fault.

Aesthetic Surgery Case Petition Sample

It is seen that an example of a plastic surgery lawsuit petition is shared on various pages on the internet. Our purpose in including this title in our aesthetic compensation lawsuit article is that there are too many searches on the internet in this way. Our humble advice to you is not to rely on such draft petition examples on the internet and to get legal support in this regard.

All other legal disputes, including disputes arising from aesthetic operations, show different characteristics. First of all, as a result of a good analysis of the case history, the way to be followed and the judicial remedy to be applied should be determined, and the petition and annexes should be prepared accordingly. Moreover, since the simple procedure is applied in the Consumer Courts, the plaintiff is not entitled to file a second petition after the opposing party files a reply petition. This situation makes the statement of claim and its annexes even more important in terms of such cases in simple procedure. Therefore, we do not deem it appropriate to share an example of such a lawsuit petition here and we recommend that you get legal support in this regard.

Aesthetic Surgery Labour Contract

Contract of work and contract of attorney are the two main types of contracts applied in health law. These types of contracts are extremely important in terms of determining the legal relationship between the patient-hospital-physician and the rights and obligations of the parties.

In general, it is accepted by the Court of Cassation that the relationship between the hospital/physician and the patient in aesthetic operations is a work contract relationship. This imposes an obligation on the physician who performs aesthetic operations to act in accordance with the result commitment, unlike other medical processes other than aesthetic operations.

In fact, since the patient-physician relationship is accepted within the scope of the power of attorney contract, the responsibility of the physician consists of intervening in accordance with the requirements of the current medical standard with his professional knowledge and experience, and the physician does not guarantee the healing of the patient and is not responsible for the non-healing. The fact that the contract of work is in question in aesthetic operations brings with it the acceptance that the physician has an aesthetic beautification commitment and that the failure to bring it into being gives rise to the responsibility of guarantee against defect.

Suing the Aesthetic Doctor and Information on the Process

Another important issue in health law cases is the determination of the person and organisation responsible for a possible medical malpractice. This issue should be taken into consideration when filing a lawsuit for compensation to the aesthetic doctor. Depending on the nature of the incident, sometimes the physician who performs the procedure is solely responsible, while sometimes the health institution may be responsible together with the physician. Again, since physicians have liability insurance for medical malpractice, it may also be possible to hold insurance companies responsible for compensation claims. The determination of this is also possible by analysing how the incident occurred.

The results of the aesthetic lawsuit are also very curious by the people who apply to our law firm and the chance of success of a judicial process to be opened makes the people who will take this path curious. Since the aesthetic surgery compensation case is a case with a predominant technical dimension and medical knowledge affects the result extremely intensely, the expert reports received during the trial process are very important.

In an aesthetic lawsuit filed with a claim for material and moral compensation, after the court obtains all patient documents, listens to the parties and witnesses, it submits the file to an expert or expert committee. Compensation lawsuit in aesthetic surgeries is a type of lawsuit in which the expert report is extremely important. The expert sometimes examines the plaintiff personally and prepares a report to the court on whether the procedure performed in line with their medical knowledge and experience is successful or whether there is a malpractice, ie medical malpractice, in the procedures performed. Wrong aesthetic surgeries can only be concluded in favour of the patient when the expert determines the medical error during the trial process. Upon the objections of the parties, the file may also go to an additional report or a new committee.

As a lawyer, our duty consists of guaranteeing the best representation of our clients in front of the judicial authorities regarding faulty aesthetic operations in line with our knowledge and experience. It is both our duty and responsibility to make the necessary objections in the court of first instance and higher courts and to protect the interests of the clients until the file is finalised and to inform the client in all these processes.

Plastic Surgery Court Decisions

Since the court decisions of the higher courts regarding the previous trials constitute a precedent for the local courts, they are important in terms of the lawsuits to be filed. When searching for a plastic surgery court decision, it is important which court of law the dispute is subject to, which chamber of the higher court will handle this dispute, and the precedents of this chamber should be scanned and its current approach should be revealed.

The promised result was not fulfilled completely and properly, the aesthetic interventions did not result in the favor of the plaintiff client, the work produced was defective https://www.tabaklegal.com/yargitay-taahhut-edilen-sonucu-tam-ve-geregi-gibi-yerine-getirilmedigi-estetik-mudahalelerin-sonucu-itibariyle-davaci-is-sahibi-yararina-sonuc-vermedigi-meydana-getirilen-eserin-ayipli-oldugu/

Complication and Visual Distortion in Aesthetic Operation Will Be Considered as Fault https://www.tabaklegal.com/estetik-operasyonda-komplikasyon-ve-goruntu-bozuklugunun-kusur-kabul-edilecegi/

Result Commitment in Aesthetic Operations Supreme Court Decision https://www.tabaklegal.com/estetik-operasyonlarda-sonuc-taahhudu-yargitay-karari/

The Defendant Physician Was at Fault in Terms of the Plaintiff’s Nipple and Symmetry Loss https://www.tabaklegal.com/davali-hekimin-davacinin-meme-ucunu-ve-simetrisini-kaybetmesi-bakimindan-kusurlu-oldugu/

Frequently Asked Questions

How to File an Aesthetics Case?

After the authorized and competent court is determined, an aesthetics case can be filed by preparing a petition and its annexes and paying the necessary fees and expenses. If there is a dispute within the jurisdiction of the Consumer Court, since consumers are exempt from proportional fees, proportional fees are not collected from the consumer. Since aesthetics cases are mostly carried out in private health institutions and organizations, the vast majority of cases are heard in Consumer Courts.

What Compensation Can Aesthetics Victims Claim?

The following material and moral compensation items can be claimed for damages resulting from incorrect medical intervention:

• Treatment expenses
• Loss of earnings
• Loss of ability to work
• Damage resulting from economic future disruption
• Pecuniary compensation claim of the patient himself or his relatives in cases such as serious injury or loss of limb

If the incorrect medical intervention results in death, the following items can be claimed:

• Treatment expenses performed until death
• Loss of ability to work related to the period until death
• Funeral expenses
• Compensation for loss of support for those deprived of the support of the deceased
• Pecuniary compensation claim of the relatives of the deceased

How to Apply to a Mediator?

A person who wants to file a lawsuit as a result of an aesthetic operation must first apply to the mediation centers in the courthouses through himself or an aesthetic lawyer who deals with aesthetic cases and initiate the mediation process.

The compensation items to be included in the mediation request and the disputed issues in the minutes kept in case of a possible disagreement are important in terms of the mediation process being considered as completed for the lawsuit to be filed, and the requested compensation items must be written correctly in the minutes.