Bring case movements, deadline calendars and fee collection into a single app

In a law firm the day starts on the date a notification is served, and a missed final day cannot be undone. Add clients calling to ask “what happened with my case”, hearing changes that never made it into the diary, and unbilled or uncollected fees. A law firm app keeps the deadline calendar, case movements and collections in one place, so none of it depends on the secretary's memory.

How many separate apps does this need?

  • 01

    Client app (iOS + Android)

    Clients see the stage of their own case, the hearing date, and the expense advance paid and remaining; they upload documents, access their receipts and stay informed without calling the firm.

  • 02

    Lawyer and firm staff app

    Hearing calendar, deadline alerts, case documents that open offline at the courthouse, site-visit and negotiation notes, time logged against the case and expense entries, all on one screen.

  • 03

    Web admin panel

    Case and power-of-attorney records, per-case access rights, conflict-of-interest checks, e-SMM (electronic self-employment receipt) issuance and collection tracking, workload distribution and reporting are all managed here.

What the app includes

  • Deadline card that computes the final day from the service date
  • Hearing calendar that shifts dates for judicial recess and weekends
  • Conflict-of-interest check against opposing parties when a file is opened
  • Offline viewing of UDF (Turkish court document format) and scanned PDF files
  • Post-hearing voice note transcribed into the case file
  • Time entries logged per case with hourly-rate calculation
  • Tracking of power-of-attorney scope, dismissal and withdrawal dates
  • Document request list for the client with upload tracking
  • Court fees and expert-witness costs deducted from the client's expense advance
  • e-SMM (Turkey's electronic professional-fee receipt) issued at collection, with withholding tax and VAT split
  • UETS e-notifications (Turkey's official electronic service system) matched to files by docket number
  • Running debt calculation and instalment tracking on enforcement files

State of the sector

Clients today expect to see the status of their case as easily as they see their banking app; when they cannot, they call, and the firm's day goes into the phone. Newly founded firms compete in the same courthouse as long-established offices, and the difference is often made by how well they communicate. Meanwhile UYAP, electronic service of documents and electronic self-employment receipts are already digital; when case management still runs on a paper diary and Excel, someone has to bridge the two worlds by hand. A firm without an app rebuilds that bridge every day, carries deadline risk on individual memory and notices collection problems late.

Metrics that matter here

  • Number of missed deadlines and hearings — A final day calculated from the service date plus multiple reminders brings oversight-driven loss of rights close to zero.
  • Value of uncollected attorney fees — Because collections are matched to cases and receipts, the panel shows how much is outstanding on which case.
  • Number of client calls asking for a status update — As stage and hearing information become visible in the app, the phone traffic that eats the secretary's day falls.
  • Rate at which expense advances are closed out by spending — When court fees, expert witness and site-visit costs are deducted from the advance, cases running a deficit surface early.

Common mistakes in this sector

  • Writing the deadline into a free-text field If a deadline is just a date typed by hand into a notes field, judicial recess and weekend shifts never enter the calculation. The right approach is a rule engine that derives the final day from the service date and deadline type and shows the basis of the calculation.
  • Opening the whole case file to the client Sharing every document looks transparent, but draft pleadings and strategy notes reaching the client create misunderstanding and pressure. On the client side, the stage, hearing date, requested documents and advance balance are enough.
  • Writing the store copy in marketing language An app description that emphasises cases won and success rates exposes the firm to disciplinary risk under the TBB advertising restrictions. Store copy should be prepared in restrained language that describes only what the app does.
  • Mixing expense advances with firm income If money taken for court fees and expert witnesses looks like income, the firm appears profitable until the costs go out and the account runs short. The advance must be held as a separate line, deducted as it is spent, and the remaining balance shown to the client.

Regulation and compliance

In a law firm, regulation comes from three directions. The duty of confidentiality under the Turkish Attorneys' Act requires that case data is not exposed to unauthorised people, even inside the firm. The advertising restrictions of the Union of Turkish Bar Associations (TBB) also cover the app's store page and promotional copy; cases won, success rates or work-soliciting claims cannot be used. Under KVKK (Turkey's data protection law, aligned with GDPR), case files count as special-category data because they contain criminal conviction and health information; a privacy notice, defined retention periods and VERBİS (the national data controllers' registry) registration are required. On collection, the self-employment receipt is issued electronically as an e-SMM.

The real challenges in this sector

  • A deadline engine: from service date to final day

    Deadlines for appeals, cassation, statements of defence and objections all run from the date of service, and judicial recess, public holidays and weekend shifts change the result. Instead of holding the deadline on screen as free text, you build a rule engine that calculates the final day from the service date and the deadline type; every record shows which rule produced it and generates multiple reminders counting back from the final day.

  • Getting UYAP data into the panel

    UYAP (Turkey's national judicial IT system) Lawyer Portal offers no general interface open to third-party software; access runs through the lawyer's own session with an e-signature or mobile signature. The architecture is therefore built around semi-automated transfer of case movements and matching on the docket and judgment numbers: when two different records land on the same case, the conflict is shown to the user rather than silently overwritten.

  • Offline case access at the courthouse

    Connectivity outside the hearing room is usually weak, and case files run to hundreds of pages of scanned PDFs and UDF documents (UYAP's own document format). The app downloads files for upcoming hearings to the device in advance, keeps them in an encrypted local area, and opens UDF and PDF in a native viewer; when the session ends or access rights are revoked, the cache is deleted from the device.

  • Confidentiality and per-case permissions

    The duty of confidentiality under the Turkish Attorneys' Act makes it inappropriate for everyone in the firm to see every case. Permissions are granted at case level; a colleague acting for the opposing party is blocked from the record. On the device there is a biometric lock, a screenshot restriction and a log of who opened which document and when; remote session termination covers a lost device.

