What You Need To Know About Expert Legal Translation Services
By: Genine Torres
Tags: Translation Services, Expert, Legal Translation, Translation, Foreign Language

There is definitely beauty in chaos but not when it comes to your legal documents. Even with a clear context, chaos in language conversion can possibly lead to damaging consequences and can create a bubble of ambiguity for you and your brand. In today’s post, we will walk you through what professional legal translation is all about, its importance and differences with other forms of translation services, and give you reasons why you should consider it.

Language plays a critical role in today’s society may it be in international trade, professional marketing, customer service, politics, business, and any legal systems across the world. What makes it extra special is the fact that it follows distinct features depending on the industry on where it will be used with the hopes of properly mediating and reflecting in the truest possible sense of a concept. And this is exactly what makes it tricky as the process of translating from one language to another does not just call for the use of simple translation tools. It also does not mean that you can hire any bilingual and let them perform on-the-spot translation for you. On the contrary, the focus here is on ensuring that there is precision, proper definition, and coherence throughout the text.

There is a common notion stating that if you are fluent in a foreign language, then there is a sure chance that you can kill it as a professional translator. Small-time companies often think in this way which is why they normally hire bilingual people to produce marketing materials or professional documents. What is even worse is that they sometimes rely mainly on free Google translate services or hire online a $5 translation service from Fiverr or Upwork. The truth is employing a person who knows a specific language does not correlate that you will have the correct varieties of words to express the full meaning of your document.

Professional translators with actual training certifications based on their chosen specializations perform much better services as they have an advanced understanding of the target language and have undergone rigorous preparation. Additionally, they are not just showing expertise and skills in capturing the voice and message of a text, but they are also actively employing a transcreation process to convey the real essence and connect with native speakers. In this sense, you must consider signing up with certified translation service companies with expertise in your field of business. For instance, if you are mainly handling legal documents, articles of incorporation, patent records for foreign filing, or general documents with technical and legal terminologies, then working the translation with a subject matter expert will help you reveal the real meaning and avoid misinterpretation.

What is Legal Translation?

The field of translation is one that is ever changing and it touches on diverse theories and approaches. At present, there are about eight major domains in the field including technical, economic, scientific, legal, judicial, literary, and certified translation. Each of these requires expertise in choosing the right terminologies and structure depending on the sector. In line with this, if you are wondering which among these is the most challenging, then that would be legal translation.

The linguistic properties existing in legal texts are much more complex making it extra challenging to convert it into a new language as the meanings can be culture-dependent. Revealing accurate legal representations is not as easy as it seems as a single word can ultimately change the whole meaning of a text.

Additionally, it covers a wide spectrum of documents from the basic registration certificates, immigration support files, technical documents needing expert opinions, court proceeding reports, warrants and non disclosure contracts, as well as corporate statutes. With this being said, it is important that you sign up with legal translation services that have a team of translation experts with guaranteed rich knowledge on the laws where the original text is from and a thorough understanding of the political, cultural, and social aspects that will influence the meaning of the text.

Unlike other forms of translation, translating legal documents to a foreign language requires a degree of accuracy that can never be provided by software products even if they are embedded with artificial intelligence. More often than not, machine translations are perfect for direct conversation for specific words and common expressions. However, only professional legal translators can deliver services that are beyond that as they can guarantee accurate conversion along with conceptual equivalents. These certified legal translators are not just linguists but are also well versed in the legal system, which means that they will provide the best version of your document (complete with titles, technical terms, and consistent explanations) that are legally valid.

How Important is Legal Document Translation?

As companies are becoming more global and open to reaching international clients, multilingual documents for public consumption are becoming essential. From legal contracts, forms, to even marketing translations, having the right blend of words and tone can absolutely save you from potential legal ramifications and negative media exposure. In line with this, having precise legal support for you and your business will certainly save you time and money without risking your reputation.

Back in 2011, it was even reported that around 207 errors in translation of a national document have greatly caused delays between the EU and South Korean Fair Trade Agreement. If only they had mobilized the use of professional legal document translators, they could have prevented all the hassle and red faces experienced by the country and the then Trade Minister, Kim Jong-Hoon. The same experience is highlighted for Chinese contracts, US coronavirus messages, and Amazon’s faulty Swedish translation. While it is impossible to gauge how much was lost in these translation failures, one thing remains constant: accurate translations can break your reputation.

If you are still on the rut on whether you should sign-up for legal translation services, allow me to explain further the reasons why it is important:

1. A slight mistake in the use of certain words can lead to huge damages as there are sometimes cultural associations reflected. One example of that is when American Motors manufactured the “matador” and marketed it in Spain. While the name may sound like it has beefed up engine, the sales are taking a downturn as no one wants to purchase a vehicle with a name equated to killing or death.