  • Attorney fees, expense advances and e-SMM

    The self-employment receipt is issued at the moment of collection, and withholding tax and VAT are calculated differently depending on whether the client is an individual or a legal entity. The app matches collections to receipts and receipts to cases; it holds the client's expense advance as a separate line from firm income and shows the client the remaining advance as court fees, expert witness and site-visit costs are deducted.

Required integrations

  • Transfer of UYAP Lawyer Portal data into the panel via the lawyer's e-signature / mobile signature session
  • Matching electronic service received through UETS and KEP (Turkey's registered electronic mail systems) to the correct case
  • Issuing electronic self-employment receipts (e-SMM) on the GİB (Turkish Revenue Administration) e-Arşiv infrastructure
  • Collecting expense advances and attorney fees via iyzico or PayTR (Turkish payment providers) or a bank virtual POS
  • Two-way sync of hearing and deadline records with Google Calendar / Outlook
  • SMS and push notifications for hearing dates, document requests and payment reminders

Who this page is for

  • A solo lawyer opening a new practice

    With no secretary, deadlines are the biggest exposure. Start with the deadline engine, hearing calendar and case records; add the client app and collection once the caseload grows. A light, single-user first release is enough.

  • A partnership with three to eight lawyers

    Here the issues are workload distribution and professional secrecy. Per-case permissions, conflict checks, an access log of who opened which document, and deadline and hearing load per lawyer belong in the first phase; offline documents can wait.

  • An office working mainly on debt enforcement

    Case counts are high and each file carries little work. Priorities are bulk file creation, running debt calculation, instalment and collection tracking, and batch reporting to the corporate creditor client; the hearing calendar matters less here.

A phased plan that splits the budget

  1. 1

    Phase 1 — Deadline and case core, lawyer side 5-7 hafta

    Delivers case and power-of-attorney records, the deadline engine that derives the final day from the service date, the hearing calendar and the lawyer's mobile app. It stands alone: the office can drop the paper diary at the end of this phase. Missed deadlines are the costliest risk, so this comes first.

  2. 2

    Phase 2 — Client side and per-case permissions 4-6 hafta

    Adds the client app with case stage and hearing dates, document requests and uploads, per-case access rights and screenshot restrictions. Opening a screen to clients before the internal record-keeping is settled risks showing wrong information, which is why it comes second.

  3. 3

    Phase 3 — Collection, offline documents and portal transfer 4-6 hafta

    Brings e-SMM issuing, advance and fee collection through a virtual POS, the expense-advance ledger, encrypted pre-hearing document download and transfer of UYAP portal data (the national judiciary system) into the panel. These parts need the most financial and technical testing, so they are safer to add once daily use of the core is settled.

Typical scope and timeline

A typical first release covers case and power-of-attorney records, a calendar that computes deadlines from the service date, hearing reminders, a client information screen, document upload and per-case permissions. The second phase adds electronic self-employment receipts (e-SMM), advance collection via virtual POS, offline document viewing and transfer of UYAP portal data into the panel. iOS, Android and the web panel are delivered together.

Estimated timeline: 10-16 weeks

Off-the-shelf or custom build?

Topic Off-the-shelf Custom build
Deadline calculation and judicial recess rules Off-the-shelf practice management usually ships with deadline templates and a court holiday calendar, and the vendor updates them when the rules change — a genuine advantage. A custom build encodes the rules around your own case types and shows the basis of every calculation on screen, but initial setup and keeping up with legal changes become your responsibility.
What the client is allowed to see Packaged tools include a ready client portal, though what it displays is often a fixed template; for some offices that is enough and works from day one. A custom build decides field by field: stage and advance balance are shown, draft petitions and strategy notes never are, and criminal or family files can have their own visibility rules.
Monthly per-user fee or one-off build A subscription keeps the entry cost low, can stay reasonable for years in a two- or three-lawyer office, and leaves server maintenance to the vendor. A custom build is paid up front and the cost does not rise as lawyers or case volume grow; the break-even point arrives for offices adding trainees, clerks and partners.
Ownership and portability of case data Established vendors offer exports and handle hosting, which is convenient for an office that does not want to run server security on its own. With a custom build the database and document archive sit in the office's own account; the log of who opened which document and when stays with you, which matters for professional secrecy, and there is no vendor lock-in to unwind.

Sector glossary

Docket number (esas numarası)
The year-and-sequence number a Turkish court assigns to a case. Inside the office files are referred to by this number rather than the client's name, and every record imported into the panel is matched to it; a judgment number is added once the verdict is issued.
Service and oral pronouncement (tebliğ / tefhim)
The two different moments at which a deadline starts running: service means the written decision reaches you, pronouncement means it was read out in your presence at the hearing. Entering the wrong one shifts the final day, so the app keeps them as separate fields.
Judicial recess (adli tatil)
The summer court recess in Turkey. Deadlines falling into it are extended by a set number of days after it ends, while certain urgent matters still proceed. If the calendar rules ignore this, the final day shown on screen is not the real one.
Expense advance (masraf avansı)
Money collected from the client in advance for court fees, expert witnesses, site visits and service costs. It is not office income: it is drawn down as spent and the remaining balance is shown to the client. Mixed into revenue, the office looks profitable while the cash account runs short.
UDF file format
The document format of UYAP, Turkey's national judiciary system. Petitions and decisions often download as UDF rather than PDF, and an ordinary phone app cannot open them, so a dedicated offline viewer has to be built.

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