Solution: if you want to communicate authentically and meet the highest professional quality benchmarks, the correct use of localized legal terminology and structure for your documents is important. To support your needs and tailor-fit solutions to your translation needs, you must hire professional legal translators.

2. When it comes to professional legal documents like affidavits, business agreements, and court evidence, having the translation done quickly will prevent hold-ups. While it is true that you can easily hire on freelance websites, that does not guarantee accuracy and rapid turnaround.

Solution: Seek the help of certified legal translators from top translation service providers so that you can rest assured that your legal documents are precisely and swiftly translated without foregoing quality.

3. The translation process is not just about directly converting words into a new language. To bridge the gap and seamlessly express a neutral equivalent to a concept, the translators you should work with must have an equal understanding of the culture and society of both the target and source language country.

Solution: Get the advice of certified legal translators to get the most comprehensible version of your document in a foreign language. By doing so, you can guarantee the prevention of ambiguity and ensure that your text will have the usual formal style, syntax, and register favored by the legal system in that country.

Can Anyone Provide Legal Translation Services?

Here’s the thing: anyone who knows a foreign language can definitely translate but that does not mean that these are accurate translations.

Depending on the fluency, untrained translators may even mix and match legal terminology simply based on how it sounds. More importantly, if they do not have the right law exposure, then the quality of translations are guaranteed to suffer. Our advice? Do not let the image of your company be pulled down just because of inaccurate translations.

Given the complexities of the legal translation services, there is some truth in the notion that it can be quite expensive. And perhaps, you are also wondering if you can handle the job on your own. However, please note that this type of translation is not an easy beast to tame. It is a field of specialty that is not just formal but also sensitive in nature which means that you have to meet the basic qualifications before you can offer special legal translation services.

The qualifications may include:

A bachelor’s degree in the fields of linguistics, foreign languages, translation studies, or legal studies

Legal translator certificate

Proof of specialized training from reputable course providers

Affiliation with internationally recognized organizations like the American Translators Association and United Nations Translation Accreditation

Proper documentation of continuing professional development (CPD) certificates

Additional studies and academic units for particular legal areas such as civil, corporate, insurance, patent, tax, and international law

Advanced knowledge and full proficiency in a foreign language

Proof of competency and experience in providing professional translation services

Advanced writing skills with remarkable grammatical correctness

Portfolio showing accurate legal translations of specific documents (including excerpts from legal contracts, immigration documents, business proposals, and contract agreements)

Note: Remember that you have signed a non disclosure agreement which means that you have to ensure confidentiality of the documents and clients at all costs by providing only brief excerpts.

If you can guarantee to have all those credentials ready, then you can have a shot in becoming your own legal translator. For clarification, please note that becoming a certified legal translation professional does not guarantee that you will become a legal interpreter too. This is another common misconception as these two are gravely different. Depending on your country, you will need to provide certified training credentials and pass a legal certification exam given by the judicial court.

Interested in getting your legal documents translated? Why go after the excruciating process of learning legal document translations when we can do one for you at the best price?

In our line of business, we understand the importance of words and how poor translations can burn bridges.

What Are the Differences Between Legal Translation Service and Certified Translation?

Field experts sometimes do not have the time to explain what they mean when they say “translate legal documents.” Due to this, we usually think that we are on a search for basic translation services, right? Professional legal translation and certified translation are two of the most commonly misused words in the language service industry. When you ask people the first thing that they will think of when they hear those words is that these are synonymous with the word “legal”. Unfortunately, that is not the case and you, as a client, must make sure which of the two you are actually looking for.

Technically, certified translations refer to documents that bear an authenticated statement suggesting that it has been reviewed, translated, and has passed the standard translation requirements and that it is a true representation of the original document. The translated document usually comes with a certification page known as the Certificate of Accuracy containing the signature of a native speaker or a basic translator, the contact information, and the affiliation of the translator. These are usually needed for immigration documents, court transcripts, and identity certificates for birth, marriage, adoption agreements, or death. For foreign students, certified translation of education-based documents may be required when submitting original copies of diploma and transcript of records before they are issued a temporary visa.

For certified translations, do note that it can be accomplished even by certified legal translators or any qualified translator willing to testify that an accurate translation has been made. If you want to have more credibility, it would be wise to have certified translations done by a certified translator with specific expertise and who have passed an actual exam.

On the flip side, legal translation dives on a deeper level of translation services as it needs to be carried out by a qualified, certified, and legal translation professional. The nature of work usually revolves around corporate legal documents including business contracts, corporate certificate, legal patent, articles of incorporation, legal evidence, letters of dismissal, final judgement and corporate orders, as well as translation of non-disclosure agreements.

These legal translators must have a credible track record and an experience in translation from law firms. With this being said, you must carefully check and conduct a series of fact-checking activities before hiring or signing up with a legal translation service. It is uncommon to find qualified legal translators who offer their own services; instead, you can find reputable legal document translation services with a legitimate translation company.